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Speaker 1: La Brega is back this season. We're spending time with

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Speaker 1: the people and symbols that represent Puerto Rico. We're proud

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Speaker 1: Borricas and what does that mean?

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Speaker 2: And we're still terrified.

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Speaker 1: We're telling stories about champions from a place worth fighting for,

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Speaker 1: stories that will inspire you no matter where you're from.

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Speaker 3: Come wow, this is La Brega.

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Speaker 1: Campeones. Listen early and ad free with Fuluto.

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Speaker 3: Plus the biggest pop star in the entire world is

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Speaker 3: Puerto Rican.

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Speaker 1: Bad Bunny has been getting hotter and hotter. Puerto Rican

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Speaker 1: superstar Bad Bunny has been named the global Top Artist

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Speaker 1: for the Bad Bunny and the Grammy goes to Bad.

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Speaker 3: Bunny and Bad Bunny knows all about life in Puerto Rico,

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Speaker 3: whether it's swerving from the potholes coping with blackouts across

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Speaker 3: the island. Bad Money is also familiar with a saying

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Speaker 3: that gets thrown around a lot on the island.

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Speaker 1: It's called La Brega.

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Speaker 3: It's a phrase that Borigua's use all the time, and

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Speaker 3: it's also the name of our own Futuro Studios hit podcast,

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Speaker 3: La Brega. The third season just came out and I

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Speaker 3: promise it's a must listen this season. Season three is

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Speaker 3: all about Gambiones Puerto Rican champions and about exploring what

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Speaker 3: it takes to represent the island. So to celebrate the

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Speaker 3: newest season, we're bringing you the latest episode in our

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Speaker 3: next drop. But first we just have to share the

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Speaker 3: iconic first episode of season one where it all started.

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Speaker 3: All right, now, I'm turning it over to Alana cassanoa burgess.

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Speaker 3: She's the host of La Brega.

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Speaker 1: A few months back, a friend sent me a photo

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Speaker 1: of a water truck in a pothole in Gaguas, Puerto Rico.

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Speaker 1: At first I thought it was photoshopped. The front half

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Speaker 1: of the truck was up in the air, wedged in

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Speaker 1: an enormous crater in the middle of the road. It

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Speaker 1: looked as if the asphalt had opened a gaping mouth

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Speaker 1: and was trying to swallow the truck. And then there

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Speaker 1: were the words on the back Agua potable water, the

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Speaker 1: a of Agua obscured by the pothole. The whole thing

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Speaker 1: seemed like a metaphor for the state of things in

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. It was a bit on the nose, and

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Speaker 1: then I saw the video. These are the things that happen.

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Speaker 1: Whoever was filming said at the back of the truck,

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Speaker 1: the water was pouring out of the hose into the

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Speaker 1: depths of the hole. It turns out that it was

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Speaker 1: on its way to a neighborhood that had been without

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Speaker 1: water for two weeks, and a broken water pipe was

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Speaker 1: responsible for the sinkhole. There's a lot happening here. A

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Speaker 1: truck filled with water tried to reach a community that

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Speaker 1: had been without it. Then that truck gets swallowed by

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Speaker 1: a hole in the road that was caused by a

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Speaker 1: broken water pipe. And lastly, as if adding insult to injury,

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Speaker 1: the water in the truck was lost to the potholes.

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Speaker 1: These are the things that happen.

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Speaker 2: You have to deal with that. You have to avoid

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Speaker 2: a pug hoole any day when you go to work,

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Speaker 2: when you go to the supermarket.

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Speaker 1: Jose Angel Santiago Rios, better known as CEO Santiago, runs

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Speaker 1: the social media accounts adopta Oyo adopt a Pothole. He

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Speaker 1: reposted the truck video on Instagram and we spoke over

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Speaker 1: Zoom recently.

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Speaker 2: You go anywhere, you're going to find a pool. Trust me,

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Speaker 2: trust me, trust me, trust me.

