Before Bad Bunny: The Night Puerto Rico Said "No Más" at Lares

Many people saw and felt the amount of Boricua Pride among Puerto Ricans and latinos during Bad Bunny's Halftime show at the Super Bowl.

That pride is over 150 years in the making.... In 1868, Puerto Rico declared independence from Spain.

By the next day, it was over.

But what happened in a small mountain town called Lares did something far more lasting than establish a short-lived republic. It permanently changed how Puerto Ricans understood who they were.

This episode tells the full story of El Grito de Lares, the uprising that marked the birth of modern Puerto Rican identity, decades before the United States arrived in 1898.

We explore the pressure cooker that led to rebellion, including colonial rule, censorship, forced labor systems, and the tightening grip of a declining Spanish empire. We follow the revolution from planning to collapse, from exile to insurrection, and from secrecy to open defiance.

At the center of the story are the people who made Lares possible:

• Ramón Emeterio Betances, the physician, abolitionist, and revolutionary forced into exile who organized the movement across the Caribbean

• Segundo Ruiz Belvis, whose sudden death abroad changed the course of the rebellion

• Manuel Rojas, who led the uprising on the ground

• Mariana Bracetti, who created the flag of Lares and helped give visual form to a nation that didn’t yet exist

We walk through the night of September 23, 1868, when hundreds of men and women marched into Lares, declared a republic, raised a flag on the church altar, and proclaimed that Puerto Rico was more than a colony.

Militarily, the uprising failed in less than a day.

Historically, it succeeded forever.

Because after Lares, Puerto Ricans were no longer just Spanish subjects. They were something else. Something distinct.

This episode examines why a revolution that lasted only hours still shapes debates about identity, nationalism, and self-determination more than 150 years later.

Why this story matters

El Grito de Lares is not just a historical event. It is the emotional and symbolic starting point of Puerto Rican nationalism.

Every conversation about statehood, independence, or political status traces its roots back to that night in the mountains.

This is the story of how identity is born, even when power is lost.

About the show

The Mysteries of Latin America explores the myths, legends, history, and forgotten stories of the Americas, so those of us with roots in the region can know our own stories, and those who don’t can finally understand them.