Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl: crash out or tap in

After the 3 January US military action in Venezuela led to Nicolás Maduro’s capture and the FAA temporarily closed airspace in parts of the eastern Caribbean, my stay in St Kitts stretched into an extra week. The region felt less like a cluster of nearby islands than a network of routes controlled by powers elsewhere.

Power shapes cultural transmission as much as it does airspace. The fuss over Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl and singing almost entirely in Spanish is less about understanding lyrics than about treating him and his music as un-American—a fear of being left out.

People respond in two ways: some sour into resentment, staging counter-events such as Turning Point USA’s All-American Halftime Show, while others tap in, like my neighbor Susie, who rehearses más beso’ y abrazo with her children at dinner. The United States has long kept the Caribbean close without granting full belonging; Puerto Rico’s unincorporated status was built to do that.

United States, St Kitts

bad bunny, super bowl, spanish music, halftime show, puerto rico, st kitts, venezuela, nicolás maduro, faa airspace, turning point