Remezcla Meets is a video and editorial series that takes audiences inside the studios of groundbreaking creators, documenting their craft and exploring how their upbringing and Latine heritage shape their work. Through intimate conversations and immersive visuals, this series highlights the voices pushing the boundaries of film, art, culture, and identity.
Sometimes you see someone become popular for the right reasons. That’s what happened with BXLYFE, who became a viral sensation after Bad Bunny was seen on stage with BXLYFE’s Resistance Flag of Puerto Rico during the opening weekend of the singer’s “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí” residence in his native island.
But who is BXLYFE? What kind of art does he do? And how did that flag even get there in the first place? Remezcla talked to the artist about that moment, his creative vision, and creating art grounded in being Nuyorican for our latest Remezcla Meets interview.
Giovanni Cardenales, aka BXLYFE, is a Bronx-born Puerto Rican photographer who combines lifestyle imagery with surreal, narrative-driven storytelling. And he’s been telling his kind of stories with big brands, doing collaborations with New Balance, Adidas, and The North Face, as well as renowned artists including Wiz Khalifa, JID, and Teyana Taylor. But the story of that particular flag, which made him a household name, is actually pretty simple.
“The story with the flag and Bad Bunny having it on stage was kind of crazy. The original idea I had for that, I was just going to give out like 50 flags to all the fans going to the concert. And I was like, yo, this is my guerrilla marketing tactic of how to get that out there. Kind of like, this is my offering to the island. This is very true to me. And I wanted to give back in a sense.”
But for BXLYFE, it was about more than that; it was about how well “Bad Bunny embodies Puerto Rico.” Which is why it’s nice that the moment came together so organically. “I gave out like 50 flags. Everyone was loving the flag, from the old heads to the younger generation. Everyone really loved seeing the flag in its own rendition and also hearing the story behind it. So randomly, my father ended up being out there too. And he was going to the show on the second or third day. I gave him a flag as well. And when he went to the show, he actually threw the flag onto the stage, and Bad Bunny picked it up and started singing with it for a little bit.”
You can always count on your parents to hype you up. But for BXLYFE, it’s all about taking that chance. “A lot of people are confused about how all the things in my life happened. I would say you just kind of have to shoot your shot. Whether it’s not you doing it, your friends, your family, someone’s always going to be there and stick up for you or spread your message. And something like this is so powerful that, once someone sees it, they automatically are glued to it.”
And yes, this is about a flag. But it’s also about a lot more. “This is much deeper than just a flag. It’s a tribute to our fight. It’s a tribute to our power and our legacy as Puerto Ricans. And I just want to keep that going.”
The aforementioned flag is a reinterpretation of the Puerto Rican flag, which layers traditional and resistance flag elements with paint, texture, and fire, creating a tribute to the island’s enduring fight for sovereignty. And BXLYFE seems convinced it was fate that made him create it.
“It was one of those ideas that just came to me, like whether in a dream or just through life. Something just told me I need to do this. Really, my ancestors,” he told us. “I got two renditions of the flag, obviously the black and white, the original resistance. And then I got the dark blue.”
The rest is just the mind of an artist. “I basically painted it, added a lot of paint splatter, and just really combined the flags together to make the new rendition of the resistance flag. From that, it also transitioned to doing my own rendition of when the Young Lords took over the Statue of Liberty.” And doing a lot more art, with Puerto Rico at the center.
Being Puerto Rican is a big part of BXLYFE’s life. “Being Puerto Rican definitely inspired my whole life from the jump. When I was in elementary school, you know how they ask everyone where are you from, what’s your name? They asked me, and I was like, I’m Gio, I’m Giovanni. I’m Nuyorican. And the teacher looks at me like, What’s that? I’m like, I’m Nuyorican, what do you mean? She’s like, “That’s not a thing.”
According to BXLYFE, he took the question to a higher authority: his mom. “She just started laughing once I told her that. And she’s like, it’s a thing, but it’s like New York and Puerto Rican.” And that was it. “That just shaped my life from the beginning, understanding a balance of both. Being Puerto Rican and being a New Yorker is two different, like, polar opposites, but it’s kind of the same scale, and it kind of balances each other out.”
Ironically, for BXLYFE, that balance didn’t start out with art, but with something Latine people everywhere also love: baseball.
“I was never always into art. I did appreciate art, I appreciated movies, and I appreciated cars. But my main passion before all this was baseball. So that was my main vehicle to travel.” But as with many kids, things changed. “When I was in high school, I felt like that’s when the transition started to kick in. I started being able to experience more art, whether that’s going to galleries in my school or just doing it by myself. Instagram, obviously, was another thing that was very heavy and prevalent. And Tumblr and Twitter. So, I was able to see a whole bunch of different avenues.”
But not just that, BXLYFE was also inspired by seeing “how their creative passion allows a lane for people. Whether that’s doing photography, music, whatever it is. People able to express their passion and make something of it.” And perhaps, that’s what took him here, to a point where he feels like he is “able to inspire people that never really saw art before,” just like he was one day inspired.
Whether that looks like a Resistance Flag of Puerto Rico at Bad Bunny’s concert or something else, that’s the beautiful thing about art. We can all get inspired in different ways.
