S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , themes of love , culture and unity filled Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance. We're breaking it all down and talking about it. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. To. Bad Bunny's historic Super Bowl performance bodies. Incredible music. Bold dancing , vibrant storytelling , even an actual wedding. In big , bold letters , he delivered one powerful message. The only thing more powerful than hate is love. It was a celebration of all Americans beyond borders. Joining me to talk about it is Jean Guerrero. She's an award winning investigative journalist and author. She recently wrote about Bad Bunny Super Bowl show on her Substack on silencing Hygiene.
S2: Hi , Jade. It's good to be here.
S1: Good to have you. So listen , this this on silencing Substack. It's fairly new , right ? And is this your first article for it ? Yeah.
S2: Um , so I usually write for The New York Times , but I decided to self-publish this essay about Bad Bunny , um , on my Substack , which is our own silencing Substack. Com um , and I've just been overwhelmed by the response. I had no idea , um , that people were gonna love it so much. I'm. I'm really grateful.
S1: Oh , that is wonderful. Well , I can't wait to to get into this. I mean , because what an incredible performance. Um , but before we get into the details , I have to know what your favorite part was.
S2: Oh my goodness. It's hard to choose , but I think I have to go with when he looked at the football at the end and said , God bless America , and proceeded to name every country in the Americas. That was his most powerful political messaging. And it just I thought it was historic. I thought it was incredible. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , let's take a listen to that part.
S3: God bless America. Argentina. Uruguay. Paraguay. Bolivia. Peru. Ecuador. Brazil. Colombia , Venezuela , Guyana , Panama , Costa Rica , Nicaragua , El Salvador , Guatemala , Mexico , Cuba , Republica Dominicana Jamaica , Antigua , United States , Canada am I Maryland , mi padre Puerto Rico. Segui mo aqui.
S1: Such a powerful moment. I felt that and I want to talk a bit more about what you wrote in your Substack article , because you talk about Bad Bunny's choice to start the show in a maze of sugar cane fields , and you call this the most radical message of the show. Tell me about that. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So a lot of people don't realize this about Bad Bunny. They just think he's really fun and , you know , sensual and festive. But he is an extremely anticolonial artist , and he has been that way since he started. Um , this isn't his lyrics and his performances. One of the songs that he or a couple of the extremely political songs that he played at the Super Bowl , uh , called on Puerto Ricans to hold on to their flag and their traditions , uh , amid the , the robbery of their land. And this is really relevant because of the current administration's ongoing neocolonialism in Latin America , his meddling in Honduras , in Venezuela and in other countries , which when you look at what they're doing , it's it started in Puerto Rico with the transformation of Puerto Rico into a special economic zone. And basically , Trump is you know , he's performing nationalism. But what he's really about is expanding territorial control for a class of transnational elites who want to extract and exploit across the Americas with impunity. And Bad Bunny has been preaching against that practice since he started as a musician. And now he's the most powerful musician alive. And people are starting to understand what his music is really about. You're seeing a surge in people taking Spanish language classes so that they're not just dancing to his music and feeling his music , but really understanding what the messaging is , which is It's about resistance. It's it's. He's calling on people to resist the pillaging classes , which is extremely revolutionary. On on a stage like the Super Bowl. Right.
S1: Right. You know what ? Tell me a bit about , um , the political power , the political voice , um , that Puerto Ricans have.
S2: So a lot of people don't know this either , but Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Um , you're seeing a lot of MAGA media personalities trying to frame Bad Bunny as an outsider , but he is the pinnacle of an American success story. He started out , uh , he's a citizen because Puerto Ricans are citizens , and he started out bagging groceries ten years ago and is now the most powerful musician , most streamed artist on Spotify. Um , and so he , he embodies this sense of power for Puerto Ricans that historically. Puerto Ricans have been neglected and oppressed. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States where Puerto Ricans serve and die in the U.S. military. They are citizens. However , they do not have the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections unless they leave the island , which is part of this neocolonial effort to displace people from Puerto Rico and leave Puerto Rico in the hands of U.S. and transnational corporations who want to be able to exploit the region with , with , without accountability. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , this performance really does , um , present an opportunity to raise awareness about that. For those who didn't know , you know , there's there was also the in the performance a deliberate choice to wave a Puerto Rican flag with red , white and light blue. Tell me about the significance of that.
