Defend Puerto Rico

This weekend's music break is dedicated to the isla del encancto.

Culebra island. Image via Pixabay.com

Puerto Rico is currently facing a recent humanitarian crisis caused by a hurricane that has been shamelessly politicized by Donald Trump’s government. While many sources have already done good analysis on the political sideshow accompanying the crisis and people from all over the world have shown solidarity, Africa Is a Country readers know that the island is also one of the hubs of African culture in the Americas. So, to continue our recent trend of humanizing the headlines with #WeekendMusicBreak, we decided to put together a playlist that draws attention to Puerto Rico’s African heritage, its contemporary sounds, as well as its impact on contemporary global popular culture.

If you’d like to assist in Puerto Rico’s recovery efforts, we suggest to visit Defend Puerto Rico, a multimedia “designed to document and celebrate Puerto Rican creativity, resilience, and resistance.”

Enjoy this weekend’s music break dedicated to the isla del encancto:

Weekend Music Break No.111

Tracklist: 1) Bomba y plena live at Loíza. 2) Hector Lavoe y Willie Colon – Aguanile. 3) `IFÉ – 3 Mujeres (Iború Iboya Ibosheshé). 4) El Gran Combo – Mi Isla. 5) India – Dimelo. 6) Tego Calderon – Pa que se lo gozen. 7) Ivy Queen – Yo quiero bailar.  8) Don Omar – Bandolero feat. Tego Calderon. 9) Calma Carmona – 100 Vidas. 10) Big Pun – 100%

Further Reading

How to unmake the world

In this wide-ranging conversation, para-disciplinary artist Nolan Oswald Dennis reflects on space, time, Blackness, and the limits of Western knowledge—offering a strategy for imagining grounded in African and anti-colonial traditions.

A migrant’s tale

On his latest EP, Kwame Brenya turns a failed migration into musical testimony—offering a biting critique of ECOWAS, broken borders, and the everyday collapse of pan-African ideals.

What Portugal forgets

In the film ‘Tales of Oblivion,’ Dulce Fernandes excavates the buried history of slavery in Portugal, challenging a national mythology built on sea voyages, silence, and selective memory.

Trump tariffs and US Imperialism

Trump’s April 2025 tariff blitz ignited market chaos and deepened rifts within his own coalition. Beneath the turmoil lies a battle between technocrats, ultranationalists, and anti-imperial populists, all vying to reshape—or destroy—American global power.