On Feb. 8, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, publicly known as Bad Bunny, performed a touching and unifying halftime show at Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif.
As a Bad Bunny super fan, I was very excited that one of my favorite artists would be performing. Little did I know how connected I would feel to the performance and the deep-rooted messages the performance would include.
As the show began to the tune of “Tití Me Preguntó,” Benito walked through a sugar cane field with people on both sides cutting the sugar cane with machetes. Sugar cane stood at the center of the Puerto Rican economy for more than a century, largely because of colonialism and slavery.
As Benito continued to walk, he passed by a coco frío stand, a group of older gentlemen playing dominoes, young women getting their nails done and a piragua stand, all staples in Puerto Rican life. Bad Bunny introduced the global audience to the customs of his native country.
Moving forward to the casita, many prominent figures of Latin descent, including Jessica Alba, Cardi B, Pedro Pascal and Ronald Acuña Jr., were all pictured dancing on the front porch. Over the next few minutes, Bentio performed several of his most popular songs, “Yo Perreo Sola,” “Safaera,” “Party” and “Voy a Llevarte Pa’ PR.”
This section was amazing, dancing in my living room to songs I had come to love over the years. While my Portuguese heritage is not considered Latin, it has its Latin roots and seeing that on the biggest stage gave me a sense of pride.
Benito then gave the world a valuable lesson; to believe in yourself. This part gave me a wave of confidence and encouraged me to keep believing in myself and chasing my dreams.
Moving toward the wedding scene and Lady Gaga’s appearance, we see a partial replica of Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a Puerto Rican national monument.
The wedding scene brought back memories of when I was a kid; The singing, the dancing and especially falling asleep on three chairs I pushed together. The only thing missing was my grandfather’s suit jacket as a blanket.
“NUEVAYoL” began to play. Having visited my fathers native-New York on multiple occasions the song and the scene brought back memories of walking around the city, immersed in many different cultures.
Making an appearance here was Maria Antonio Clay, publicly known as Toñita, a woman who has stood against gentrification in Brooklyn by refusing to sell her property, the Caribbean Social Club, which is a pillar of the Puerto Rican community in New York City.
Ricky Martin then made an appearance, singing the most politically charged song on the studio album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” “LO QUE PASÓ A HAWAii,” which was a shift away from his typical English-Latin pop songs.
I viewed this as a rebuke to the U.S., with Martin defending his culture.
To an explosion, Bad Bunny performed “El Apagón.” The electric poles that exploded and that Bentio performed from stood for the frustrations of frequent blackouts in Puerto Rico.
To the tune of “Café Con Ron,” individuals carrying flags of each American nation came running down the middle of the set to meet Benito. Bad Bunny shouts out each nation in a pledge of unity, holding a football which read “Together, We are America,” and the scoreboard displayed “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
The thing I am taking from this halftime show is that we are not all that different. With so much hate going on in the world right now, we need to learn to love each other to solve our differences, which is the message that Benito amazingly put out.
The only thing that separates us is imaginary borders on a map.
Why not spread love? Why do we spend so much time pointing out our differences? Why do we choose to single out those we feel do not see the world the same as us? There are so many cultures all around us. From street to street, from house to house, we should all share.
Let’s learn together, let’s dance together, let’s sing together and most importantly, let’s love together.
