Latinos in Time 2021 magazine’s list of the 100 most influential

(CNN Español) – Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny and El Salvador president Nayib Bukele were some of the Latinos selected in Time magazine’s 2021 annual list of the 100 most influential.

In the list of the 100 most influential of Time this year also appear the Cuban artist Luis Manuel Knoll Alcántara; Honduran LGBTQ + rights activists Indyra Mendoza and Claudia Spellmant; Mexican women’s rights activist Olimpia Coral Melo Cruz; the Brazilian businesswoman Luiza Trajà; and the president of the Constitutional Convention of Chile, Elisa Loncon Antileo.

The list is divided into six categories: icons, pioneers, titans, artists, leaders and innovators.

Bad Bunny

Rapper Bad Bunny, one of the most important Latin artists in urban music, was described as “a phenomenon” when it comes to music, “but it didn’t happen overnight,” according to the profile he wrote in Colombian reggaeton player JBalvin.

“He’s an advocate of free speech: if you want to wear a mini t-shirt, just see and do it. If you want to use lipstick, do it. Do whatever you want to do. That freedom connects a lot with people. “Balvin wrote in the Bad Bunny profile.

Balvin – who has recorded several collaborations with him – describes him as a “true artist” who has taken “Latin culture to another level”.

“I tell you, Benito,” Balvin tells Bad Bunny, referring to the Puerto Rican’s real name. “You are one of the greatest artists in the history of Latin music.”

Here’s a look

Salvadoran journalist Daniel Lizárraga, former editor of the local media El Faro, describes Nayib Bukele as a president who “has not tolerated criticism or opposition,” and who leads a government whose words “are unquestionable.” Lizárraga cites an investigation published by this media in which the negotiations between Bukele and the gangs of El Salvador were exposed, something that Buekele rejected and called “lie” through a tweet.

For Bukele, “the words of government are unquestionable, and whoever says otherwise is first burned on social media and then, if he continues on his way, attended to by the authorities,” the journalist wrote about the president of El Salvador in Time.

In October 2020, the Inter-American Press Society (IAPA) warned about the risk to democracy and freedom of the press in El Salvador during the administration of President Nayib Bukele, who took office on June 1, 2019. The report highlights the difficulty in obtaining official information, a problem that was exacerbated during the pandemic, according to Altamirano.

Bukele spoke to reporters: “These people are untouchable. They cannot be criticized or questioned, they have not been elected by anyone, but they have powers. They can criticize, attack, accuse, slander, and receive a salary ( among others) to do so. They want freedom of speech to be just for them, “he wrote on his Twitter account last year.

Bukele has not commented on the Time magazine report.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara

Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was one of the highlights in the icon category of the 2021. List Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who writes his profile, highlights “his non-ignorant struggle for freedom of expression and his uncompromising stance against autocracy. “

“Otero Alcántara is a symbol and a leader within the San Isidro movement in Cuba, an influential group of artists and intellectuals who demanded more freedoms as anti-government protests spread across the country this summer,” he wrote.

Otero Alcántara is a member of the San Isidro Movement, a group of artists, journalists and activists who defend freedom of expression in Cuba. He was arrested by Cuban authorities in May 2021 while on hunger strike “to protest the confiscation of works of art at home around April 22,” Amnesty International reported. AI called him a “prisoner of conscience” and demanded his immediate release.

The state newspaper Granma reported that on May 2 Otero Alcántara arrived at the hospital for “referred voluntary starvation” without signs of malnutrition and was discharged on May 31. Granma gave no further details of his arrest.

Indyra Mendoza and Claudia Spellmant

Time magazine highlighted the work of Honduran activists for the rights of the LGBTI + community, Indyra Mendoza and Claudia Spellmant, who have worked for years demanding justice for Vicky Hernández, a transgender woman who was murdered in 2009 and returned a symbol of the “structural violence that trans women” face in the country.

In the profile of the two in Time, written by Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, highlights the struggle of Mendoza and Spellmant for the protection of the rights of LGBTI + people, which has even reached at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: “Indyra and Claudia understand well that their battle is not over and they are committed to continuing to push for the rights of their communities. The world must follow their example.”

In January 2010, the IACHR asked Honduras to take the necessary measures to ensure the life and integrity of Indyra Mendoza Aguilar, and other women who reported threats to their lives.

Olimpia Coral Melo Creu

Olimpia Coral Melo Cruz is best known in Mexico for being the driving force behind the “Olimpia Law”, which provides between four and six years in prison for those who divulge by any means intimate photos, videos or audios of third parties without their consent or through deceptions.

The activist, originally from Puebla and who got the Olympic Law passed in 13 states, is another of Time’s most influential Latins this year.

“Melo Creu and I are soul mates,” wrote Amanda Nguyen, executive president and founder of Rise, a civil rights organization that fights for the rights of survivors of sexual violence.

“It can be difficult to be a survivor, to talk about something so personal, but the impact of Melo Cruz will not only be significant at this time, it will be remembered in history, and history is on his side,” Nguyen added in Time .

Luiza Trajano

Brazilian businesswoman Luiza Trajan is listed as one of the “Titans” in Time magazine this year.

Trajan, the richest woman in Brazil, made her fortune with her eponymous magazine Magazine Luiza (or Magalu, as she is known), Brazil’s extensive department store chain with more than 40,000 employees.

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who wrote the commentary for Time, highlights Trejano for promoting employment amid the economic downturn caused by the pandemic in Brazil.

“At a time when the Brazilian federal government was minimizing the risk of the pandemic, Luiza spoke boldly about the urgency of vaccination. She has also been a strong advocate for equality, creating Mulheres do Brasil, a non-partisan group of more than 95,000 women working to build a better society and support victims of domestic violence, ”Lula wrote.

“In a world where billionaires spend their fortunes on space adventures and yachts, Luiza is engaged in a different kind of odyssey. She has taken on the challenge of building a commercial giant while building a better Brazil,” the former president added. Brazil and Time.

Elisa Loncon Antileo

The president of the Constitutional Convention of Chile, Elisa Loncon Antileo, of the Mapuche community of Chile, is another of the Latins in the list of the 100 of Time.

Loncon Antileo, who assumed the presidency of the Constitutional Convention of Chile, which will rewrite the Chilean constitution of the time of the dictatorship, represents the struggle and social uprising of two years in Chile, and a historical fact: “For the first time in history, indigenous peoples are participating in the life of the state as representatives of their home nations, and President Elisa represents centuries of their dreams and struggles, “wrote Verónica Figueroa Huencho, of the Institute of ‘Public Affairs of the University of Chile.

“As an activist, the teaching of the Mapuche language became his great crusade, internationally recognized,” added Figueroa Huencho, who added that with the arrival of Loncon Antileo to the Constituent Assembly, “the beautiful skin brunette of mestizos and indigenous peoples “who has remained out of the corridors of power, is now part of these institutions.

“In her light, indigenous girls and boys can see the possibility of a better future,” she said about the president of the Chilean Constitutional Convention.