“Twerk is political.”
Katelina Eccleston, aka Reggaetón con la Gata, expressed this sentiment shared by all seven women and non-binary speakers and performers at the “Creating Nuestra Música: Latinx Women in the Music Scene” series. A historian and social commentator on the reggaetón genre, Katelina tracks the birth of reggaetón in Puerto Rico as a tool against oppression and discrimination in conjunction with El Movimiento in Mexico and the United States, its restriction and criminalization by classist forces, and its current whitewashed status.
“What’s missing right now in reggaetón are the essences,” she said. “It’s political music of resistance. Twerk is political—taking up space and time and enjoying your place in this movement.”
Hosted by Smith’s Study of Women & Gender department and moderated by Postdoctoral Fellow Verónica Dávila Ellis, the “Creating Nuestra Música” series took place over four consecutive Fridays in April, each event highlighting the often uncredited work of women and queer people in the Latin music industry.
Columbian audio engineer and producer María Elisa Ayerbe recounted consistently being hired as a last resort to produce reggaetón in her early career, only eventually hired because men in music production weren’t invested in the genre at the time. Now, after working twice as hard as her male peers, her resume speaks for itself—she’s mixed songs for Ricky Martin, Mary J. Blige, Marc Anthony and J Lo, she’s on the soundboard of We Are Moving the Needle, which provides resources to increase the number of women and gender non-conforming audio engineers and producers, and her husband (a guitarist) is signed to her label. But María is still one of fewer than ten female Latinx audio engineers in the United States, where Latin music is becoming more and more mainstream.
Patricia Velazquez and Ashley Mayor, co-founders of Hasta Bajo Project (which roughly translates to “get low,” a phrase common in reggaetón songs), are pioneers in both Latin music and archival work. Hasta Bajo seeks to preserve reggaetón, educate on its value in contemporary Puerto Rican culture and promote its study in academia. It is the only public reggaetón archive. Patricia and Ashley have collected hundreds of digital and physical artifacts, including posters, CDs, DVDs, interviews, and even a thong which was distributed as promotional material. “Objects like this can allow us to discuss and dissect the aesthetic of women’s sexualization in the genre,” explained Ashley.
Reggaetón, which originated as Black, Caribbean music, has become whiter and more commercialized. Reggaetón without reggae, and without the voices and influence of Black artists, Black women, and BIPOC artists, is… just pop. But Patricia pointed out that focus is too often directed at simply acknowledging whitewashing rather than uplifting artists who are struggling to make it in the genre. “At Hasta Bajo,” she said, “we direct energy toward Black and queer artists, giving them the promotions and the listens.”
As part of “Creating Nuestra Música,” non-binary Puerto Rican artist Ana Macho gave a performance in which they wore a styrofoam head floating above their own head, propped up by a structured tube of blue glitter. In the Q&A after the performance, Ana described their love of reggaetón as related to its cultural, anti-establishment and identity-fluid connotations: “I think it’s meant to be an exploration of your most irreverent self.” They discussed how Puerto Rican queer and drag communities have been consistently tied to negativity, starting in the early 1900s when the first known trans person in Puerto Rico was arrested. Ana hopes to change this negative perception.
“It’s being visible, creating positive narratives for ourselves so that my personal success can represent the success of other queer people,” Ana said. “I want the people of the Caribbean to love what I do, because it’s for them—it’s not for anyone else. I’m going to make music for the queers—for us—to shake our asses to. Because shaking your ass in a fun, free way is a political act in and of itself.”
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You can listen to Hasta Bajo’s “Reggaetón es Afrodescendencia” (“Reggaetón Is African Descent”) playlist here, and Sin Mujeres no hay Reggaetón (“Without Women There Is No Reggaetón”) here.
[Image: artist Ana Macho wearing a styrofoam head floating above their own head, propped up by a structured tube of blue glitter]