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Speaker 1: I can confirm a lot of Puerto Rican roads are

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Speaker 1: filled with craters. People on the island often joke about it,

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Speaker 1: comparing the roads to the surface of the moon. Ten

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Speaker 1: years ago, Cheo drove over one that rattled more than

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Speaker 1: his axle. It's the reason I wanted to start this

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Speaker 1: podcast with him, because if I'm going to explain to

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Speaker 1: you what laverega means, what it means for Puerto Rico,

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Speaker 1: I need an example, and Chao's Brega tells the story.

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Speaker 1: Chao used to live in Miami. He was there for

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Speaker 1: nine years, working as a plumber, driving the same car

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Speaker 1: without issue for all that time. When he moved back

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Speaker 1: to the island in two thousand and nine, he even

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Speaker 1: had it shipped from Florida.

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Speaker 2: And when I start using my con ro Rigo, in

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Speaker 2: less than a jeer is damaged.

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Speaker 1: Then came the pothole. A decade later, he he still

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Speaker 1: remembers where it was and what it looked like. He

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Speaker 1: was going from Gurabo to San Juan. It was a

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Speaker 1: monster of a pothole Denomona, maybe twenty inches wide and

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Speaker 1: six inches deep. It caused damage to his front axle.

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Speaker 1: He got it fixed for one hundred bucks or so

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Speaker 1: and then he found himself a week later on the

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Speaker 1: same stretch of road, passing the very same oyo.

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Speaker 2: I got the spray paint, white spray paint with me

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Speaker 2: in the car, and I stopped the car and go

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Speaker 2: walk to the pothole in the highway and the market

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Speaker 2: with white paint. Everybody hitting the same pothole with the

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Speaker 2: same damage. You know, just just too much money.

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Speaker 1: He posted the photo online and that Oyo was born

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Speaker 1: in twenty eleven. Since then, he estimates he's painted over

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Speaker 1: a thousand potholes this way, tracing the jagged outline of

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Speaker 1: the crater and then straight lines like sun rays coming

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Speaker 1: out of it. And now other people do it too,

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Speaker 1: sending him photos and addresses from across the archipelago. The

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Speaker 1: idea is that the road crews will see the posts

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Speaker 1: online and go to repair the holes, but in austerity

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Speaker 1: stricken Puerto Rico, there's a lot that goes unrepaired or

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Speaker 1: poorly fixed. So the paint becomes a solution to the

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Speaker 1: problem in itself, helping drivers spot and avoid los oyos.

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Speaker 1: And the potholes are dangerous.

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Speaker 2: You can heat another car, you can lose control in

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Speaker 2: when you're driving.

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Speaker 1: You can lose a tire, your entire wheel can get

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Speaker 1: stuck in a crater. There are videos of this happens.

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Speaker 2: So as Aquilo Marca Akilo Marca.

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Speaker 1: And even when an encounter with a pothole doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: too bad.

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Speaker 2: Maybe you don't get an accident or any damage. But

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Speaker 2: in a few days you're gonna you're gonna listen a

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Speaker 2: new sound in your courage, starting with noise. The card

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Speaker 2: isn't starting with noise in a few days.

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Speaker 1: The audio situation in Puerto Rico is one that you

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Speaker 1: just have to negotiate with or wrestle with. You can't

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Speaker 1: actually fix it, but you can cope.

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Speaker 2: But that's the brega in Puerto Rico. That's laverega. That's

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Speaker 2: lave rega and Puerto.

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Speaker 1: Rico love rega. There's no perfect English translation for this

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Speaker 1: word that Puerto Ricans use all the time, in a

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Speaker 1: way no other Spanish speakers do. Cho says bragando is

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Speaker 1: like dealing with it. But there are other definitions too,

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Speaker 1: So as we were in production for this episode, we

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Speaker 1: asked Briquas for help describing it and got voice memos

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Speaker 1: from San Juan to queens.

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Speaker 4: When I hear or use la Brega. I'm referring to

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Speaker 4: the struggle, the struggles from Lucas in the hastle, a hassle.

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Speaker 1: La Brega has to deal with everyday life.

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Speaker 4: I call it.

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Speaker 1: Delmasia, determination, survival.

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Speaker 2: Work, always to do something in circumstances that don't.

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Speaker 4: Let you get ahead, grinding you know now what it means,

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Speaker 4: you need to do it. I commonly, usually when someone

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Speaker 4: asked me what are you up to or how are

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Speaker 4: you doing?