S2: Oh , um , so , I mean , well , what I can say. You were talking about the sugar cane fields before , and I realized I forgot to mention this. This was an image of Puerto Rico's , um , plantation economy that existed before Puerto Rico became a special economic zone. And Bad Bunny showed these sugar cane cutters , um , as an act of , of awareness about the labor that has long been used and exploited by US corporate interests. But I actually can't speak to the , to the flag , um , that the , the flag detail that you're talking about. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , I mean , aside from that , you know , this brings me to a concept you write about in your piece , which is the right to stay , which is something you've advocated for within the immigration debate. Tell me about that and what this performance means for that conversation. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So whenever we talk about immigrant rights , oftentimes what you'll hear about is the right to migrate the right of people to , uh , leave their homes if they want to pursue safety and prosperity. However , what you don't hear about is the right to stay. And I've been having conversations for years with indigenous activists across Mexico and Central America who have been fighting for their right to stay. And they argue that , yes , people have a right to migrate , but we also need to talk about the right to stay and the reason that we don't see that in the political discourse around immigration is because elites in both political parties have long benefited from having this manufactured underclass that is created by US corporate exploitation across the Americas. Whenever people talk about the root causes of immigration , they always talk about poverty and violence , as if these things are innate to the people of Latin America , when in fact they are symptoms of this corporate extraction , where often , um , they're working with corrupt governments and using violence to take people's land and resources and force them out of their homes. And so what's incredible about Bad Bunny is that he has taken this concept that is is totally fringe and not acknowledged by mainstream political figures whatsoever. And he put it into the Super Bowl. His music and his performance was all about the right to stay. It was in the way that he showed up , um , powerfully and beautifully. It was in the flags that were waved. It was in the beautiful , uh , brown women , uh , powerfully. Um , and and he it was in his final message where he said , we're still here. And he's trying to convey to people across the Americas that they need to fight for their right to stay. Um , and this is something I cannot overstate the significance of , and I hope that it transforms the way that we talk about immigration and what immigration justice would actually look like , because that means not displacing people from their homes the way that so many Puerto Ricans , including my family members , were displaced.
S1: Um , you know , uh , we also got a lot of celebrity cameos in the performance , from Pedro Pascal to Lady Gaga , Ricky Martin , who delivered a powerful solo performance.
S3: In guitar. Melody.
S4: Melody. Italian play. Aqui en el burrito mio. Juanita's baja. No , no. Sweet lavender. Daniel. No lie. Yo quiero carga contigo.
S1: All right , well , Jean , you know you right about that moment , too. What did it mean to you ? Yeah.
S2: It gives me chills to hear that that song. Because in those lyrics , he's he's talking about how foreigners want to take their rivers and they want to take the beaches. And then he's calling on Puerto Ricans not to let go of their flag and their traditions. Um , I teared up hearing that. I teared up seeing Ricky Martin , uh , singing that beautiful song. It's one of my favorite songs by Bad Bunny , one of his most political , which , by the way , he performed all of his most political songs at the Super Bowl halftime show. Um , and to me , it was just evidence of the fact that Bad Bunny , no matter how powerful he's gotten , you know , often power corrupts people. And people have been looking. People who understand the politics of Bad Bunny have been worried that as he gets more powerful , he's going to forget his roots. But he has never forgotten his roots , and he continues to stay true to his vision , which is a vision of resistance and empowerment for people who have been historically overlooked and oppressed.
S1: Yeah , that's that's something special that you find in an artist , for sure. Um , as someone you know who grew up along the border here in the San Diego Tijuana region.
S2: All of it. I mean , he I grew up , you know , being made to feel ashamed of my native language , which is Spanish. And so many other Latinos who grew up in the United States during the 1990s , and particularly in California , where we saw these huge waves of anti Latino hysteria that eventually became national in the form of Trumpism. And at the when I was a kid , I resigned my native language or I renounced my native language , um , and I lost my ability to speak to my grandmothers , who only speak Spanish for many , many years until I moved to Mexico and recovered it. But Bad Bunny , what he represents to so many people is this invitation to come back to ourselves and to be unapologetically who we are , and to embrace where we come from and who made us. And and it's just amazing in the context that we're living as Latino communities in the United States today , where we are being terrorized by federal agents who are coming into our communities and disappearing our valued community members , uh , mothers , fathers. and his performance was even in its party songs. Uh , it was deeply political in this moment because it was showcasing brown joy and pride in a context of political terrorism of our communities. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. I mean , you know , and you , you know , that was like a really sort of central theme in the whole show. That joy that you mentioned , um , and specifically joy as resistance.
S2: It resonated so deeply with me. And and I was just waiting for the moment when he was going to play a ball , which is his song about the unforgettable dance , salsa dancing. He has been leading a resurgence in salsa dancing and the other Latin social dances , which have historically been used in political resistance movements across the Americas. they cultivate resilience in racial and social struggles. They were used in Puerto Rico's protests , um , that ended up ousting the governor , Ricardo Rossello , who Bad Bunny actually participated in those protests , which revolved around Fernando , which is the most structuralist of the Latin social dances. And I just thought it was incredible because , you know , Trump and the MAGA movement have been trying to put forth an idea of America that is small and rooted in fear and rooted in hatred. And here Bad Bunny was inviting America to be something so much greater , something so much more joyful , something so much more just spacious. Uh , and I , I loved that he danced , um , salsa with Lady Gaga. Um , initially I was , um. I was surprised that he didn't dance with a Latina artist. Mhm. Um , but I actually love that. I mean , it's in keeping with Bad Bunny's message about connecting people across difference and loving across race and class. Um , so I just thought it was remarkable. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , I've been speaking with Jean Guerrero. She's an award winning investigative journalist and author. Her Substack is called UN silencing. Congratulations to you on that , by the way. Uh , and thank you so much. I always appreciate you.
S2: Thanks , Jade. Likewise.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
