Choreographies of América: Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Abstract

This essay reads Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show through bregar , a Puerto Rican practice of negotiating difficult conditions while preserving dignity. From the opening sugarcane field to the closing line “God bless América,” the choreography rearticulated national belonging through Afro-Latino and Latino life and Spanish. Read alongside Cuban revolutionary José Martí’s “Nuestra América” and “Mi raza,” the performance raises a question echoed by US President Donald Trump’s critique of the Spanish-language show: how does an appeal to national identity or unity restrict the political expression of racial difference? To pursue this question, the article turns to El Sapo Concho, the Puerto Rican crested toad, connecting his appearances in the performance and Bad Bunny’s films to Afro-Latino and Latino environmentalism in Puerto Rico. Bad Bunny’s symbolic victory with the halftime show makes these ecological struggles visible through the choreography of his bregar.