Bad Bunny at the SuperBowl halftime show, highlighting a joyful community of Puerto Rican culture and resistance.

During this challenging time of creeping fascism, we desperately need the arts to help us resist. Bad Bunny’s recent performance at the Super Bowl — in front of 135.4 million views, equivalent to a third of the entire United States — was a powerful example of cultural resistance through radical joy and inclusion. Plus, the show simply rocked!

Bad Bunny’s set, which featured live strings and brass, was completely covered by a union contract — as were all of the other performers, including Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga and all the acts.

It was a landmark performance and a milestone for Latino visibility. Bad Bunny was the first solo Latino artist to headline a Super Bowl halftime show — plus he performed entirely in Spanish. He celebrated scenes of Puerto Rican and broader Latin American identities, including domino games, street food and more. The opening set brought to mind Puerto Rico’s history, including slave labor in the sugarcane fields, and everything from traditional homes to community gatherings. Throughout the sequence, Bad Bunny waved a “light blue” version of the Puerto Rican flag, which has been typically linked with independence and resistance.

I wasn’t the only one to wonder about the scene featuring performers on electrical poles. Many people looked this up afterwards: it was a symbol of the ongoing infrastructure struggles after Hurricane Maria. (There is also a strong movement in Puerto Rico to start using green and solar energy to replace the aging electric grid.)

When Bad Bunny handed a Grammy statue to the young child in the show, it immediately spawned multiple interpretations. The official interpretation was that Bad Bunny was handing the Grammy to his younger self. Others thought that it was symbolically Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old who, along with his father, had been detained by immigration officials in Minnesota and held at an ICE facility in Texas.

At the end of the set, Bad Bunny sang a long list of Latino and Spanish-speaking countries, which symbolized a pan-American identity of inclusion. He also said “God Bless America” and “Together We Are America” and the sign beamed on the back wall said, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

The whole tone of the show was inclusive rather than exclusive. It was radical love. This is what made the show progressive, hopeful, and full of joy, rooted in community.

If you’re interested in Local 802’s efforts to stand up for justice and against tyranny, email me at Rperez@Local802afm.org.