"At the mercy of the systems that determine which corridors open and when, and who gets routed where, an overwhelmed customer service agent suggested I charter a boat to nearby St Maarten, fly to Amsterdam, and then stitch together a series of flights to avoid the affected airspace. I understood the Caribbean, then, less as a string of proximate islands and, instead, as a set of routes connected by powers elsewhere."
"Power doesn't just regulate airspace, it also governs cultural transmission who gets broadcast, who gets heard, and on what terms. That's why the handwringing over the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, and the characterization of his almost exclusive use of Spanish in his music as an intrusion, feel so disingenuous. The drama isn't about understanding the lyrics."
After a U.S. military action closed parts of eastern Caribbean airspace, travel corridors became subject to external controls that extended a stay in St Kitts and forced improvisational rerouting. Those logistical constraints revealed the Caribbean as a network of routes governed by distant powers rather than simply neighboring islands. Authority over airspace shapes cultural transmission by determining who gets broadcast and heard. The backlash to Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl reflects anxiety about Spanish-language visibility and a perception of his music as un-American. Reactions range from exclusionary counterprogramming to personal efforts at engagement, such as families learning Spanish phrases.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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