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Speaker 1: I'm cruising along, searching, continually, searching for.

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Speaker 5: Something's okaseing our true Puerto Rican brilliance.

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Speaker 1: If you're a Bariqua and someone asks you how it's going,

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Speaker 1: how you're doing, you might say, ah YETU aquian Abrega

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Speaker 1: here making it work, you know, dealing with it in

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Speaker 1: the struggle. In the last year, as we've been coping

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Speaker 1: with this pandemic and with so much else, I've used

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Speaker 1: aquian Abrega more and more. How else could I answer

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Speaker 1: when someone asks how are you doing? There's an imbalance

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Speaker 1: of power when you're bregando, whether it's against your boss

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Speaker 1: or some larger injustice. It's an underdog's word. Abrega implies

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Speaker 1: a challenge. We can't really solve, so you have to

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Speaker 1: hustle to get around it. And in Puerto Rico there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of challenges that seem unsolvable. Puerto Ricans

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Speaker 1: are constantly regando with the jobs that don't pay enough,

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Speaker 1: the electricity that comes and goes, their kids' schools that

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Speaker 1: are closed, the broken traffic lights that never get fixed,

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Speaker 1: the hospital that doesn't get built, the government's debts that

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Speaker 1: aren't paid, the frustration over status, austerity, colonialism, and la

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Speaker 1: brega is a word that came to the States with

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Speaker 1: the diaspora who have had to find a way to

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Speaker 1: deal with a new language, to navigate somehow being immigrants

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Speaker 1: and citizens at the same time, to struggle with displacement

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Speaker 1: and discrimination. But it's not just about dealing with the problem.

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Speaker 1: It can also be finding a way to fight the system,

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Speaker 1: to get around it or somehow keep moving. There's an

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Speaker 1: edge of creativity too, It's like an art.

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Speaker 6: Some individuals are very good at.

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Speaker 1: Gallia di Echis is a Puerto Rican writer and scholar

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Speaker 1: and professor emeritus at Princeton. He's thought a lot about

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Speaker 1: the way we use la brega, peppering it into our language,

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Speaker 1: even complimenting each other for struggling.

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Speaker 4: Well, it's interesting the expression asiago wigan.

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Speaker 6: I mean, we admire the way that she dealt with

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Speaker 6: the situation because it was so difficult.

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Speaker 1: Some twenty years ago, he published an influential essay called

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Speaker 1: de Como ikuando Brega. The essay used the language of

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Speaker 1: la Brega as a lens to understand Puerto Rican history

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Speaker 1: and politics and identity, basically arguing that there's something about

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Speaker 1: this word that unlocks a lot about who we are.

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Speaker 4: I think it's so profound and so frequently used that

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Speaker 4: we must go back a long long time.

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Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans are always in la brega, vulnerable and alert,

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Speaker 1: he wrote. Then the English word he thinks comes closest

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Speaker 1: is grapple.

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Speaker 6: La brega means that you have to invent, you have

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Speaker 6: to use what you have, and to pay attention to others.

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Speaker 4: And it's not an easy tour.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back.

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Speaker 4: I don't want to contribute to a self celebratory idea

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Speaker 4: of leave rega. There are many things to celebrate, but

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Speaker 4: we also have to recognize that there are failures.

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Speaker 1: More about what it means to Beregard.

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Speaker 5: After this break, there's a lot going on right now,

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Speaker 5: mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour

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Speaker 5: stench of chaos.

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Speaker 2: In the air.

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Speaker 5: I'm Brook Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want

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Speaker 5: to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives

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Speaker 5: that let us hear and maybe had to head.

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Speaker 2: Them off at the pass.

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Speaker 5: That's on the media's specialty.

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Speaker 1: Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, we're back.

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Speaker 1: In the last few years there have been even more

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Speaker 1: memorable examples of Puerto Ricans in la brega. I think

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Speaker 1: often about a video I saw after Maria of a

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Speaker 1: woman in Bayamon showing off her dad's.

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Speaker 7: Invention, laandola bes.

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Speaker 1: A washing machine with bicycle handlebars attached so you could

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Speaker 1: spin it by hand even without electricity.

