{"id":3073,"date":"2025-11-24T21:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cncurc.org\/?p=3073"},"modified":"2025-11-27T15:17:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:17:56","slug":"the-beef-between-dominicans-puerto-ricans-isnt-real-bad-bunnys-dtmf-concerts-in-dr-are-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cncurc.org\/index.php\/2025\/11\/24\/the-beef-between-dominicans-puerto-ricans-isnt-real-bad-bunnys-dtmf-concerts-in-dr-are-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beef Between Dominicans & Puerto Ricans Isn\u2019t Real. Bad Bunny\u2019s DtMF Concerts in DR Are Proof"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO \u2013 JULY 11: Bad Bunny performs onstage during Night One of Bad Bunny: \u201cNo Me Quiero Ir De Aqui\u201d Residencia En El Choli at Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jos\u00e9 Miguel Agrelot on July 11, 2025 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Photo by Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The rivalry between Puerto Ricans and Dominicans goes back decades. The neighboring islands, and their diasporas in the United States, compete over just about everything. The question of who\u2019s better at baseball is settled nearly every year with a new headline matchup. DR won an exhibition game<\/a> in New York on November 15, but Puerto Rico defeated them in the 2023<\/a> World Baseball Classic. In the kitchen, the feud is between Puerto Rico\u2019s mofongo and the Dominican Republic\u2019s mang\u00fa, two garlicky plantain staples. And in music, there\u2019s the debates about who has more rhythm on the dancefloor and who makes more hits. An outsider might see these hilarious, albeit pointed, jabs thrown at each other on the Internet and think the two are really enemies, but Bad Bunny\u2019s DeB\u00ed TiRAR M\u00e1S FOToS World Tour<\/a> opening in Santo Domingo displayed what we have always known: It\u2019s all playful love entre familia.<\/p>\n

On November 21, the Puerto Rican three-time Grammy winner, born Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio, kicked off his anticipated stadium world tour with two sold-out shows in the Dominican Republic\u2019s capital. On night one, Bad Bunny, who Billboard named the top Latin artist of the 21st century<\/a>, greeted the crowd of about 50,000 people at Estadio Ol\u00edmpico F\u00e9lix S\u00e1nchez, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed being a tourist here, though I don\u2019t know if \u2018tourist\u2019 is the right word, because when I\u2019m here, I feel at home.\u201d And everything about the show celebrated the shared heritage and close relationship the two islands have built together.<\/p>\n

In the audience, Dominican women completed their concert outfits with Puerto Rican pava hats \u2014 or, as shouting street vendors throughout la Zona Colonial have renamed them, \u201cel sombrero de Bad Bunny.\u201d Meanwhile, Puerto Rican fans who missed Bad Bunny\u2019s historic 31-show residency<\/a> at San Juan\u2019s El Choli made the short trip west to Santo Domingo, snapping photos in front of wall-length Dominican flags.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Hennessy<\/a>, the global presenting sponsor of the tour, created experiences that blended both cultures seamlessly right outside of the stadium and in Downtown Santo Domingo. In a Hennessy-branded casita<\/a> by the show, Boris like model Joan Smalls y Domis like actress Dascha Polanco sat down to play dominoes, the two flags in the home, while Alex Sensation spun \u201970s salsa and merengue t\u00edpico. Fans refreshed from the Caribbean humidity with Hennessy De Coco, a spin on Pitorro de Coco that blends coconut, tropical fruits, and Hennessy, and Hennessy Pasi\u00f3n, a mix of passionfruit, lemonade, and Hennessy \u2014 two cocktails that will be available throughout the tour. At the activations, there was also a piragua stand serving cognac-infused versions of the shaved ice treat popular on Viejo San Juan\u2019s cobblestone streets and classic Dominican chimis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The blend made sense because most of us, those with roots in Borik\u00e9n or Kiskeya, have known it our entire lives.<\/p>\n

While our shared history can be traced back to the Ta\u00ednos, the Indigenous people who once inhabited the islands of the Greater Antilles, and the Spanish conquest that brought violent genocide and African enslavement, less discussed is the solidarity that emerged from this joint struggle. For generations, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans have stood together, lending support and fighting alongside each other in anti-colonial and social justice movements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To start, the Dominican Republic\u2019s fight for sovereignty<\/a>, first in 1821 and then in 1844, served as a symbolic and inspirational model for Puerto Rican nationalists. During their bids for independence in the nineteenth century, Puerto Rican revolutionaries often took refuge in Santo Domingo, where they could safely organize, network with nationalists across the Caribbean, and publish anti-colonial materials. In 1868, when Puerto Ricans first revolted against Spanish rule during el Grito de Lares<\/a>, they stitched a revolutionary flag featuring a white cross that divided the flag into four rectangles, a tribute to the Dominican flag and to the trans-Caribbean revolutionary network.<\/p>\n

Decades later, now as a U.S. colony, the people of Puerto Rico are using the political power they do have to push back against the federal government\u2019s anti-immigrant policies in Puerto Rico<\/a>, which have predominantly targeted Dominican migrants. Boricuas regularly take to the streets to protest raids, deportations, and anti-immigrant legislation; organize food, clothing, and medical brigades to help Dominican families affected economically by the immigration crackdowns; and even shelter Dominican migrants in churches and community halls that have become safe havens.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEverything about the show celebrated the shared heritage and close relationship the two islands have built together.\u201d<\/p>\n

raquel reichard<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

A similar solidarity exists within the diaspora. In New York, where the playful rivalry between Puerto Ricans and Dominicans began in the 1970s \u2014 when Dominicans moved in large numbers to historically Boricua neighborhoods like the South Bronx, Washington Heights, and the Lower East Side \u2014 new forms of alliances emerged. The Young Lords<\/a>, a Puerto Rican revolutionary group born out of Chicago that later expanded to New York, included many Dominican women and men who, together, fought for housing rights, education access, and community health programs that impacted both communities. At the same time, El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem served as one of a few hubs where Puerto Rican and Dominican youth collaborated on arts, education, and cultural projects.<\/p>\n

Living side by side in housing projects throughout the city, both groups did what they, arguably, do better than anyone else: crack jokes. As my Puerto Rican dad who grew up in New York in the \u201870s tells me, no one was safe and everything was ripe for teasing: accents, who had slicker game with girls, and who had better rum. Over the years, those neighborhood quips carried on, with Puerto Rican men now laughing at how tight their Dominican friends wear their pants and Dominicans teasing their Puerto Rican brothers for dressing like they are in an early-2000s Peedi Crakk music video. <\/p>\n

A comedic skit called \u201cPuerto Ricans vs. Dominicans,\u201d<\/a> published by Flama in 2015, captures the playful beef perfectly. In the five-minute clip, two men go back and forth, hilariously debating which culture has better style, music, and food, only to have a mom in rolos intervene, revealing that the two are actually brothers, each both Puerto Rican and Dominican.<\/p>\n