What Bad Bunny Did Yesterday Has a Name: Collective Healing
You probably woke up today just like we did. With a feeling of almost complete happiness that we haven’t felt in over a year. And we owe it all to Bad Bunny.
What Benito did yesterday during the Super Bowl halftime show has a name: collective healing.
Let’s say it was the Latino equivalent of “When they go low, we go high”—and Benito sencillamente la rompió.
In 13 minutes, Bad Bunny laid out what it means to be Latino, amid meticulous iconography that incorporated all Latinos in the United States—and I mean all. And closed with a master class in geography: “Together we are America.”
Although viewership figures have not yet been released, many estimate it will break last year’s halftime show record of more than 130 million viewers. Now, in a country with more than 340 million people—and if we add viewers from around the world—Bad Bunny’s message arguably reached every corner of the planet.
What’s more, he did so at a time when a few insist on dividing us.
Bad Bunny spoke in a universal language about the historical reality behind migration—the Jones Act in Puerto Rico, slavery, and endemic racism. But he did so in a celebratory way, highlighting Latinos’ tireless work ethic, the hope of children, and what you can do when you believe in your own dreams.
Moreover, he told millions of children and young people, looking directly into the camera, that no one can tell you what you can or cannot do if what drives you is love.
And when it comes to love, Bad Bunny made it clear that love has no gender, no race, no color.
He erased all doubt when his dancers blurred gender lines. And then handed the microphone to an LGBTQ+ icon like Ricky Martin.
Benito celebrated Toñita, the gold seller, the piraguas, the taqueria we love so much in Los Angeles, and even the child we all once were, asleep across two chairs at a wedding. In fact, celebrating a real wedding during the halftime show in a country riddled with hatred—hand in hand with Lady Gaga—was a deafening message of love and unity.
Every piece of clothing, every stitch, and even the sneakers were carefully chosen. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, you could understand that the only thing that will save us from the frightening future some want to force upon us is love.
Finally, the underlying message of Bad Bunny’s halftime show is the key.
Bad Bunny taught the world a lesson about who we Latinos really are: a community that, albeit naively, has always welcomed others with open arms, invited them for coffee, and taught them how to play dominoes. Latinos share their food, their music, and their good humor with anyone who wants to get to know us a little better. And we do so without asking for anything in return.
Yes, Bad Bunny is the biggest artist in the world today. But what has made him truly great is his humility in recognizing the power of his platform. His indomitable love for his country and culture, and his unwavering determination to protect what truly makes us unique.
