Mon Laferte, Guaynaa Lead Reggaeton Protest in New ‘Plata Ta Tá’ Video
Two months after Chile first erupted with nationwide protests against austerity, the Latin Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Mon Laferte shows support for the cause with her new song, “Plata Ta Tá.”
The title is a play on the sounds of a “cacerolázo,” or a Latin American style of protest in which people bang on pots and pans. Featuring boricua rapper Guaynaa, whose lyrics typically veer towards the raunchy, “Plata Ta Tá” champions taking the streets and facing down “pacos,” or police. In their vibrant new music video, like the Puerto Ricans famously did this summer, the co-stars indulge in a little perreo combativo.
“Record with the phone, phone, phone/Hit the reggaeton,” recommends Mon Laferte in Spanish. “Esta generación tiene la revolución/Con el celular tiene más poder que Donald Trump,” she adds — or, “This generation has the revolution/With a cellphone they have more power than Donald Trump.”
The two are joined by none other than actress Yalitza Aparicio: the Academy Award-nominee who starred in Alfonso Cuarón’s critically acclaimed film, Roma. She surfaces from a cloud of purple smoke, donning a green bandana in solidarity with the Latin American movement for reproductive justice. Together with Mon Laferte and Guaynaa, the crew rattles on their kitchenware through a colorful neighborhood in the Mexican city of Pachuca.
Shortly before winning this year’s Latin Grammy for Best Alternative Album, Mon Laferte started her own demonstration on the red carpet. In hopes of calling attention to human rights violations in Chile, she wrote on her bare breasts in black marker: “In Chile, they torture, rape and kill.”