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Speaker 7: Mal Laura Guess, And I think about how after Maria,

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Speaker 7: communities came together, all the networks that were formed to

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Speaker 7: meet the needs that weren't being met in a desperate

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Speaker 7: situation obrega collecti.

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Speaker 6: They could not wait for the state to do it,

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Speaker 6: or the state failed in many cases.

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Speaker 1: And this is where labrega becomes a concept that can

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Speaker 1: be nauseating. Why do we take pride in negotiating, in hustling,

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Speaker 1: in putting up with how things are going, with the flow.

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Speaker 1: What does it say about us that we are so

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Speaker 1: often pragmatic, that that's our go to? And above all,

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Speaker 1: what does it say that we have a society and

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Speaker 1: a government that requires us to be in labrega all

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Speaker 1: the time.

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Speaker 4: I don't want to contribute to a self celebratory idea

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Speaker 4: of lavrega. There are many things to celebrate, but we

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Speaker 4: also have to recognize that there are failures, and we

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Speaker 4: have to acknowledge that pragmatism is helpful in some situations

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Speaker 4: and not in others.

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Speaker 1: In the long, long months after Maria, when some Puerto

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Speaker 1: Ricans were without power for a whole year, we heard

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Speaker 1: a lot about resilience. Puerto Ricans resilience on display, and

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Speaker 1: I see.

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Speaker 3: The plight of the Puerto Rican people.

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Speaker 1: They're very resilient, such resilient, tremendously resilient, so much so

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Speaker 1: that there was a backlash against that word. It was

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Speaker 1: as though Puerto Ricans were being congratulated for being able

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Speaker 1: to put up with so much, even as aid and

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Speaker 1: recovery was being denied. This came up with Cio Santiago

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Speaker 1: from a adopt a pothole too. We shouldn't always have

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Speaker 1: to be in Nabrega patching up potholes instead of actually

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Speaker 1: repairing them. And yet he keeps painting the ojos and

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Speaker 1: posting them because he's hopeful that the effort helps people.

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Speaker 1: It might even save them. Think of it as an

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Speaker 1: act of solidarity of citizenship. That's part of La Brega too.

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Speaker 1: As I was producing this episode thinking about potholes, there

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Speaker 1: was actually breaking pothole news. Former Governor Ricardo rosse Jov

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Speaker 1: spoke to The New York Times, his first public interview

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Speaker 1: since the summer of twenty nineteen, when he resigned and

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Speaker 1: left the island after thousands of people protested relentlessly demanding

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Speaker 1: he leave office. It was during those protests he claimed

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Speaker 1: in this new interview that his car had hit a

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Speaker 1: huge pothole. His five year old daughter thought it was

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Speaker 1: a gunshot, and he says it was that the pothole

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Speaker 1: incident and his daughter's reaction that got him to resign,

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Speaker 1: not because he heard the demands of an outraged public.

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rican twitter exploded with memes of potholes protesting the

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Speaker 1: former governor. Or asphalt taunting him. There was one of

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Speaker 1: a creator photoshopped on to chiga Vada's face, a revolutionary pothole.

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Speaker 1: Twitter was roasting Rosello, but the memes were also pointing

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Speaker 1: to the twisted irony that the governor was panicked at

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Speaker 1: something Puerto Ricans deal with every day and something his

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Speaker 1: administration was responsible for fixing. At Gadio has been thinking

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Speaker 1: about those outraged people who went into the streets to

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Speaker 1: march against the governor, Los in dignalos and what happens

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Speaker 1: when people see their power.

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Speaker 4: But just look at so many young people, so many

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Speaker 4: and every day and so vibrant. What it meant to

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Speaker 4: me was that there was a need reserve of energy

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Speaker 4: and thought and moral conviction there. You know, it's there,

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Speaker 4: It's there, and it was such a joy to see

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Speaker 4: that it's there. We can imagine a different plot, a

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Speaker 4: different ending. Yeah, that doesn't mean we will succeed, but

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Speaker 4: we can imagine in spite of the harshness of the real.

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Speaker 4: That's La Brega collectiva and the individual.

