Calle 13 and Ana Tijoux’s Joyous Rebellion: Modeling Transnational Protest through Lyric and Song

Abstract

In 2014—in the wake of a global eruption of protests including YoSoy132, 15M, the Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street—the Chilean rapera Ana Tijoux and the Puerto Rican rap duo Calle 13 both released songs notable for calling their listeners to political activism. In this article, I argue that the songs “Somos Sur” and “Multi_Viral” disseminate a critique of that wave of social movements by insisting upon greater transnational cooperation between activist groups to collectively confront social and economic oppression born out of Western hegemony.