Colón’s music combined jazz, rock and salsa, incorporating rhythms from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Africa
Willie Colón, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer, died on Saturday aged 75, his family has said.
With more than 30m albums sold, multiple platinum records and 11 combined Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations, Colón is among the most successful salsa artists of all time.
Continue reading...Puerto Rican rapper says he and his team were ‘very concerned’ that Ice agents might target his performances
Bad Bunny says he excluded the US from his forthcoming world tour due to fears that, as a prominent Latino musician, his fans would be subjected to immigration raids.
In an interview with i-D magazine on Wednesday, the three-time Grammy-winning musician was asked whether he was skipping the US “out of concern about the [mass deportations of] Latinos”.
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Continue reading...Move comes after accusing Venezuela of buzzing US warship and a deadly US missile strike in Caribbean Sea
Donald Trump is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to bolster US military operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean region, it was reported on Friday.
If follows a deadly US missile strike on Tuesday on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration insisted was carrying 11 Venezuelan drug traffickers, and comments by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Wednesday that such attacks “will happen again”.
Continue reading...Most of more than 147,000 customers affected reconnected by Monday as category 4 storm not forecast to make landfall
Hurricane Erin’s outer bands pelted the US territory of Puerto Rico with heavy rains and tropical-storm winds during the day on Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers, according to officials.
At one point, more than 147,000 utility customers were without power in Puerto Rico, according to Luma Energy, a private company that oversees the transmission and distribution of power on the island. By 5.30am on Monday, 96.3% of customers had electric service, with most who were affected by outages being concentrated in the Caguas, Mayagüez and San Juan regions, Luma said on X.
Guardian staff contributed reporting
Continue reading...First Atlantic hurricane of 2025 diminishes but tropical storm warnings issued for Turks and Caicos
Hurricane Erin was downgraded to a category 3 hurricane early Sunday as its outer bands continued to lash the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with heavy rains and tropical-storm force winds.
While Erin’s maximum winds diminished, the storm’s overall size grew and forecasters issued tropical storm warnings for the Turks and Caicos Islands and a watch for the south-east Bahamas.
Continue reading...More than 150 million people and 318m acres of crops are affected by droughts after summer of record heat
Every US state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought, an unprecedented number, according to the US Drought Monitor.
A little more than 45% of the US and Puerto Rico is in drought this week, according to the tracker. About 54% of land in the 48 contiguous US states is affected by droughts.
Continue reading...Ex-president’s comments come after comedian at one of Trump’s recent rallies called Puerto Rico ‘island of garbage’
Donald Trump praised Puerto Ricans on Tuesday during a Pennsylvania rally, days after a comedian made a racist joke and referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at one of his rallies.
“Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” the former president said a little over an hour into a rally in Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley, which has a sizable Latino population.
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Continue reading...Tony Hinchcliffe’s series of racist jokes at Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday were widely condemned
Some Americans, particularly those of Puerto Rican descent, said that the racist remarks aired at Donald Trump’s Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden in New York helped them decide who to vote for.
The speaker and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe took aim at Puerto Rico, in a series of racist jokes including one in which he called it “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean”.
Continue reading...Angel M Cintrón, party’s chair on island, says he will not vote for Trump unless he says sorry for speaker’s comments
The president of the Republican party’s branch in Puerto Rico has said he will not vote for Donald Trump unless he apologises for racist remarks made at his rally referring to the US island territory as a “floating island of garbage”.
Outrage even among fellow Republicans is continuing to mount after the racist insult at the Republican nominee’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, with the podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe coming under fire for his inflammatory comments made about Puerto Rico in the opening speech.
Continue reading...Congressional Hispanic caucus hits out at ‘shameful’ rhetoric; vice-president releases ad condemning Trump and comedian’s remarks
Here’s our story of the resignation of Washington Post columnist Michele Norris, the latest high profile writer to leave the newspaper in protest at its decision not to endorse a candidate in next week’s presidential election.
Norris says the Post’s non-call was a “terrible mistake & an insult to the paper’s own longstanding standard of regularly endorsing candidates since 1976”.
Continue reading...Artist shares video with over 45 million Instagram followers as Harris and Trump work to gain ground with Latino voters
The international reggaeton star Bad Bunny is throwing his support behind Kamala Harris in the US presidential race, sharing a video of the Democratic presidential nominee to his more than 45 million followers on Instagram.
Bad Bunny, whose official name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is one of the most famous artists of the moment. His support could be a boost for the Harris campaign as it tries to bolster its support with Latino and Puerto Rican voters.
