In the new episode of\u00a0Writing Latinos<\/i>, we talk with Jorell Mel\u00e9ndez-Badillo about his most recent book,\u00a0Puerto Rico: A National History<\/i>\u2014out next month in paperback from Princeton University Press. Mel\u00e9ndez-Badillo offers a sweeping history of the island since Spanish colonization. Most provocatively, he chronicles a long tradition of thinking about Puerto Rico as an independent nation, even though it has been a territorial possession for the better part of five hundred years. In addition to the book, we talk with him about his collaboration with Bad Bunny on the historical narrative accompanying San Benito\u2019s new album, Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos, which had him frantically writing dozens of history lessons, scrawled by hand, at the end of last year. Not exactly an everyday occurrence for a history professor!\u00a0Puerto Rico: A National History<\/i>\u00a0is Mel\u00e9ndez-Badillo\u2019s third book, following\u00a0The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico<\/i>\u00a0(2021), and\u00a0Voces libertarias: Los or\u00edgenes del anarquismo en Puerto Rico<\/i>\u00a0(2015).<\/p>\n