Puerto Rican feminist icon and beloved singer-songwriter iLe offers a pointed plan for a current people’s revolution with “donde nadie más Respira,” strategically released days ahead of elections on the island and in the United States.
The story iLe tells here is as historical as it is an eternal sueño: a corrupt governing power is removed by the people it wronged for so long.
That’s exactly what happened in the summer of 2019 in Puerto Rico. The people so relentlessly pressured and protested then-governor Ricardo Rosselló, who was caught in a leaked chat scandal and suspected of corruption by many, until he finally resigned.
That win remains an extraordinary show of people power, a peak in Puerto Rico’s long history of pro-pueblo movements that continue today.
“With this song, I hope to encourage people to get involved and take action to confront those in power and face the issues so that we can make real progress,” iLe says in a press release. “It’s time to overthrow these twisted systems.”
Visually, iLe makes another case for her acting prowess. (Remeber “Temes?” Wow.) The narrative is conveyed simply, yet powerfully: running scared from the start, iLe eventually ascends; her sneakers rising above sand as a golden glow envelops her body. Alongside the lyrical usurping of power, our final view is iLe running directly–angry and steadfast–at the camera.
The people’s revolution in the U.S., like in Puerto Rico, is not the first, nor the last. The island remains bogged down by colonialism and a public debt that many argue was illegally accrued. Corruption, nepotism, fraud, and greed run rampant in Puerto Rico’s government—as well as in the so-called democracy of the U.S.
Both places, both peoples, have climbed with much effort atop a crest. If they fight there long enough, history could flow right into iLe’s storyline of struggle-to-success: the people, in the end, ultimately bring the exploitative powers that be to their knees.