Creative Resistance on the Center Stage

Against the backdrop of California’s sunny sky, Bad Bunny filled Levi's Stadium with love and appreciation for his culture. In his thirteen-minute halftime show, he powerfully defies the borders that the policies in the U.S. wish to draw. 

The 1.85 million square venue turned into a love letter to Latino and Puerto Rican history and culture. Bad Bunny opens his performance by walking through a sugar cane field with dancers working in the field, a visual referencing Puerto Rico’s history under Spanish rule. Sugarcane, introduced by Spanish colonizers in the early sixteenth century, transformed Puerto Rico into a plantation-based economy that was later exploited by U.S. corporations. What Bad Bunny did was acknowledge that the Puerto Rican identity is not only shaped by the joyful scenes of everyday life, but also by the endurance under colonial rule. 

As Bad Bunny walked deeper into the field, other set pieces that nod to Puerto Rican culture appeared, including wooden carts selling coco frío (fresh coconut water) and piragua (shaved ice). There was even a stand for Villa’s Tacos, a popular taco shop in Los Angeles, spotlighted during the performance. 

At the center of the stadium stood a vibrant pink house, a quintessential representation of Puerto Rican vernacular architecture and the communal spirit of island homes, bringing together Latino celebrities such as Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba, Cardi B, and more. Lady Gaga even performed a salsa rendition of her song ‘Die With a Smile,’ wearing a blue flamenco dress adorned with a brooch of Puerto Rico’s official flower–the flor de maga. 

A barrio area was even featured, highlighting Maria Antonia Cay, better known as Tonita, a Puerto Rican woman who runs a social club in New York, symbolizing the Puerto Rican community in the city, particularly Williamsburg, a neighborhood that has long served as home to Puerto Rican immigrants and is now heavily gentrified. 

Throughout his performance, he mostly spoke his mother tongue–Spanish, which stirred strong reactions among netizens. President Donald Trump also expressed his outrage and wrote on Truth Social saying “The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” and “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting…” But Bad Bunny did say “God Bless America” in English, reminding everyone that America is not just a country, but a continent with a vibrant mixture of cultures and people, each representing their own dreams and ambitions. 

Despite the controversy and backlash, Bad Bunny’s performance made history: he is the first artist to headline a Super Bowl halftime show performed almost entirely in Spanish, and his performance captured an estimated 135.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched halftime show in the event’s history. 

As somebody outside of the Latino community and culture, watching Bad Bunny share and celebrate his culture with us made me appreciate what it means to be unapologetically rooted in your homeland. Even if you did not understand a word he sang, he made sure his message was clear and he did write it out in English with big, bold letters: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” It takes immense courage to perform under the spotlight of Levi’s Stadium for millions of people, especially with the U.S. administration forcing deportation and detainment on immigrants and people of color. What really moved me was the authenticity of the way he carried himself on stage. He was not trying to manufacture a persona that would appease the masses, he was simply himself–a Latino man who has a passion for making music. 

Perhaps it is too bold of a statement to make, but if you watched Bad Bunny’s halftime show and felt afraid of the images of unity, love, and community that he showed, then it may be that you are complicit in perpetuating systems of violence and division, because what Bad Bunny delivered was a message, more than it was a performance.