{"id":12203,"date":"2026-02-16T19:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/?p=12203"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:52:32","slug":"bad-bunnys-halftime-show-was-bigger-than-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/bad-bunnys-halftime-show-was-bigger-than-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny\u2019s halftime show was bigger than football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Benito, Bomba, Backlash<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The Seattle Seahawks may have taken home the Lombardi, but for millions of Latino viewers, the real triumph happened at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">When Bad Bunny emerged from the sugarcane covered football field at Levi\u2019s Stadium, he didn\u2019t just perform, he made history and brought everyone together with a mix of family, culture and love. Benito turned the most American sporting event into a global, Latin celebration, and yes, he did it all in Spanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The performance starts with Bad Bunny walking through the sugarcane, past the fieldworkers and past well known small Latino businesses. Then, he ends up on top of the pink <em>casita<\/em> with many bomba dancers taking center stage in the front yard. The porch was star studded with Latino artists and actors including Pedro Pascal, Karol G, Cardi B, Jessica Alba, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">As we move on, we see a couple getting married and what\u2019s represented as their families celebrating the occasion, and as the sea of <em>familia<\/em> parts, we see Lady Gaga as the \u201cwedding singer.\u201d This was a significant moment that symbolically represented a gesture of cultural solidarity. Of course, <em>Madre Monstruo<\/em> showed up to support by wearing a Puerto Rican flag inspired dress designed by Dominican-American designer Raul L\u00f3pez. It came out after the show that the bride and groom were invited to the Super Bowl by Bad Bunny after he was invited to their real wedding. It\u2019s a cute full circle moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The performance goes on to include more Latino-esque symbolism. There\u2019s even one moment that stood out to everyone which is where young Benito is watching his older self recently win a Grammy, and then he passes it on to the little boy. This scene should teach everyone that dreams do come true and to always strive for greatness. Another surprise guest appeared shortly after, the talented Ricky Martin, sang a piece from Bad Bunny\u2019s song \u201cLo Que Le Pas\u00f3 a Hawaii.\u201d I know my mom was excited to see him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Finally, Benito ends the performance with a powerful message. He listed off dozens of nations to emphasize a unified America, all of the dancers holding all of the flags for each country and Benito holds a football to the camera that read \u201cTogether, we are America.\u201d He throws the football and he and his ensemble start singing his song \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos\u201d as an important message is shown on the big screen: \u201cThe only thing more powerful than hate is love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Let us not forget the reaction that conservative organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA) had in response to Bad Bunny being announced as the Super Bowl halftime show. They created their own \u201cAll American Halftime Show\u201d in response to the NFL being \u201cwoke anti-America.\u201d Translation? They were uncomfortable with the idea of a Spanish speaking performer dominating the biggest sports event of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The irony is not lost on anyone. Puerto Ricans are American citizens. As Benito said himself, \u201cEnglish is not my first language, but it\u2019s okay, it\u2019s not America\u2019s first language either.\u201d Yet, TPUSA\u2019s reaction felt like a temper tantrum dressed up in red, white and blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">For many of us, Benito\u2019s performance was like a hug. It reminded us that even in scary times, we have family, culture and love to get us by. In this moment when enforcement policies make communities feel targeted, visibility becomes powerful. Not because everything will get solved by one performance, but because it reminds the next generation that they belong, their language belongs, their music belongs, they belong and that\u2019s something worth protecting together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benito, Bomba, Backlash The Seattle Seahawks may have taken home the Lombardi, but for millions of Latino viewers, the real triumph happened at halftime. When&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":12204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[297],"class_list":["post-12203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"authors":[{"term_id":297,"user_id":134,"is_guest":0,"slug":"selena-ortiz","display_name":"Selena Ortiz","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/f377685e6395e6cb16cabfb12ad7328a.jpg?ver=1776218405","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12205,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203\/revisions\/12205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12203"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=12203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}