Puerto Rican band Chuwi wooed Bad Bunny fans on his world tour. They go mask off in 'Libertad'

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Set us as preferred On March 21, 1937, a crowd of hundreds gathered in the southern Puerto Rican town of Ponce on Palm Sunday afternoon, preparing to march.Their goals were twofold: commemorate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico, and protest the recent incarceration of Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos by the occupying U.S.

government.As the march began, insular police under the command of the U.S.-appointed Gov.Blanton Winship opened fire unprovoked.

Seventeen unarmed civilians, including a 12-year-old girl, were killed — and over 200 more were wounded in what became known as the Ponce Massacre.One of the victims, a man named Bolívar Márquez, used the last of his strength to write a message, with his own blood, on the same wall he died slumped against: “¡Viva la República, abajo los asesinos!” (“Long live the Republic, down with the Murderers!”)On Oct.

15, Puerto Rican band Chuwi released their debut LP, titled “Libertad.” The title translates to “liberty,” while the cover art re-creates a well-known photo of the message Márquez wrote in 1937, but with the album’s title instead.For the last two years, Chuwi’s name has been tied to “Weltita”: a sunny, joyous anthem about a beach day with your significant other, which the band performed alongside Bad Bunny on his Grammy-winning 2025 album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.”That collaboration sent their profile skyrocketing, driving monthly streams from a few thousand to 6 million, securing them an NPR Tiny Desk concert, and a spot as openers for Bad Bunny’s world tour.For most people, that song was their introduction to Chuwi.“We did our own shows in a few cities,” says Wester, who I meet along with the band on a balmy September afternoon, inside their studio in Aguadilla.

“We managed to sell out almost all of them, and most ...