Shortly after the National Football League (NFL) announced that Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny would be the Super Bowl halftime star, conservative media and Trump administration officials they jumped on the attack.
Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem promised that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “I would be paying attention to the Super BowlPresident Donald Trump called the selection “absolutely ridiculousRight-wing commentator Benny Johnson lamented the fact that Bad Bunny “don’t have songs in englishThe rapper, conservative commentator Tomi Lahren complained, “not an american artist”.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, is a superstar, one of the most listened to artists in the world. And since he is Puerto Rican, He is also a US citizen..
Without a doubt, Bad Bunny meets many requirements that irritate conservatives: supported Kamala Harris for president in 2024has a wardrobe that challenges gender stereotypesha harshly criticized the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies and has refused to tour the continental United States for fear that some of their fans could be persecuted and deported by ICE. Furthermore, their explicit lyricsmost of which are in Spanish, would make even the most ardent defender of free speech cringe.
However, as experts in national identity issues and US immigration policieswe think Lahren and Johnson’s insults hit the nail on the head as to why the singer has unleashed such a storm on the right. The spectacle of a Spanish-speaking rapper performing during the most watched sporting event on American television is a direct rejection of the Trump administration’s efforts to obscure the country’s diversity.
The Puerto Rican colony
Bad Bunny was born in 1994 in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States that the country acquired after the Spanish-American War of 1898. It is the home of 3.2 million US citizens by birth. If it were a state, it would be the 30th largest by population, according to the 2020 United States Census.
But Puerto Rico is not a state, but a colony from a bygone era of imperial expansion. Puerto Ricans do not have voting representatives in Congress and cannot participate in the election of the president of the United States. They are also divided over the future of the island. A large majority seeks to become another state in the country or acquire an improved form of the current Commonwealth status, while a small minority fights for independence.
But there is something that all Puerto Ricans are clear about: they are of a non-sovereign land, with a clearly defined Latin American cultureone of the oldest in America. Puerto Rico may belong to the United States – and many Puerto Ricans accept that special relationship – but the island itself doesn’t sound or feel like the rest of the nation.
The most of 5.8 million Puerto Ricans residing in the 50 states They complicate the picture even more. Although they are legally US citizens, they are generally not seen that way. In fact, a 2017 survey revealed that only 54% of Americans He knew that Puerto Ricans were citizens of their own country.
The paradox of the foreign citizen
Puerto Ricans live what we describe as the “foreign citizen paradox”: They are Americans, but only those who reside on the mainland enjoy the full rights of citizenship.
A recent congressional report stated that Puerto Ricans’ U.S. citizenship is not “equal, permanent, and irrevocable, protected by the 14th Amendment… and Congress reserves the right to determine the disposition of the territory“Any US citizen who moves to Puerto Rico stops having all the rights he or she has in the continental territory.
The selection of Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show illustrates this paradox. In addition to criticism from public figures, there was widespread calls among influencers MAGA (acronym for the movement Make America Great Again) to deport the rapper.
This is just one of the ways Puerto Ricans, as well as other Latino citizens, are reminded that they are the “other.”
ICE detentions of people who simply they seem to be immigrantsa tactic that recently has received approval from the Supreme Courtare an example of their condition as foreigners.
And most of the ICE raids have occurred in predominantly Latino communities in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. This has forced many of them to cancel the celebrations they had planned for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Bad Bunny’s global reach
The xenophobic fervor against Bad Bunny has led political leaders such as House Speaker Mike Johnsonto ask for a figure more suitable for the Super Bowl, such as the music artist country Lee Greenwood. Referring to Bad Bunny, Johnson said, “It seems like he’s not someone who appeals to a broad audience.”
But the facts contradict that statement. The Puerto Rican artist occupies top spots on world music charts. Has more than 80 million monthly listeners on Spotify. And it has sold almost five times more albums than greenwood.
That global appeal has impressed the NFL, which hopes to organize up to eight international matches next season. Additionally, Latinos represent the league’s fastest-growing fan base, and Mexico is its largest international market, with 39.5 million fans.
Bad Bunny’s participation in the Super Bowl can become an important political moment. The conservatives, in their eagerness to highlight the “otherness” of the singer – despite the fact that The United States is the second country with the largest number of Spanish speakers in the world– may have inadvertently educated the United States about the American citizenship of Puerto Ricans.
Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans and the rest of the Latino community in the United States continue to wonder when they will be accepted as equals in society.
Ediberto RomanProfessor of Law, Florida International University and Ernesto SagasProfessor of Ethnic Studies, Colorado State University
This article was published in The Conversation. Read the original.
