Council Member Louis presents Resolution 625 on Reggaeton Heritage Month

Now let me invite Councilmember Lewis to speak about her resolution.

Thank you, Deputy Speaker and Chair Williams, for your leadership and for championing this resolution through the committee.

Today, I am proud and generally excited to bring forward Resolution 625, designating October as Reggaeton Heritage Month in New York City.

And I want to tell you why this one is personal to me and some advocates that we have here in the room today.

Gregorio Mayers, founder of the Panamanian 507 Roundtable, and Dr.

Mita from the Evanita Records.

I grew up in Brooklyn.

I was a dancer, and as a dancer, I had to learn every genre of music to choreograph routines and showcases, from jazz to hip-hop to Latin styles.

And reggaeton was not optional.

It was essential.

Reggaeton builds body isolations, rhythmic musicality, and dynamic hip mobility that translates across every urban and Latin style there is.

During undergrad at LIU Brooklyn, my classmates and I didn't just enjoy reggaeton, we studied it.

Our professors integrated it into our modern dance curriculum because it belongs there.

It is a rich, cultural, layered, and physically demanding art form that deserves to be taken seriously.

And that tradition continues right now on college campuses across the city, LIU Brooklyn, NYU Tandon.

Pratt, Brooklyn College students are all gathering, networking, and building community around the guillotine.

It is not just music, it's a cultural home.

But this resolution is also about honoring where it all began.

In the 1980s, Afro-Caribbeans in Panama took Jamaican reggae and dancehall and translated it into Spanish, giving birth to reggae espanol.

Pioneers like El General, Chico Man, Carlito Sol, and Granato laid a foundation that would change music forever.

When El General came to New York City, he worked with Caribbean producers to craft the fusion of dance hall, reggae, and hip-hop.

That world would come to be known as reggaeton.

Puerto Rican icons Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen, Bad Bunny carried that legacy to every corner of the globe.

New York City was part of that story, and it is time we made that official.

Reggaeton is a symbol of cultural identity.

It is an economic powerhouse for Latin music.

It is a platform for social and political expression.

It is a living history that all New Yorkers deserve to learn, celebrate, and carry forward.

We owe it to our Panamanian, Puerto Rican, and Afro-Caribbean communities to enshrine that recognition right here in New York City.

I urge my colleagues.

to support Resolution 625.

Thank you.