When Nicole Ortiz saw Bad Bunny's "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" album cover for the first time, the Florida resident thought back to her visits to Puerto Rico and the huge parties where her relatives would play dominoes at the table and that feeling of love and togetherness.
“I see my grandmother in that chair playing dominoes with my uncle and dad,” Ortiz, 48, told NBC News.
Bad Bunny called his recent album, which translates to “I should have taken more photos,” his “most Puerto Rican” album yet — and many fans agree.
The cover, which features two plain white plastic chairs in a backyard full of bright green plants, has brought people smiles — and tears. The chairs, which are known as Monobloc chairs, are versatile and inexpensive chairs that can be found in countries all over the world, and they are used both indoors and outdoors.
“Both my grandmothers have passed, and the chairs represent good times that involved Latin music, traditional foods and dancing," Ortiz said. "It brings me sadness they aren’t here but also brings me happiness that I have those memories.”
Bad Bunny's nostalgic message and iconic “DtMF” song have resonated with Latino and non-Latino fans, putting it at No. 1 on the TikTok’s Top 50 list.
Puerto Rican and other TikTok users have posted photos of their families in the two white chairs and see the album as an ode to their upbringing.
A user posted a photo of her as a little girl with her grandmother on her birthday and said the cover immediately made her nostalgic. Another user said the chairs are where a lot of Latinos spend time with their families gossiping and talking about current events. She said she is who she is today because of the conversations in the white chairs.
Bad Bunny's latest album is an homage and a love letter to the island and a call for Puerto Ricans to protect their culture. From his use of folkloric bomb and plena music to a short film showing the effects of gentrification in Puerto Rico, the album highlights the island’s beauty and struggle.
Uniting Puerto Ricans away from the island
Dinatalia Farina, 29, said the album has made her rethink her idea of home. The album cover and its songs reminded Farina, 29, a Puerto Rican from New York, that home doesn’t necessarily need to be a physical place but instead can be a feeling full of nostalgia, rhythm and dance.
“We are the reminders of home,” Farina said. “We are the people that are going to continue these traditions that remind us of home.”
Ortiz, who lives in Florida, has struggled with her Puerto Rican identity her whole life. Although she has never lived in Puerto Rico, she was raised with the culture and feels connected to it in an emotional way. However, she would often think she wasn’t “Puerto Rican enough” because of her separation from the island.
When she saw the chairs on the album cover, she started to reminisce about the visits to Puerto Rico, from birthday parties in the backyard to eating food her grandmother cooked on the patio.
The album reminded her it’s OK not to live in Puerto Rico and still be Puerto Rican.
“All of our traditions come from the island of Puerto Rico, and this album made me feel more connected to it,” Ortiz said. “I think it speaks to anyone who is connected to another culture.”
Crossing cultures, from Latin America to South Asia
Erika Pradillo, 32, a Miami resident of Cuban and Spanish heritage, said that growing up she had a mini pink plastic chair where she used to do homework. Once she outgrew it, her grandmother would use it in the shower. She sees the album cover's chairs as a symbol of her roots. She sometimes feels like she's losing the connection to her culture, but the album helped remind her to always find her way back home.
“To me, the empty chairs reflect how so many Latinos have become more and more removed from their roots,” Pradillo said. “What tethers so many of us to those roots in the first place are the people that sat in those chairs — our grandparents, our great aunts and uncles, our parents.”
Leila Haddaji, 25, of Morocco, shared a similar sentiment.
