Bianca Graulau Is Sharing the Struggles and Joys of Puerto Rico
In May 2022, Bianca Graulau got a call from a number she didn’t recognize. It was a producer working with one of the world’s biggest music stars: Bad Bunny. Graulau, a freelance journalist, had been gaining recognition through her hard-hitting, well-reported TikToks on issues plaguing Puerto Rico, but she had no idea the reggaeton phenom was a fan. “I thought it was a prank at first,” says Graulau. “Part of me is thinking, is this even real? And then the other part is thinking, this is amazing, but are you sure? I’m a journalist. But he starts telling me how Bad Bunny likes my work and he wants to offer me his platform.”
The producer told her they wanted her to make a documentary that would be part of the music video for the newly released “El Apagón” (“The Power Outage”), a track that’s part love letter to Bad Bunny’s home (“Puerto Rico’s fucking great, hey, it’s fucking great,” goes the chorus) and part indictment of the influx of foreign residents forcing many Puerto Ricans from their homes (“I don’t want to leave here / let them go, let them go … This is my beach, this is my sun / This is my land, this is me,” he raps in Spanish). “I got the call the day after the song came out, so I hadn’t even heard it yet,” Graulau says. The producer told her to listen to it, confident she would understand why they had tapped her for the project.
Bad Bunny waves a Puerto Rican flag as he takes part of a demonstration in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 17, 2019.
For the next two or so months, she and about two dozen freelancers worked to create, “Aqui Vive Gente” (“People Live Here”), a 22-minute wide-ranging documentary, funded by Bad Bunny’s record label, on displacement, gentrification, and a host of issues including privatization of beaches. The documentary begins about two-minutes into the video for “El Apagón,” after a scene showing a blackout on the island
When it was released online, Graulau was sitting in her car in a parking lot. Her phone started blowing up immediately; she took a moment to take it all in, and then went home to pack her things to evacuate. Hurricane Fiona, which dumped as much as three-feet of rain on the island and left nearly a million households without power, was approaching—a timely reminder of the issues fueling her work.
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The whole experience was “surreal,” says Graulau, who studied journalism at the Syracuse University and worked for broadcast stations in Palm Springs, Sacramento, Tampa, and Miami before quitting her job and returning home to Puerto Rico to strike out on her own. “TikTok is the reason I believed I could make it as an independent journalist,” she says of her virality on the platform. “It’s amazing to me that I could start with zero followers, do stories about things that I am passionate about, and find an audience. I was told over and over that these stories don’t really appeal. Then, I ventured out on my own and I’m able to find people who care.” Still, the success of the video, which has received more than 12 million views on YouTube, didn’t change her bottom line. “I am very grateful that more people all over the world have learned about the issues going on in Puerto Rico,” she says. “And I wish I could tell you that everything has been rosy ever since, but the reality is that for the very next video, we struggled to get funding. So I went back to the hustle.”
Bianca Graulau works with a team of freelancers to produce hard-hitting, well-reported YouTube videos.
Graulau is now working on a full slate of content for the year ahead, including a series that she says “will compare Puerto Rico’s situation with other countries in Latin American that have suffered under American imperialism and colonialism.” She’s now regularly recognized around Puerto Rico by locals who thank her for her stories. “To see and hear people be so grateful for what I do really warms my heart and fuels me to keep doing it,” Graulau says. “I hope that I can capture a sliver of what it means to be Puerto Rican in this moment in time. The struggles, the beauty, the hope, and the amazing Puerto Rican spirit.”
On what she wishes Americans understood about Puerto Rico
“That Puerto Rico is not a place full of helpless people waiting for the US to come save them. The issues that we face today in Puerto Rico are in great part a result of many years of colonization. The US has a responsibility with Puerto Rico. It’s not a matter of charity to be given to Puerto Rico; it’s a matter of them responding to a place that they have, in fact, benefited from the moment that they occupied it more than 120 years ago.
What I want people to understand is that it’s a matter of justice, and that when we raise our voices about this stuff, people are not asking for a handout. People are not asking to be given stuff for free. They’re asking for the obstacles to be removed so that Puerto Ricans can have the life they deserve. The people here are already doing the work, but they’re doing it against all odds because they suffer the consequences of colonization every single day.”
A man and two children walk in a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico on Sept. 19, 2022.
On what she wants for the future of Puerto Rico
“It would be that the Puerto Rican people have sovereignty because there are so many things that happen in Puerto Rico that Puerto Ricans have no say over. Puerto Ricans don’t vote for the president who ultimately has a say on what happens in Puerto Rico. They don’t vote for anyone who can actively represent them in Congress. When it comes to financial decisions, there’s an unelected board that makes Puerto Rico’s financial decisions. There’s so many areas in which Puerto Ricans don’t have a say. It’s crazy to me that in the year 2023, colonialism is alive and well. We don’t talk about it enough. That’s part of the reason I do the work I do.”
Graulau filming one of her videos.
On her goals
“My main desire with journalism has always been to inform people so that they can make the best decisions for their lives. If I’m lucky, that will lead to change that will improve people’s lives. That is the dream. But I also have to be realistic, and at the end of the day, I am doing stories on social media. So while I would love to be part of the greater efforts in Puerto Rico that lead to people having a better life, at the most basic level, what I hope is through storytelling, to communicate what’s happening in the communities in Puerto Rico right now.”
Two women look at a mobile phone in San Juan, Puerto Rico after a major power outage hit the island on April 6, 2022.
On what she wishes she knew starting out in media
“I wish I knew that I didn’t have to spend so much time trying to impress bosses for them to hire me and decide my future in news. If I had known when I started as a reporter that there was a chance that I could talk to the audience directly and bypass the gatekeepers, I would’ve worried about that more—about my content more—and less about what I thought the industry wanted me to look like, sound like, be like. I spent so much time trying to have the look and the correct accent and the correct tone of voice that would help me assimilate to what the industry liked. That took away from my energy and mind space to worry about what was really important, which was my storytelling.”
On her advice to younger generations of journalists
“There were so many restrictions when I was working for traditional media, and that’s why I left. I wasn’t able to tell the stories I wanted in the way I wanted to tell them. So I think the fact that my work has been so far reaching is because I had that freedom to tell those stories in the way that I knew was most effective. That happens a lot, especially with journalists of color—sometimes management just won’t listen to us about the way that we should communicate about our own communities. So I hope that I can inspire young storytellers who might be questioning what they will do with their journalism degree now that things are changing. I want them to know that they can go out there and carve a path for themselves—that they can use social media to communicate with the audience directly and they don’t have to depend on the gatekeepers who decide whether they get hired or not.”
A version of this story appears in the April 2023 issue of ELLE.
Deputy Editor
Kayla Webley Adler is the Deputy Editor of ELLE magazine. She edits cover stories, profiles, and narrative features on politics, culture, crime, and social trends. Previously, she worked as the Features Director at Marie Claire magazine and as a Staff Writer at TIME magazine.
