La Brega was only supposed to last seven episodes. Host Alana Casanova-Burgess tried to tell every single story she had about the archipelago in this condensed timetable.
Then Futuro Media picked them up for two more seasons, the most recent of which concludes March 24.
Season 3 of La Brega focuses on the theme of Campeones (Champions), giving Casanova-Burgess room to envision what Puerto Rican stories could sound like – and that goes far beyond the typical stereotypes associated with the archipelago, she told Latina Media Co in a recent interview.
“There are two very flat representations of Puerto Rico,” Casanova-Burgess said. “One is vacation island, where everyone is happy and singing all the time, and then the other is crisis island… There’s a much deeper history to those crises, first of all, and also a deeper history to all the ways we sing and dance.”
Which makes sense, since “la brega” is a term used in Puerto Rico for both the struggle and the ways in which Puerto Ricans navigate around it. The podcast is available in English and Spanish. This latest season comes at a time when Puerto Rico and its colonial status are top of mind, thanks to reggaeton star Bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show last month.
Back in 2021, I eagerly listened to La Brega, savoring each episode as I learned more about the place my grandparents left in the late 1940s. After missing Season 2’s focus on iconic Puerto Rican songs (my loss), I can see how this new season gets to “breathe,” as Casanova-Burgess said, and focus on character development.
For Casanova-Burgess, podcasting is a unique method of storytelling that lets shine a multitude of emotions, from vulnerability to tenderness.
That emotional range shows up in episode 3, which features the story of three Puerto Rican boxers who represented the island in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, despite the U.S. boycotting those games. Puerto Ricans are US citizens, so technically, they were subject to the same decree that keeps other athletes out.
However, as the podcast points out, Puerto Rico competes separately from the United States in the Olympics. This gave the team a loophole to compete in Moscow, and the island allowed each sports federation to decide whether it would participate. While the Boxing Federation initially rejected the idea, boxer Alberto Mercado and two other athletes successfully advocated to fight in the games. In the opening ceremonies, they flew the Olympic flag in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
This episode shows the tension Puerto Ricans experience by being a commonwealth of the United States. The Cold War may not have been Puerto Rico’s battle to fight, but the local government still felt the need to support the boycott. The episode features interviews with Mercado, and podcasting allows the team to highlight multiple languages while still showcasing the emotion of the voices.
“With a microphone, you get to go places where cameras can’t go,” Casanova-Burgess said. “It’s less intimidating for people… they might share more.”
Podcasting also helps listeners use their imaginations by excluding images, Casanova-Burgess said, which is definitely what’s happening in this season’s second episode. It features the hero of the cuatro. “You can really listen and imagine this instrument turning from a tree to a cuatro, traveling all around the world and performing with different [artists],” Casanova-Burgess said. “You need to do a little bit of work.”
Most people will recognize the cuatro from the opening lines of the 2017 smash hit “Despacito” by Daddy Yankee or perhaps Bad Bunny’s hit “LO QUE LE PASO A HAWAii.” The episode opens with an interview with the cuatro player from that song and includes the direction Bad Bunny provided to get the solo in one take).
But the episode also talks about the history of the instrument and the people who have shaped it, from Spanish guitar makers to the jibaros aka rural farmers.
Telling these histories is an important part of the show. Casanova-Burgess remembers an early interview with a Puerto Rican native who grew up seeing the name of Luis Muñoz Marín, the first governor of Puerto Rico. The woman asked Casanova-Burgess to confirm who he was. “It was striking that she was asking that to me, and an important moment to recognize. We can’t be sure everyone knows who we’re talking about all the time,” Casanova-Burgess said, “We can probably do some explaining to anyone.”
Part of that history is Puerto Rico’s uneasy mix of indigenous, African, and European influences. Nowhere is the tension within the family tree more evident than in this season’s premiere, which focuses on a statue of conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon. The historical figure is famous for his role in founding the modern colony – and his abuse of the Taino.
Fuerzas Libertarias de Borinquen broke his statue in half, drawing a line between his past aggressions and those of today’s gentrifiers who displace modern Boricuas for tax incentives. Fuerzas Libertarias de Borinquen may be the hero to some, but the Puerto Rican government, who immediately ordered the rebuilding of the statue, felt differently.
The episode features interviews with the leader of counternarrative history tours and a media commentator who was horrified by the removal, representing both sides of a complex debate over identity and who truly deserves to be honored as a hero.
Ponce de Leon is part of many social studies curricula, and I grew up hearing his name without acknowledging his history of abuse toward the Taino. But La Brega’s listeners extend beyond Puerto Ricans to Latinos of all national origins, as well as others who are curious about the archipelago.
