Right off the bat: I loved the #BadBunny halftime show.
Yeah, I could do without some of the over-the-top sexy shit — but let’s be real, that’s his bread and butter. I’m not excusing it, just saying: if that’s all you saw, you missed the whole damn point.

From the very first image — people cutting sugar cane — this was political as hell. Sugar cane isn’t some random aesthetic. It’s the industrial agriculture imposed by the United States after they took over Puerto Rico in 1898. That was the moment communal farming was destroyed and Puerto Ricans were forced into brutal export agriculture for U.S. profit. That history matters.

The entire performance was an homage to the island I grew up in. The neighborhoods, the sounds, the colors, the references — there’s so much nostalgia packed in there I honestly can’t even list it all. They went down the fucking list. Every Puerto Rican I know was watching this with tears in their eyes.

And maybe most important of all: he did the whole thing in Spanish. At a time when Spanish has basically been criminalized — when people are afraid to speak it in public, afraid of having the “wrong” accent, especially after years of Trump-era racism — that alone is a massive political act.

I need to rewatch it because there’s so much going on, but I wanted to put this out there now. Because I already know a lot of people aren’t going to get it at first glance.

But make no mistake: this wasn’t just a halftime show.
It was a huge cultural and political moment — and for Puerto Ricans especially, it meant a hell of a lot.

¡Pa'lante!🇵🇷✊

@franklinlopez

1/ You know, this is all so fascinating, and in many ways, my parents, family and ancestors can relate to.

Being from Northern Ireland, there was a time where speaking in Irish or even being Irish was condemned and 'criminalized' and it can be very violent too; especially during the times of the 'troubles,' as it's called. During those times when my parents moved to England for work, there existed bars and restaurants etc that had signs hung up that read 'No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs Allowed.' Learning that alone even surprised me, plus the other harassment from other people, even those in the police force, those experiences my parents told me made my blood boil. That's not even getting into the other experiences for family members face back then.

@franklinlopez

2/ Of course, I personally never suffered like they had, and the North of Ireland had only recently officially expanded the teachings of the Irish language in schools across the land. I've only been taught specks of it. That said, I can't say I have a complete understanding of what the Puerto Ricans went through, but I can acknowledge the pain and suffering that they went through and the importance of exposing this history that the 'Bad Bunny' has shown in his performance.

Not for the sake of smearing a country, or to say 'these are bad people' (There's always going to be evil people anyway regardless of race or nationality), but rather to say 'THIS HAPPENED!! IT NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED, WE NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE SUFFERING THEY WENT THROUGH, AND WE SHOULD ALL LEARN THAT THIS SHOULD NEVER EVER HAPPEN AGAIN!!'

History does matters!!