Bad Bunny walked out in a #64 jersey with “OCASIO” on the back.
Not Bad Bunny.
Not Benito.
His real name.
His family name.
Then he grabbed the mic and said:
“My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. And if today I’m here at the Super Bowl, it’s because I never, never stopped believing in myself.”
In Spanish.
No translation.
Even the jumbotron was in Spanish.
And I watched the whole thing with a translator on.
Because the message was that important to me.
They said he was “un-American.”
They said nobody would understand him.
They said having him perform was “ridiculous.”
And he SHOWED OUT!
He brought out Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
He staged a wedding on the field.
He recreated a bodega.
He gave us a whole scene of family and love.
He humanized an entire culture on the world’s biggest stage.
All in his native language.
And he didn’t flinch.
His lyrics were clear messages:
“They want to take the river from me, and the beach too. They want my neighborhood and for my grandma to leave.”
“I should have taken more photos when I had you. Hopefully my loved ones will never move.”
And that last line:
“Ojalá que los míos nunca se muden.”
Hopefully my loved ones will never move.
That’s about families being separated.
Forced to leave.
Displacement.
Yeah, he didn’t chase the mainstream.
He made the mainstream come to him.
He put his family name on his back and told 120 million people exactly who he is.
And I’m here for ALL of it!👏🏽
I started listening to Bad Bunny when I moved to Miami a few years ago.
It was always playing in the gym. I started to learn the songs, which started teaching me words in Spanish. Then some of the Dominican trainers at the gym and I became friends, and they started speaking Spanish with me.
It gave me a small taste of what it must be like for immigrants who don’t speak English to come to America and turn to movies, TV shows, and music to learn the language. And how quickly you can become friends with someone even when you only share a few words in common.
IMO that’s what Bad Bunny’s halftime show captured creatively.
Latin culture is special. And you don’t need to speak the language to be invited to the party, dance, and experience community & connection.
I’m glad he didn’t sing a single word in English.
It’s his party.
And I appreciate him inviting all of us, fluent or not, to be part of it.
@raik0uu pokemon gang. I'm just gunna be Snorlax at this point cause I don't have to put any work into it, I just gotta be fat and loveable. I've got at least one of those things down🤣
stressed cause I can't sleep for shit anymore because I'm stressed about work and how much weight I've gained and how I hate looking at any reflection of myself because I'm literally just a shell of who I used to be. I miss when I was happy.