Bad Bunny’s ‘LA MuDANZA’ Video: Puerto Rican Symbols Explained

It should surprise no one that Bad Bunny decided to drop the long-anticipated music video for “LA MuDANZA” on his 31st birthday. The song is a riotous salsa track that — like one of DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ other mega hits, “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” — borrows from the salsa gorda era of the genre. It’s deeply personal, too: It opens with a spoken word snippet of Benito retelling the story of how his parents came of age in the Nineties, crossed paths serendipitously, and eventually had the kid who is now an international superstar.

The video opens with a trip down memory lane, with vintage photos showing the people he mentions: his father Benito, his grandfather Benito (a pattern emerges), and eventually his mother “Lisy,” short for Lysaurie.  From there it cuts to a fictionalized and highly stylized recreation of the day newborn Benito left the hospital, with his dad played by his younger brother Bernie Martínez. As the new parents drive away, baby Benito begins rapping along to the lyrics.

Following that, the video pivots to the more political and activist symbolism that has been the backbone of DTmF since its very first single, “EL CLúB.”  It all calls back to 2022’s “El Apagón,” off his album Un Verano Sin Ti, which tacked on an 18-minute long documentary short. In the short, journalist Bianca Graulau reported on topics that continue to concern local Puerto Ricans, including the loss of access to public beaches and gentrification of their neighborhoods.

For “LA MuDANZA” Bad Bunny and longtime creative director Janthony Oliveras peppered the video with overt nods to Puerto Rico’s pro-independence and decades-long resistance movements. It wasn’t until last year that Bad Bunny made as close to a full-throated endorsement of his preferred political status for the archipelago, which has been a U.S. colony (or “commonwealth”) since 1898. Bad Bunny backed pro-independence gubernatorial candidate Juan Dalmau in the 2024 elections, but it wasn’t the first time he hinted at being partial to the movement. Below, we contextualize some of the images found in the video, and how they fit into his view of Puerto Rican politics. 

Light Blue Flag

In 1948, the Puerto Rican Senate passed what became known as the Gag Law (or “Ley de Mordaza”) which criminalized the ownership and display of the Puerto Rican flag, writing pro-independence propaganda or essays, or associating with anyone who held pro-independence views. While it was repealed nine years later, many Puerto Ricans faced violence and even death during that time for their views. 

Bad Bunny references this in the song, when he sings “Aquí mataron gente por sacar la bandera, Por eso es que ahora yo la llevo donde quiera” (“They killed people for waving the flag, That’s why now I take her everywhere.”) In the video, he’s shown holding the flag up high as he races through a field, with actors ostensibly representing law enforcement sprinting after him.

The Puerto Rican flag he holds is the “light blue” variation. This version, different from the government’s formally approved one used since 1995, is commonly associated with the pro-independence movement as the light blue scheme is said to be taken from the “revolutionary flag” of the town of Lares used during the Grito de Lares revolt of 1868  against the then-ruling Spanish government. The date of the revolt, September 23rd, has become an important date for sympathizers of the pro-independence movement. 

Vieques Protests

At one point in the video, you can see black-and-white images of protestors facing off with the U.S. military. The photos, taken by acclaimed photographer Ricardo Alcaraz and others, depict protests that occurred in the late-1970s through late-1990s against the continued occupation of a large part of the island town of Vieques by a U.S. Naval facility and training range. Over the decades, the U.S. dropped hundreds of bombs on the outskirts of the island, which exposed many residents living downwind to numerous chemicals. Critics have pointed out that Vieques has a cancer rate that is 30 percent higher than in mainland Puerto Rico, signaling possible toxins and poisoning at the hands of the U.S.

In 1999, during another exercise, a bomb exploded close to an outpost, killing security guard David Sanes Rodríguez and injuring four others. This escalated the backlash against the Navy’s presence on the island, prompting massive protests, acts of civil disobedience, and encampments. Numerous public figures attended these and were arrested for trespassing during police raids, including actors Edward James Olmos and Jimmy Smits who are of Puerto Rican descent. In 2003, after numerous studies and debates, the base finally closed and cleanup commenced to eliminate any remaining environmental contamination. 

Protecting the Coasts

Benito has made safeguarding the beaches of Puerto Rico one of his top priorities when he speaks about the future of the island. The video ends with numerous insert shots of different coastlines, including the Punta Higüero lighthouse of the west coast town of Rincón, a popular attraction for tourists and locals.

The reason he closes the video with these might seem innocuous at first, but it might have a larger symbolic purpose: one of the main debates happening right now in Puerto Rico involves the development of a project called “Esencia” which is backed by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and other outside financiers. It proposes the construction of a “cosmopolitan coastal community” in Boquerón Bay in the town of Cabo Rojo, and privatizes over 2,000 acres of land — including a large swath of the coast — for the use of hotels, private homes, golf courses, private schools, and more. Protests have been ramping up the past few months, and the project is currently in the middle of ongoing public forums with environmentalists, Cabo Rojo locals, activists, representatives of Esencia’s backers, and more debating whether to ultimately grant final permission for construction to commence in full. Esencia is, to Bad Bunny and others, a harbinger of what can be expected in the near future if action isn’t taken (a similar project is already under way in the eastern town of Fajardo). Showing off the lushness of the coasts can be seen as Benito’s way of saying “This is what they want to take from us,” as he’s mentioned before in “El Apagón” and on his recent track “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii.”

Hostos

While it doesn’t make an appearance in the final cut of the video, director Janthony Oliveras shared a behind-the-scenes snap of a mural featuring Eugenio María de Hostos that was on set during shooting of the closing musical number. In the song, Benito sings: “Si mañana muero yo espero que nunca olviden mi rostro, Y pongan un tema mío el día que traigan a Hostos” (“If I die tomorrow I hope you never forget my face, And play one of my songs the day they bring back Hostos”.)

Eugenio María de Hostos was a Puerto Rican lawyer, educator, philosopher, sociologist, and considered one of the main figures of the Puerto Rican pro-independence movement’s nascent days. He died in 1903 in the Dominican Republic, dismayed that Puerto Rico went from one colonizer (Spain) to another (U.S.) and declared that he didn’t want to be buried there until it was finally a free country. Knowing this context, and listening back to Benito’s lyrics, it becomes quite clear that his stance is hardly subtle. There remains little doubt that Bad Bunny is the most popular artist since Tego Calderón, his musical hero, to back his homeland’s intention to become its own independent nation.