📰 GRAMMY HISTORY — FEBRUARY 2, 2026
Bad Bunny wins Album of the Year, the first all-Spanish-language album to
ever win the top prize and the first Latin artist to take home the award.
During his acceptance speech, he declared "ICE out" and dedicated the win to immigrants who left their homelands
to chase their dreams, and to those who keep moving forward despite loss.
"Puerto Rico, créeme cuando te digo que somos mucho más grandes que 100 x 35 y no existe nada que no podamos lograr."
— Bad Bunny, Grammy Acceptance Speech
"Puerto Rico, believe me when I tell you that we are much bigger than 100 x 35 and there is nothing we cannot achieve."
🥊 BOXING HISTORY — JANUARY 31, 2026
Xander Zayas unifies the WBO and WBA junior middleweight titles in San Juan,
becoming the youngest unified world champion in boxing history and the first Boricua
to achieve this on the island.
¡Wepa, familia!
This is our moment. Not because of luck but because of what we've always been. Fighters. Dreamers. Builders.
Bad Bunny just made Grammy history. Xander Zayas just made boxing history. And right now, a generation of Puerto Rican students are ready to make history, in the classroom, in the community, and in the movements we build.
We're back! And this semester, we’re not just hosting events — we're building something that outlasts us.
Last semester, we proved that DB was alive. We brought legends to campus, marched through Hartford,
cooked 40 pounds of lechón, and gathered for cafecito. We went from an org that almost faded away to one that 500+
people showed up for.
But 2026 will be different. This year, we're building infrastructure.
A Northeastern Alliance connecting Puerto Rican student organizations across 26 universities. A conference
that will bring us all together for the first time in a generation.
A block party that bridges Yale and New Haven. Academic partnerships that give our work institutional weight.
And a pipeline to the island, because our success means nothing if we don't bring others with us.
The question isn't whether we're capable. We've always been capable. The question is whether we have the resources to match our ambition.
We fight even in the doubts of our previous generation, respecting the fact that they fought for us. We fight because we are fighters. We have to be.
To our alumni: you built this. You kept the group alive when it would have been easier to let it go. Now we're asking you to help us take it further than any of us imagined.
To everyone reading this: what you see in these pages is not a wish list. It's a blueprint. And with your support, it's a promise.
Pa'lante siempre,
— La Directiva 2026 ✊🏽
FRIDAY, APRIL 24
🎉 CALLE CORONA 🎉
SanSe llegó al Norte
DB's most ambitious project of this decade.
We are bringing Las Fiestas de San Sebastián to New Haven. We will block off High Street and Crown Street to fill the streets with a flea market, live performances (bomba y salsa), dance workshops, food trucks, and local vendors.
This is about more than celebration. This is about inviting the Yale and New Haven communities together—letting our presence be known, the Latino community visible and celebrated, and closing the gap between students at the university and those in New Haven.
Puerto Rico's most beloved festival, brought to Connecticut. This one's for all of us.
FALL 2026
🏛️ ESTAMOS AQUÍ
In the Halls of Power
The First Northeastern Puerto Rican Student Conference
26 universities: Harvard, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Syracuse, and more have banded together with a sense of urgency to address the realities and difficulties facing Puerto Rican youth.
Broadly, this conference is about our future. DB created this Northeastern alliance
because we felt the need to address the political and cultural position our community is in within current (white) America
and within the broader Latino community. We live in a moment where hatred for Latinos runs rampant, where we face a more
authoritarian and bigoted government. Yet, we seem to succeed in these difficulties while other Latino brethren suffer.
And not spoken enough: we also get swept under this hatred.
In this resistance, who is within "our community"?
As Bad Bunny points out in his music, awakening many people, the diaspora has been an essential part of our history and culture.
We need to bridge the gap between diaspora and island.
The diaspora today is not in the same barrio conditions of its origins or of the 70s. Many of us born in the diaspora are now many generations in,
may be of mixed heritage, and live in various economic conditions with various entries for success and opportunity.
This is especially true for those of us in higher education.
For those of us in higher education, even those who come from "low class" backgrounds, who have opportunities rare
for the broader community to have, what responsibilities do we have to contribute back?
And lastly: the youth, especially in higher education, lean toward moving away from Puerto Rico's current colonial status.
That discussion has been opened thanks to the work of Bad Bunny.
But the immediate response (appropriately so) is "what do you do afterwards?" because Puerto Rico does not have its own stable infrastructure.
Many of us want to address environmental justice and sustainability: food sovereignty, energy independence, land use, and displacement.
This conference will be the catalyst for coalition building, academic exchange, and long-term collaboration across campuses.
Through dialogue and action - panel discussions, speakers, workshops, and networking - we engage directly with issues that impact the island and the broader Puerto Rican community.
🏝️ Service Trip to Puerto Rico
PLANNING
Partnering with local schools and organizations on the island. Mentorship. Educational outreach. Service projects supporting cultural preservation and environmental sustainability. Building bridges between diaspora and island.
📚 Academic Partnerships
ACTIVE
Yale's Center for Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM) has reached out to co-sponsor an event featuring Dr. Emma Amador discussing her book on Puerto Rican women organizing for social justice. The Peabody Museum and NISA Yale are collaborating with us on a Taíno Heritage event.
These tracks are extending. And they're carrying all of us forward.
Everything you've read about in this newsletter—the conference, the block party, the service trip, the weekly cafecitos that keep our community together—none of it happens without resources.
