Let me begin by admitting I am no Bad Bunny scholar, but more of a Bad Bunny appreciator. 

So at first I felt conflicted when Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl headliner, since I was impressed with his rationale for not including U.S. dates for his world tour, and it admittedly bothered me a bit that he had made this exception. But as soon as I saw the reaction from those who ignorantly judged him as not “American enough” for the spectacle, I knew I would not be able to miss his performance. So much so that I assigned the Benito Bowl, as well as this episode of The Sam Sanders Show for homework in my critical thinking course. I can’t wait to hear what my students think about this performance, and the connections they’ll make to the readings we’ve done so far this semester by bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and José Olivarez. 

I’ve written before about how music and performance strengthen and heal, especially in challenging times. While music can be a source of escape, so much of the music I listen to is a source of joy, inspiration, and empowerment. As a Bad Bunny appreciator, I knew I’d enjoy the show, I knew I had good reason to be curious, and I knew I wanted to watch it live on a big TV and not on the palm of my hand. I knew I would not want to watch it alone, and I knew that it would make me want to dance. But I still could not anticipate the joy and healing this man gave me with this performance! While I am not puertorriqueña, this mexicana time-traveled to my mom’s birthplace (the sugarcane!) and all the weddings, quinceañeras, and cumpleaños of my soon-to-be 44 years. He invited us all to those parties where many of us connect with ourselves, one another, and our culturas as we dance and sing our hearts out. 

In México, I grew up dancing to cumbia. I danced cumbia at house parties, at fundraising festivals at my neighborhood church, quinceañera parties, and every family and neighborhood wedding reception. But it was not until I came to the U.S. that I learned to dance salsa by watching and dancing with my parents–the mother I had not known for years as I stayed behind in Mexico, and the man she fell in love with and married right before she was supposed to move back; and despite all the struggles I’ve seen them face alone and together in the last three decades, I always feel magic when I watch them dance salsa. 

When I was in graduate school, dancing salsa helped me feel less lonely. During my first year as a doctoral student, I lived alone, even though I was very married. My husband was still finishing his degree in Texas and lived with my family (all women!), while I lived alone in a one bedroom apartment in California. I went to campus four days a week, and the only day I didn’t (Thursdays) I struggled to care for myself. I missed home, and I missed my man. But a combination of salsa lessons throughout the city with a few of my fellow graduate students–our university rec center, the basement of a Spanish restaurant, the nearest Marriott–helped me feel less lonely and made me feel joy in my body despite the homesickness and sadness that I felt so deeply in my heart.  

One of my favorite songs of ALL TIME is a salsa song. I know he might be a villain in a certain wedding story (but again, he’s puertorriqueno, which I think Marcelo Hernández has taught us is important context, lol), but Marc Anthony’s “Tu Amor Me Hace Bien” is a song that heals me every time I sing and dance the f*ck out of it. 

Is it just me or is “Die With A Smile” better as a salsa?! 

I’ve written all this having watched the performance ONCE, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Just seeing his whole damn name in the show’s introduction–Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio–made me feel seen because my birth name is just as long. Seeing the kid asleep across a few chairs at the perimeter of a wedding reception TOOK. ME. OUT. One of my friends said about the performance that it was “so beautiful to see ourselves represented…that’s all of us asleep on the chairs”. (Second slide below.)

The taco stand transported me to my childhood in Monterrey and my recent day trip to Ensenada, and the person selling piraguas (which I grew up calling raspados or yukis) took me to my week-long summer vacations to my mom’s birthplace in Sinaloa. 

What I saw on the stage was real love. And I was sitting in a room full of people for whom I didn’t have to translate this experience–because the message of the performance, if you are willing to hear it, is meant for all of us, even if some of us felt especially represented. Not all of us may understand Spanish but what the performance celebrated–the human experience–does not need to be translated. The specific is universal.

I know I’ll have so much homework to do this week when the true Bad Bunny experts share their analyses of the Benito Bowl. For the recent Bad Bunny appreciators, I leave you with a great interview featuring a dear friend and badass performer/academic, Dr. Jade Power-Sotomayor, whose book, ¡Habla! Speaking Bodies and Dancing Our América, is coming out later this year. She is not only a big Bad Bunny fan, but she got the chance to perform alongside him at the 2023 Grammy Awards. She has also thrown incredible parties in which many of us have danced and sang our hearts out…and where our kids have ended up asleep on a bench or row of chairs. 

Bad Bunny performs during the Apple Music halftime show at Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, Levi Stadium, Santa Clara, California

Bad Bunny performs during the Apple Music halftime show at Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, Levi Stadium, Santa Clara, California

Photo credits: Scott Strazzante/Starface Photo/Cover Images/Instar Images

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