Los Republicanos: part tres (please make it stop!)

Somebody needs to stop him. Not only has it come out that Obama turned Daddy Yankee's sorry ass down and that's why he endorsed McCain (read the story from Politico here), but now he's continuing with the farce and performing at the Republican National Convention! Que Pendejo!

El Cangri is going to perform at the Fiesta Americana Concert as part of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 1st.

According to a press release from the Hispanic Leadership Fund:

Approximately 3000 convention delegates and special guests are expected to attend, including members of Minnesota’s rapidly growing Hispanic community.

This event will showcase the Hispanic community and demonstrate a clear message of support for key issues such as tough, but fair immigration reform, free trade in the Americas and prosperity through ownership. This event will also allow for an opportunity to highlight sharp policy differences between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama regarding these issues, and will kick off Convention week in great style.

Headline artist Daddy Yankee, chosen by TIME magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” is a rising star in Reggaeton – a music genre he helped create. In 2008, he won Billboard Latin Music Awards for Album of the Year and Reggaeton Album of the Year.

Throughout his career, Daddy Yankee has been involved in philanthropic activities and shown support for key issues affecting the Hispanic population. At a recent event with Senator McCain in Arizona, Daddy Yankee said: “I am here endorsing Senator McCain because I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation. And like I said before, he has been a fighter for the Hispanic community, and I know that for me personally, I chose him as the best candidate because he has been a fighter for the immigration issue.” (Click Here for full release)

And now Fat Joe is weighing in on the matter and saying that DY is a SELL OUT!

"I opened the newspaper and got sick to my stomach," Joe continued. "I felt like I wanted to vomit when I seen that. The reason why I called him a sellout is because I feel he did that for a [publicity] look, rather than the issues that are affecting his people that look up to him. How could you want John McCain in office when George Bush and the Republicans already have half a million people losing their homes in foreclosure? We're fighting an unjust war. It's the Latinos and black kids up in the frontlines, fighting that war. ... We over here trying to take the troops out of Iraq and bring peace. This guy immediately wants war. If not with Iraq or Afghanistan, he'll start a new one with Iran. I feel real disgusted that Daddy Yankee would do that. Either he did that for a look, or he's just not educated on politics."

Say hello to the next boricua millionaire reggaeton/hip-hop beef. Check out the full story at MTV News

Damn, these are tough times mi gente. To many this only reinforces two things: 1) Latin@s are racist so they won't vote for Obama, and 2) the myth that all Latin@s are republican (and that is definitely a myth if you look at the Pew Institute's recent report)

Don't believe the hype like Raquel Rivera says: "Not all Latinos support Abuelo Yankee"


*Tip of the fitted cap to Blabbeando for breaking this telenovela worthy story!

Los Republicanos: part duex

Okay, so I've had some time to think about this whole Daddy Yankee endorsing John McCain fiasco and my take is McCain might have just shot himself in the foot and here is why...

McCain is obviously trying to appeal to the Latino/a vote by appearing with El Cangri and accepting his endorsement, but chances are DY's endorsement will actually turn off some Latino/a voters, particularly the kind of Latino/a voter McCain wants to reach

Reggaeton is an extremely contested genre within the Latino/a community. More than any other musical genre, reggaeton truly highlights the the complexities of nationality, race, class, gender and generational division within the Latino/a community. Reggaeton is very often seen as something that is either strictly Puerto Rican, or more broadly Caribbean. Already there has been push back to having DY be the supposed voice of the Latino/a community because he is seen as representing Puerto Rican interests. Many people have also pointed out that DY can't even vote for McCain so his endorsement is irrelevant (which is true but it's bogus that people aren't talking about the fact that that's because Puerto Rico is a colony).

The reason why DY's endorsement might really hurt McCain is because of people's perceptions of El Cangri and reggaeton. Although claims over reggaeton's ownership are now fought over, during the 1990's reggaeton sparked a culture war in Puerto Rico over issues of race, sex, taste, and class. Reggaeton was seen as cafre, a term which is highly racialized and classed and denotes low culture. Reggaeton was seen as too Black and too American because of its close association to hip-hop, and therefore inauthentically Latino/a. It was seen as music that was devoid of culture and little more than a copycat of hip-hop when it first came out. It was also highly sexualized and suggestive with its visible trademarks being aggressive lyrics and perreo dancing. Not to mention, reggaeton was born out of the caserios (projects) and was initially funded by the drug game, which only added to the moral outcry against the genre. Reggaeton culture was immediately and vehemently denounced by the conservative and Christian segments of Puerto Rican society as crass and indecent. Although, it is extremely popular and much more sanitized today, reggaeton still maintains its association (real and imagined) to money, drugs, violence, and sex in the minds of many Latinos/as and Americans alike. It is that association that many Latinos/as, particularly those who tend to vote republican, are trying to distance themselves from. That is where McCain's plan backfires.

Daddy Yankee does not represent a performance of Latinidad, that many conservative Latinos/as feel comfortable with. I think the unease around Daddy Yankee's endorsement has to do with the fact that he actively and aggressively markets himself as de la calle and as a gangsta. Reggaeton and Daddy Yankee represent a version of Latinidad which is raced and classed that some Latinos/as want to distance themselves from. Rather than addressing the social realties that reggaeton speaks to and represents, it remains easier for certain segments of the Latino/a community to dismiss reggaeton and the culture around it as an abberation of Latinidad. It's crazy because in a way this whole Daddy Yankee - McCain thing made me think about the way's in which Latinos/as are climbing over each other for a piece of that Americano Dream. At whose cost are Latinos/as representing themselves as idealized American citizens?

Crazy as it may sound McCain is right Daddy Yankee is "an American success story" (ugh), but he may not represent "an American success story" that conservative Latino/a voters are ready to embrace. Guess McCain should have studied Leslie Sanchez's cringe-inducing Los Republicanos: Why Hispanics and Republicans Need Each Other a little closer because now he has a "Reggaeton Problem".