This article delves into Benito's personal journey of rediscovering his Puerto Rican heritage. Having grown up with a limited understanding of his island's history, he embarks on a quest to learn about the rich and complex past of Puerto Rico, confronting colonial narratives and the enduring legacy of its indigenous Taíno people. His experiences both on and off the island illuminate the profound connection he feels to his roots and his commitment to staying true to his identity.
Growing up in a barrio called Almirante Sur in Vega Baja, about a 45-minute drive from San Juan depending on how good you are with potholes, Benito didn't know much about Puerto Rico 's history. In school, he was taught that Christopher Columbus “discovered” the island; that Juan Ponce de León was its first governor, appointed by the Spanish Crown 4,000 miles away; and that Luis Muñoz Marín, the namesake of the big airport, became Puerto Rico ’s first democratically elected governor in 1948.
“That’s basically 500 years in between of history that they don’t teach us,” he says. We’re sitting inside the claustrophobic back office of the Arthur Murray dance studio in Miramar, a San Juan neighborhood, a few days before Christmas. He’s between takes of his music video for “,” an unexpectedly straight salsa track off his sixth studio album, which would be released two weeks later. The dark-wood-paneled room, its walls lined with VHS tapes, cassettes, and CDs, looks like it’s stuck in 1994. He’s still in the slightly wrinkled gray sweat suit he wore for filming, a gold chain with a teeny machete-shaped pendant around his neck. “They don’t talk about all the gringo governors that stole us just like Spain did,” he continues. “And all the gringo governors that killed Puerto Ricans, same as Spain fucking killed Taínos.” “Few children in the public schools, including Puerto Rican children, are taught anything about Puerto Rico except for its geological location and the fact that it ‘belongs’ to the United States” — that the island is “” (like a little child of the United States), Benito says, sitting up in the swivel desk chair and outlining the shape of the mainland in the air with his fingers. We speak in a mix of Spanish and English — he mostly the former, I mostly the latter — after I convince him that “really” (I understand almost everything), having grown up in Spanish Harlem with a dad from the south side of the island and a mom from the Dominican Republic. I want to hear him think, process, reflect without the self-editing of translation. While Benito’s English, as he told Jimmy Fallon onBenito, now 30, has been teaching himself the lessons he never received, “reading, watching things, listening to songs — because you can learn through the songs, too.” He’s not done, just taking it step-by-step, he says: “I want to learn every day more.” Technically, this education began much earlier, when he was a child overhearing the local news on his parents’ television. “” (Seeing how this government accused this one, that one and “corruption,” “corruption”), he says of the headlines that would flash across the screen. Benito is part of what Mayra Vélez Serrano, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, has termed “the Crisis Generation”: Born in the ’90s and early aughts, Puerto Ricans Benito’s age and younger have grown up under successive political, fiscal, or climate disasters with little break in between. As he puts it, they have spent their entire lives surviving “Sometimes distance can make clear what immersion obscures. Last year was the longest he’d spent away from the island. In the first half, he was on the road for a North American tour promoting his most recent album,a braggadocian return to Latin trap that earned him yet another Latin Grammy and $208 million in ticket sales. In May, he co-chaired the Met Gala, and the following month he flew to Paris to perform in the Place Vendôme for Vogue World. In the fall, he spent time in New York, shooting scenes for Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming film” (Bro, this year has been long for me and has had too many parts), he says, staring down at the floor as though trying to recall it all. “” (I had a tour, I had three girlfriends, I had three children … I didn’t have three children), he says jokingly, sending his publicist’s head shooting up from her phone in a mild panic. The longer he’s been away, the more he has come to understand something any diasporic Boricua knows all too well: There’s always some part of you that’sNo importa en qué parte del mundo esté, puertorriqueños que llevan años fuera de Puerto Rico, como tu papá, duermen en ese lugar pero viven en Puerto Rico ” (It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, Puerto Ricans who have been away from Puerto Rico for years, like your dad, sleep where they are but live in Puerto Rico).DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, a triumphant parade across 5,325 square miles and thousands of years of history. And it’s why, for the time being at least, he isn’t going anywhere. As he declares on the album’s outro:De aquí nadie me saca, de aquí yo no me muevo / Dile que esta es mi casa donde nació mi abuelo / Yo soy de P fuckin’ R.(Nobody’s getting me out of here, I’m not moving from here / Tell him this is my house where my grandfather was born / I’m from P fuckin’ R.)A few weeks earlier, on a Monday morning, Benito wakes up at home — finally, after three consecutive months awa
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