Grand Valley State University’s Language Resource Center (LRC) hosted a watch party of the Super Bowl halftime show Thursday, reflecting on Bad Bunny’s performance. Discussion focused on Puerto Rican representation, cultural symbolism and the global influence of Spanish-language music.
The event, held at the LRC in Mackinac Hall, was led by Sarah Mather, senior affiliate professor of Spanish, and Mayra Fortes-González, associate professor of Spanish. Students gathered to watch clips from the performance and connect its imagery to Puerto Rican identity and broader Latinx cultural experiences in the United States.
The discussion was connected to the professors’ recently launched project, “The Bad Bunny Podcast” series, which began in January. The series explores Bad Bunny’s impact on music and global culture. Future episodes are expected to include guest interviews and topics similar to the Super Bowl performance and its significance.
In keeping with the theme of the gathering, attendees were served beef, chicken and cheese empanadas, rice with peas (arroz con guisantes) and chips with guacamole. According to the LRC, the event was designed to encourage students to engage critically with popular culture while also considering how language and identity shape media representation.
As students watched the performance, they viewed the broadcast’s start with on-screen text in cursive Spanish that read “Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio presenta el espectáculo de medio tiempo del Súper Tazón.” This sentence was paired with visuals of sugarcane fields and workers, which resembled the dramatic opening style of a telenovela, or soap opera.
“When the show opened with sweeping images of sugarcane fields and workers, with bold words displayed on the screen, it immediately transported me back to the dramatic intros of the telenovelas I grew up watching with my family,” Fortes-González said. “Seeing that moment on one of the biggest stages in the world made me excited because it connected my personal memories of Latin storytelling to a performance that millions of people watched.”
Fortes-González also said the performance’s set design carried meaning beyond entertainment, pointing to the inclusion of bodegas and storefronts modeled after real neighborhood businesses in New York City, Los Angeles and other cities in the United States.
“The bodegas and storefronts featured in the halftime performance weren’t just props,” said Fortes-González. “They were authentic spaces from New York neighborhoods. Those places carry history and everyday life for many Hispanic communities.”
Mather also commented on how Bad Bunny’s performance demonstrated that Spanish-language music can be centered on a major North American platform without being translated or altered for mainstream audiences.
“Through his music and imagery, he brought Puerto Rican identity into one of the most-watched stages,” Mather said.
The professors went on to discuss several moments from the performance that drew widespread attention online, including a cameo from Lady Gaga, a staged vignette in which Bad Bunny handed a Grammy trophy to a child representing his younger self and a real wedding ceremony held on the field.
Near the end of the performance, Bad Bunny broadened the show’s message by visually referencing countries across North and South America, framing the regions as a shared cultural space. The dancers carried flags as Bad Bunny listed the countries into the microphone. As they carried the flags off the field, a sentence was displayed on the Jumbotron: “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE.”
Attendees were encouraged to take the leftover empanadas home and think more deeply about the messages they discussed during the halftime watch party.
