Bad Bunny's dream

The story of "LO QUE PASO A HAWAii"

In Bad Bunny’s Tiny Desk concert earlier this year, he tells the story about how the song “LO QUE LE PASO A HAWAii” - a song with deep political, cultural, and ecological meanings - came to him in a dream.

I recommend listening to him tell the story (in Spanish), but here is the version from the English transcript, starting at 11:32:

"This next song, it’s a song that... Literally, when I say that “Esto fue un sueño que yo tuvo,” it was a song I dreamt of. I was sleeping. And I had to get up and write the entire song. Because I dreamt the whole song. I dreamt it... and I had never had that happen. I get up. And said, “I want to go to sleep”. I tried to sleep, but the song kept me from doing so. So, I get up, I write it, from start to finish. And once I wrote it in full, then I went back to sleep. So, that’s why I said, ‘This was a dream I had’. And, it goes like this.”

Watch the performance here

Listening to the song, it is a lament, it’s a love song to the land, it is a call for land defense, it is a call for decolonization. On the official video posted by Bad Bunny, the only image is a slide with endemic animals of Puerto Rico in danger of extinction, and talks about el coqui, an important national cultural symbol that, according to Wikipedia, has become an unofficial symbol of the island. The song is the land dreaming through him. It’s a song of cultural and political resistance, calling for protection of land and culture.

El coqui mage from Wikipedia

“Lo que pasó a Hawaii” - what happened to Hawaii - refers to Hawaii becoming the 50th state of the United States, being annexed and colonized, and the gentrification, exploitation, and cultural loss that has been a part of that process. Puerto Rico is currently a self-governing but “unincorporated U.S. territory.” “I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii,” the chorus cries. Que no quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái. More than just statehood, the song is a call against gentrification, for protection of the ocean, rivers, neigborhoods, and air, for not kicking people out of their homes, for not losing traditions.

Here is another video analysis of the song’s meaning.

How incredible that a song with such deep socio-ecological and political meaning came through a dream. How powerful that one of the world’s greatest music stars of our time was ready to receive. I am glad that he didn’t go back to sleep so that we could hear these powerful words, this powerful song, to hear the song of the land dreaming through him.

I wonder what other songs have come through as dreams. Do you know of any, dear reader?

May we all be ready and open to receive the songs of the land dreaming through us.

Sweet dreams,

Stephanie