We launched our Yale SOAR campaign to fund our most ambitious semester yet. We need your help to reach our goal.
Our goal this semester: $3,000+ to fund permits, travel, and programming.
Your support funds:
The Conference — bringing students from 26 universities together to address the realities facing Puerto Rican youth, build coalitions, and organize for action.
Calle Corona — live performers, local vendors, permits, and everything needed to bring San Sebastián to the streets of New Haven.
Weekly Cafecitos — coffee, pastries, and the space to build community every Friday.
The Service Trip — travel, materials, and partnerships with organizations on the island to build bridges between diaspora and home.
💛 WHAT DONORS RECEIVE 💛
- Recognition on our website (if desired): your name woven into what we're building
- Early access to future DB merchandise before public release
- The knowledge that you're part of a movement that will outlast all of us
You're not donating to an organization.
You're investing in a generation.
💛 DONATE NOW
Can't donate right now? Sharing the campaign matters just as much.
Copy this link and send it to one person who might care:
givecampus.com/schools/YaleUniversity/yalesoar/pages/despierta-boricua
Post it. Text it. Forward this newsletter. Reach matters.
Here's what's coming. Mark your calendars. Show up. Bring someone.
THIS SUNDAY: FEBRUARY 8
🐰 BENITO BOWL 🐰
Super Bowl Watch Party
📍 Marsh Hall, Yale Science Hill
⏰ 6:00 PM | 👥 400+ expected attendees
Bad Bunny will be the first artist to intentionally represent Puerto Rico at the Super Bowl halftime show—projected to be the largest Super Bowl audience in history. We are watching together. But this is more than a watch party.
This is a platform.
The Program:
📢 A 5-minute speech — representing the Latino community and our concerns about ICE, the current administration, and what it means to be Latino in America right now. This message has been reviewed by the community. We speak not just for ourselves.
🎬 A 5-minute video — showcasing who Despierta Boricua is, what we've done for the community in and out of Yale, promoting Calle Corona, and addressing the issues facing Puerto Rico and what we plan to do about them.
What we're providing: Food from local Puerto Rican restaurants (Sabor Nuestra, Cayeyena, El Coqui, Via Lactea). 100 free disposable cameras. A photo booth. Polaroids. Sancocho Frog plushies as giveaways.
This is one of the few chances we get to make a message to this many people.
Be there.
ROUTE: ST. ANTHONY HALL
💃 Divas of the Dancefloor
Friday, February 13 | 10:00pm
A night dedicated to genres pioneered by those at the intersection of being POC and queerness/womanhood: techno, house music, freestyle. 70s/80s retro dancefloor vibes. A talented Latina student DJ. A ballroom. A bar.
These genres were created so marginalized communities could express themselves freely, to find romance and safety in their own spaces. That's why we're doing this the night before Valentine's Day.
ROUTE: LA CASA CULTURAL
📜 Julia de Burgos Birthday
Monday, February 16
La Casa's namesake, Julia de Burgos, was an Afro Boricua poet born February 17. We're collaborating with La Casa, the Afro-American Cultural Center, YC³, DSA, Latina Women at Yale, Oye! Spoken Word, WORD, and Yale Black Women's Coalition.
Featured: Diannely Antigua (poet) doing a reading, talkback, Q&A, and poetry workshop. Possibly a bomba performance.
ROUTE: PEABODY MUSEUM
🏺 Taíno Heritage Event
Late February – Early March
In honor of our Taíno heritage, and following the opening of the Peabody's Taíno exhibit last December, we're collaborating with the Peabody Museum and NISA Yale for a special event.
The format: A guided exploration of the exhibit with the curators themselves, followed by an informal table discussion at the Peabody to learn from each other about Caribbean indigeneity.
Questions we'll explore: What choices shaped the exhibit? What narratives felt important to highlight? What does it mean to present indigenous identity? How do we connect personally and as a community to Taíno identity today? How do exhibits shape how people understand survival, erasure, and revival?
ROUTE: APRIL — DETAILS TBA
📚 Emma Amador x RITM
April 2026
Dr. Emma Amador (UConn History) presents her new book The Politics of Care Work: Puerto Rican Women Organizing for Social Justice. Co-sponsored by Yale's Center for Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM).
Details forthcoming as we finalize with RITM.
🎉 CALLE CORONA — APRIL 24 🎉
SanSe llegó al Norte
High Street & Crown Street, New Haven. Full details above.
🐰 Benito Bowl — Super Bowl Watch PartySUN 02/08
💃 Divas of the DancefloorFRI 02/13
📜 Julia de Burgos Birthday CelebrationMON 02/16
🏺 Taíno Heritage Event (Peabody x NISA)LATE FEB
📚 Emma Amador x RITM Book EventAPRIL
🎉 CALLE CORONA — SanSe in New HavenFRI 04/24
🏛️ Estamos Aquí Conference (Planning)FALL 2026
Money isn't the only way to support the movement. Here's how else you can help:
📤 Share the SOAR Campaign
HIGH IMPACT
Post it. Text it to one person who might care. Forward this newsletter. Reach matters.
📸 Share Your Memories
ARCHIVE
Photos, stories, flyers, merchandise from any era. Our archival project is ongoing. Your history is our history.
🤝 Connect Us
NETWORK
Know someone who should speak at the conference? A vendor for Calle Corona? A contact on the island? Introduce us.
📣 Spread the Word
VISIBILITY
Tell people about DB. About the conference. About Calle Corona. The more people know, the bigger this gets.