MAGAts are apoplectic about Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show.
"It was unAmerican! Football is ours, goddammit!"
Ummm....hate to break it to ya. Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is American. He is a resident of Puerto Rico and a citizen of the United States of America, as all Puerto Ricans have been since 1917.
Where were you when these unAmerican acts performed at the Super Bowl? U2, The Rolling Stones, Shakira, Drake, Celine Dion, The Weeknd, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, Rihanna, The Who?
"It was *gasp* all in Spanish!"
They speak mainly Spanish in our territory of Puerto Rico, along with more than 14% of the general population of the United States.
Get. Over. It.
"I couldn't understand a word of it! There must've been nefarious messages!"
Firstly, it wouldn't hurt if you learned a little Spanish. Then maybe you wouldn't be so afraid.
It harkens back to 1963, when The Kingsmen mumbled their way through the infectious "Louie, Louie," causing a similar uproar and leading to an FBI investigation and attempts to censor and ban.
It begs the question. If you can't understand any of it, how is it harmful again? Explain it to me like I'm in kindergarten.
Me-gun Kelley was especially odious in her shouty, snide diatribe with Piers Morgan. She managed to insult all Americans, Latin or not, as well as the British, Muslims, and Black people as she spouted the usual venom. If you are in the mood for ugly hate, see it here.
The Reality
It was an amazing show.
I speak Spanish fairly well, but I didn't understand many of the lyrics either, just like I don't understand most of the rappers who rap in English. But I understood Bad Bunny's songs. The show was inspiring, joyful, inclusive, and uniting.
You know, things MAGAts know nothing about. They only know division and hate.
Joyful! Hell yes! It celebrated Latin culture, Puerto Rico in particular, but also the greater Latin world. It celebrated love, family, and music.
Joy in Puerto Rico, with sugar cane, a coco stand, its tricky electrical grid, a dominos game in el parque, a nail salon, a real piraguas stand, lots of dancing, and music!
Joy in the real wedding of Los Angeles-area couple, who on a whim sent a wedding invitation to Bad Bunny. Not only did he attend, he set them up to be married at the halftime show, and witnessed for them to boot!
Celebration in the Latin American bodegas of "Nueva Yol" and the taco stands of Mexican Los Angeles. Villas Tacos, who appeared midway through the show, is a real taco stand in the LA area.
Joy in including perhaps the first Puerto Rican to make it big in pop music, Sr. Ricky Martin, cameos by Chilean star Pedro Pascal, Afro-Latin-Caribbean Cardi B, and one amazing white lady: the incomparable Lady Gaga.
The joy in celebrating Bad Bunny's Grammy wins, including gifting one of his Grammys to a little boy, maybe another Puerto Rican who will rise to the top.
Joy in celebrating and uniting America – all of it. Bad Bunny called them all out: "God bless América. Sea (they are) Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador, Brasil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Panamá, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, México, Cuba, República Dominicana, Jamaica, Haití, United States, Canadá, y my homeland, mi patria, Puerto Rico. Seguimos aquí (We're still here)."
He held up a football that read, "TOGETHER WE ARE AMERICA."
Hell yeah.
And the huge sign on the scoreboard: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love."
Hell, HELL yeah!
In case you missed it (WTF? How?!), here is the show. EnJOY!
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