"But international mega-star Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (aka Bad Bunny) took the stage during the Super Bowl halftime show and gave the best possible response to Miller's dystopic dreams: a burst of unbridled joy and a dizzying celebration of love, labor, and the power of living our everyday lives despite hardships, all performed in a lyrical language that Miller, in every possible way, lacks the capacity to understand."
"Part one was a week ago, when, after winning the Grammy for album of the year, Bad Bunny began his acceptance speech by saying, "Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say: ICE out!"-to rapturous cheers. It was an ingenious first step, teeing up the halftime show as a future instrument for broadcasting the anti-ICE fervor hitting red and blue states alike."
"In a time of monsters, Bad Bunny was posing an alternative world: a place where laborers are seen and celebrated, where hurricanes and their victims aren't forgotten, and where community-not atomization-fuels society. In the swirl of his irrepressible music, sung only in Spanish, and an elaborate set design that conjured the Caribbean in rich and playful detail, Bad Bunny refused to step into our dismal world. Instead, he brought us into his."
A bleak year marked by violence and white-nativist policies is contrasted with Bad Bunny's vibrant public interventions. Bad Bunny used his Grammy acceptance and Super Bowl halftime performance to challenge anti-immigrant sentiment and celebrate Puerto Rican culture. He called for ICE to be expelled and staged a Spanish-language halftime show that foregrounded labor, hurricane survivors, and communal life. The performance presented joy and cultural pride as resistance to nativism and atomization. The shows reached broad audiences and provoked right-wing backlash while showcasing a vision of community, labor visibility, and transnational cultural affirmation.
Read at The Nation
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