Bad Bunny’s month-long residency in Puerto Rico is creating a tourism boom and bringing money to the Island at the same time that it is increasing prices for hotels and flights to Puerto Rico. It’s also bringing Bad Bunny’s comparison of Puerto Rico and Hawaii into the headlines.
Bad Bunny’s blockbuster album includes a song about Hawaii, “What Happened to Hawaii?”
“You hear the jíbaro crying, another one who’s left. He didn’t want to leave to Orlando, but thе corrupt ones pushed him out,” a verse runs.
The chorus makes the clearest statement about Hawaii:
Thеy want to take my river and my beach too
They want my neighborhood and grandma to leave
No, don’t let go of the flag nor forget the lelolai
‘Cause I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii
So what happened to Hawaii? Hawaii was settled by Polynesians some 1,500 years ago, and made contact with Europeans in 1778, when Captain James Cook visited and took home the news about what he called the Sandwich Islands. He was killed on a later visit, and the lands that are now Hawaii settled into wars among different local kingdoms until King Kamehameha I united them through conquest in 1810. In 1835, the first sugar plantation was established and American and European business interests began to gain power in the economy. The Kingdom of Hawaii continued in spite of internal strife until in 1893, a group of Hawaiian-born descendants of people from the United States and Europe — with U.S. military support — overthrew the monarchy.
In 1894, Hawaii was declared the Republic of Hawaii with Hawaiian-born lawyer Sanford B. Dole as president. The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898, with the support of the republic’s government, and it became a territory in 1900.
Hawaii spent 83 years as a monarchy, four years as an independent republic, and 59 years as a territory of the United States, finally achieving statehood in 1959 with the support of the residents, including native Hawaiians who saw statehood as a way to gain a stronger voice in their government.
Yet Bad Bunny’s song is often interpreted as an anti-statehood statement, a plea for independence, or even a call to maintain the current territorial status. Is “What Happened to Hawaii” really about political status?
Cultural loss
Hawaii definitely endured cultural suppression. Queen Kaʻahumanu declared hula illegal in 1830, after becoming converted to Christianity by missionaries. While the later King Kalākaua revived hula along with surfing, it did not become popular again until after statehood.
In 1896, three years after the overthrow of the monarchy, Hawaiian-language schools were forbidden and only English was allowed as a medium of instruction. While use of the Hawaiian language was never illegal, English generally supplanted it during the territorial period. The language was intentionally revived beginning in the 1970s – after statehood. The state of Hawaii declared Hawaiian an official language alongside English in 1978.
As these examples show, the territorial period and even the 19th century were the time frame in which Hawaiian culture was disparaged and suppressed. Statehood brought the revival of native Hawaiian culture.
When Hawaii became a state, Hawaiian icons such as the ukulele, “aloha shirts,” and flower leis became wildly popular across the nation, often being used in commercial, nontraditional ways that were offensive to Hawaiians. This type of cultural appropriation can misrepresent and feel disrespectful to people from that tradition.
Puerto Rico’s situation is different from that of Hawaii. While the excitement over Hawaii’s statehood included initial discovery for millions of Americans of the music, foods, and visual arts of Hawaii, Puerto Rico is already well integrated into the United States in general. Appreciation of the arts and artifacts of Puerto Rico among people living stateside would probably increase if Puerto Rico were to become a state, but Puerto Rican culture would not be as unfamiliar and exotic as Hawaii was to the average American in 1959. Nor does Puerto Rico currently see the cultural suppression that was common in the 19th and early 20th centuries — when Puerto Rico also faced such challenges. After all, like Hawaii, Puerto Rico also became a U.S. territory in 1898.
Gentrification
The other aspect of “what happened to Hawaii” that Bad Bunny refers to in the song is gentrification. Business Insider quoted Illeana Rodriquez-Silva, an associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean history, explaining the meaning of “what happened to Hawaii.” “[W]hat they are referring to is this moment in the late 19th century where US white elites were able to come in and actually start taking land.” Puerto Rico is seeing people from the states swooping in and buying up land, driving up prices and making it difficult for current residents to stay in their neighborhoods. Some of this activity is made possible through U.S. and Puerto Rico tax policy.
Hawaii is now among the richest of the states, but native Hawaiians often feel displaced or priced out of their neighborhoods. The same can be said of people in many states and cities. Gentrification can be a problem, but it is not tied to political status.
Excessive and irresponsible tourism has also been an issue in Hawaii and increasingly is becoming a problem for Puerto Rico. Bad Bunny is making efforts to ensure that the tourism increase he is creating will be beneficial for the Island.
What’s happening in Puerto Rico?
Puerto Rico’s population fell from a peak of 3.8 million to 3.2 million in 2020, and is expected to fall to just over 2 million in 2050. Outmigration, primarily to the states, has slowed slightly in the past few years, but the birth rate continues to decline and Puerto Rico faces a population crisis.
Hawaii also has seen a decrease in population in recent years, but University of Hawaii figures show that only 1% of those leaving Hawaii in the most recent year for which data is available (2023) were native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders. In the same year, 3% of those moving to Hawaii were members of this group.
Local people are leaving Puerto Rico in such large numbers primarily for economic reasons. Surveys show that a desire for better opportunities in employment, education, and healthcare drive the exodus from Puerto Rico. The current unincorporated territory status is a primary cause of Puerto Rico’s economic malaise. Unpredictability is often cited as a reason why companies choose not to locate in Puerto Rico. Hawaii, as a state, offers far higher levels of prosperity and stability and is better able to support native Hawaiians.
In light of this history, resolution of Puerto Rico’s status appears to be the most likely solution for the challenges Puerto Rico shares with Hawaii.
Independence is viewed as likely to decrease population even further as people make a final, mad dash to statehood residency.
Statehood is poised to bring prosperity that would encourage Puerto Ricans to stay on the Island and even to return to Puerto Rico from their adopted states.