Continue reading...Former administration officials say Trump deliberately denied funds to states he deemed politically hostile
Donald Trump deliberately withheld disaster aid to states he deemed politically hostile to him as US president and will do so again unimpeded if he returns to the White House, several former Trump administration officials have warned.
As Hurricane Helene and then Hurricane Milton have ravaged much of the south-eastern US in the past two weeks, Trump has sought to pin blame upon Joe Biden’s administration for a ponderous response to the disasters, even suggesting that this was deliberate due to the number of Republican voters affected by the storms.
Continue reading...Atlantic island territory, which has seen fewer than a dozen hurricanes since 1850, braces for dangerous storm surge
Hurricane Ernesto bore down on Bermuda on Friday as a category 2 storm, threatening the British island territory with strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and potentially deadly flooding.
Ernesto, centered about 95 miles (150km) south-southwest of the archipelago at 8pm Atlantic Standard Time (0000 GMT on Saturday), was producing sustained winds of up to 100mph (155km/h) and had the potential to drop up to 9in (230mm) of rain, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Continue reading...Storm left hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans without power and water in sweltering heat
Hurricane Ernesto barreled toward Bermuda on Thursday after leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico without power or water as sweltering heat enveloped the US territory, raising concerns about people’s health.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Bermuda, with Ernesto expected to pass near or over the island on Saturday.
Continue reading...Storm moving over open waters towards Bermuda, bringing torrential rain and winds of 75mph
Storm Ernesto has strengthened into a hurricane as it dropped torrential rain on Puerto Rico and left nearly half of all clients in the US territory without power.
The storm was located about 175 miles (280km) north-west of San Juan, Puerto Rico and was moving over open waters towards Bermuda. It had maximum sustained winds of 75mph (120km/h) and was moving north-west at 16mph.
Continue reading...US territory shutters schools and opens shelters as storm is forecast to also near Virgin Islands and become hurricane
Tropical Storm Ernesto battered the north-east Caribbean on Tuesday as it took aim at Puerto Rico, where officials shuttered schools, opened shelters and helped move dozens of the US territory’s endangered parrots into hurricane-proof rooms.
Ernesto is expected to become a hurricane early on Wednesday, prompting forecasters to issue a hurricane watch for the US and British Virgin Islands as well as the tiny Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra.
Continue reading...Activists say plan to remove 200 felines near Old San Juan fortress within six months is not enough time and worry cats will be killed
A non-profit organization said Thursday that it sued the US National Park Service over a plan to remove Puerto Rico’s famous stray cats from a historic district in the US territory.
The lawsuit filed by Maryland-based Alley Cat Allies comes four months after the federal agency announced it would contract an animal welfare organization to remove an estimated 200 cats that live in an area surrounding a historic seaside fortress in Old San Juan.
Continue reading...The artist once known as Jenny from the block is spearheading an animated feature about a Latino construction worker voiced by Anthony Ramos
Move over Barbie: the latest Mattel property set for cultural domination has been unveiled as Bob the Builder, the chirpy construction worker who debuted 25 years ago on CBBC and is being belatedly brought to the big screen by booty-shaking multi-hyphenate Jennifer Lopez.
In something of a spin on the original series, the film’s plot will see Roberto (AKA Bob) travel to Puerto Rico for a major construction job, where he “takes on issues affecting the island and digs deeper into what it means to build”.
Continue reading...Retirement brings to an end one of the most successful and influential careers in Latin American pop
Daddy Yankee, the Puerto Rican star who helped make reggaeton a global phenomenon, has said he will focus on his Christian faith following his previously announced retirement from music.
The 46-year-old vocalist, real name Ramón Rodríguez, told the crowd of his plans at his final concert, held at Puerto Rico’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. “I am not ashamed to tell the whole world that Jesus lives in me and that I will live for him,” he said in Spanish, in remarks translated by Variety. “For many years I’ve tried filling a hole in my life that no one could fill. I tried finding a purpose, on many occasions, it seemed as if I was happy but something was missing for me to feel complete.”
Continue reading...Storm not forecast to make landfall but is expected to strengthen again on Sunday and Monday and turn north
Large swells battered the north-east Caribbean on Saturday as Hurricane Lee churned nearby through open waters as a category 3 storm.
The storm, which is not forecast to make landfall, was located about 350 miles (565km) east and north-east of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 115mph (185kph) and was moving west and north-west at 12mph (19kph).
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