7. "Vamos Pa’ Plaza" — The Center of Everything

La Brega

WNYC Studios and Futuro Studios

De, San, Noticias, Rico, Juan, Historia, Vieques, Podcast, Levittown, La, Society & Culture, Brega, Puerto

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Plaza Las Americas is not any mall — going there, “Pa Plaza,” is a quintessential boricua experience. Young people experience first dates; old people gather and enjoy the air conditioning; you can renew your passport, get vaccinated, and buy an electric car in a single visit. The Pope even gave mass in the parking lot! This mall that has Columbus’ three sails as its logo is like a cathedral to consumerism, with its wide corridors, and glittering fountains. It’s also the second biggest mall in Latin America, and the largest in the Caribbean. Some people even say that to know how the island’s economy is doing, one need only see how full the parking lot at Plaza is. While Puerto Rico’s malls have been vessels of mainstream capitalism, they’ve also been incubators of the counterculture. So much so that an early reggaeton classic – Baby Rasta and Gringo’s “Vamos Pa’ Plaza” – is literally about being there: they cruise through Footlocker and Gap, meet some girls, and just… hang out. Puerto Rican journalist Joel Cintron Arbasetti worked at Plaza - it was one of his first jobs. And while he was drawn to the place by the swagger of Baby Rasta and Gringo’s song, he quickly learned that the reality wasn’t so glamorous. He and the La Brega team spend a day at Plaza Las Americas, meeting people who reflect Puerto Rico’s challenges and are there for a lot more than shopping. Learn more about the voices in this episode: • Arlene Dávila, Professor, New York University and author of El Mall: The Spatial and Class Politics of Shopping Malls in Latin America• Watch a video about Luis Muñoz Marin’s speech at Plaza’s parking lot (in Spanish)• Watch the Pope’s mass at Plaza (in Spanish) Listen to our Spotify playlist, featuring music from this episode – and this season. We’ll keep adding to it each week as new episodes come out. Special thanks this week to Deepak Lamba-Nieves, Yarimar Bonilla, Juan Carlos Cintron, Ruben Davila Santiago, and Heather Houde – and it’s dedicated to Juan Cintron. Fact checking this season is by Istra Pacheco and María Soledad Dávila Calero. This season of La Brega is made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	listener supported WNYC Studios. Puerto Rican reggaeton is like the wind.
0:26.0	It picks up fragments of Puerto Rican is like the wind. It picks up fragments of Puerto Ricanisms like seeds and scatters them wherever someone is burying.
0:30.0	Right now, all over the world, people have heard of Bayaman, Condado, or Caserios.
0:37.0	That's what housing projects are called in Puerto Rico.
0:40.0	It's possible that many people have no idea what or where these regetoneros are singing about,
0:47.0	but that barely matters.
0:49.0	One of my favorite examples of this is in Cardi Bees I Like It, in which Bad Bunny has this hyper-specific
0:56.3	burn.
0:57.3	Yeah, not that we know that no that go no no that's not in plaza. They don't even know you in Plaza. And that's not Plaza like a town square, that's Plaza Lass Americas, the biggest shopping mall in all of Puerto Rico. And in fact fact in the whole Caribbean, the second largest in Latin America,
1:17.0	capital P. Plaza.
1:20.0	The thing is, such a big part of Puerto Rican life happens in and around this particular mall
1:25.8	that if nobody knows you there, then you are a nobody. Now every time I hear that line,
1:36.0	I imagine this reference to Plaza traveling through the wind and scattering all over Ecuador, or China or Wisconsin.
1:40.3	And in this way, Plaza gets so much bigger than it already is.
1:45.0	The center of everything.
1:50.0	Recently, the journalist and author Joel Sintro Nervasetti told me that he understood the importance of
1:55.7	Plasa through a regeton song.
1:58.9	When's the first time you heard of Plasa?
2:01.6	The first time I heard about Brasa was in a cassette like a
2:05.2	mix tape you know maybe a bunch of songs there and there was Pam of Papa. Bamo Papuasa. Bamaa paplasa,
2:15.0	from the duo baby rata and grasa
2:18.0	from the duo Baby Rata and Gringo.
	...

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