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Speaker 1: Too, for our Gallio. That's part of La Brega imagining

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Speaker 1: a better reality together. This series is an anthology about

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. Each episode opens a door to a different

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Speaker 1: aspect of the Puerto Rican experience. Our Brega. It's about

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Speaker 1: our history and our present. In many ways, it's about

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Speaker 1: colonialism and about what it means to be a people.

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Speaker 1: And the reason we decided to make this series is

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Speaker 1: that since Hurricane Maria hit, media around the state started

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Speaker 1: paying more attention to Puerto Rico, but many of the

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Speaker 1: conversations centered around US politicians or if we could or

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Speaker 1: should be admitted as the fifty first state of the Union.

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Speaker 1: Those conversations didn't really focus on us, and so in

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Speaker 1: this series we start with the principle that we deserve

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Speaker 1: to hear stories about ourselves and how we got here,

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Speaker 1: which is why every episode is in two languages, so

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Speaker 1: we don't leave anyone out, either on the island or

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Speaker 1: in the diaspora. From Futuro Studios, I'm Alana Casanova Burgess

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Speaker 1: and this is La Brega.

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Speaker 3: That was episode one of season one of La Brega,

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Speaker 3: the very first episode that started it all. On our

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Speaker 3: next Latino USA podcast episode, we're going to bring you

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Speaker 3: the premiere of La Brega season three, and if you

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Speaker 3: don't want to wait, go to La Brega gampions feed

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Speaker 3: and listen because it's out now. And if you're a

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Speaker 3: fan of La Brega and you want to binge the

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Speaker 3: whole season right now, you can do so by becoming

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Speaker 3: a member of Futuroplas and you'll get to listen to

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Speaker 3: it all ad free right now. Just click the link

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Speaker 3: in the episode description and here are the original credits

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Speaker 3: from this episode, which was released originally in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 1: Labrega's production team includes Marlon Bishop, Es Sequel, Rodrigue Sandino,

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Speaker 1: Mark Pagan, Victor Ramos, Luis Trees, Stephanie Lebau, Alisha ba YouTube,

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Speaker 1: Lia Shaw, Damren Rosanna Cavan, and Gabriel La Bayez. Original

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Speaker 1: music for La Brega was composed by bal N and

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Speaker 1: our theme song is by Ivee. Leadership support for Labrega

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Speaker 1: is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation and the

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Speaker 1: john S and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional support

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Speaker 1: provided by Amy liss Astaxima.

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Speaker 3: This episode was adapted by senior producer Nicole Rothwell and

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Speaker 3: producer Renaldo Leanos Junior. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebau,

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Speaker 3: Julia Caruso and j. J. Carubin. Nancy Trujillo is our

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Speaker 3: production manager. Fernando Echarari is our managing editor. The Latino

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Speaker 3: USA team also includes Roxanna Guire, Rebecca Bara, Renaldo, Leanos Junior,

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Speaker 3: Luis Luna, jodimr Marquez, Jugeta Martinelli, Monica Moralis Garcia, Paloma

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Speaker 3: Perez and Adriana Rodriguez. Penilee Ramirez and I are executive producers.

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Speaker 3: I'm your host Marie j Josa. Latino USA is part

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Speaker 3: of Iheart's Mike Urdura podcast network. Executive producers at iHeart

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Speaker 3: are Leo Gomes and Arlen Santana. Join us again on

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Speaker 3: our next episode. In the meantime, look for us on

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Speaker 3: all of your social media. I'll see you on his

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Speaker 3: STEGANDAM and don't forget to join FOODPUO plus dear listener,

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Speaker 3: and you get to listen to everything ad free plus.

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Speaker 3: You'll get some cheesemade and behind the scenes content. So

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Speaker 3: join Fudura plus now that's an approximate.

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Speaker 4: Yes.

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Speaker 1: Latino USA is supported by the Mellon Foundation. Melon makes

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Speaker 1: grants to support the visionaries and communities that unlock the

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Speaker 1: power of the arts and humanities to help connect us

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Speaker 1: all more at Melon dot org. The Heising Simons Foundation

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Speaker 1: Unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities. More at hsfoundation dot org

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Speaker 1: and the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation