Why do you think Puerto Rico has proven fertile ground for Planeta?
The island is home to a rich literary community. For a long time, San Juan had the biggest and best Spanish bookstore in the U.S., a Borders. Now you have Libros 787, an online store specializing in books on Puerto Rico and by Hispanic and Latino authors. The owner is very active and has found his niche, which goes to show you that there is an audience for these books. As a publisher, one of the challenges I’ve had in developing our U.S. list is finding Latino authors who write in Spanish, and one of the few places I’m finding them is Puerto Rico. We publish Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón, who is part of a renaissance of Puerto Rican narrative, and will soon publish new books by Cezanne Cardona and Luis Rafael Sánchez, two of the most acclaimed writers from the island.
How did megastar rapper Bad Bunny end up hyping one of your books?
In 2023, we entered a joint venture with Princeton University Press to share titles, and the first was the Spanish edition of Jorell Meléndez-Badillo’s Puerto Rico: Historia de una nación. Last year, Meléndez-Badillo was contacted by Bad Bunny, who was about to release his latest record, Debí Tirar Más Fotos [I Should Have Taken More Photos]. Bad Bunny had read the book in Spanish and asked Jorell to write visualizers for his YouTube videos to accompany each song. He wanted them to educate young Puerto Ricans about their history—in Spanish. The album came out in January. So far, the visualizers have 800 million views!
