Unabridged: Bad Bunny Bowl with Vanessa Díaz & Petra Rivera-Rideau
We're back for the second annual Super Bowl breakdown bonus episode. That's right, we're digging into Bad Bunny's incredible performance at this year's Super Bowl. I’m joined by Vanessa Díaz and Petra Rivera-Rideau, authors of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, creators of the Bad Bunny Syllabus Project, and Associate Professors of two different university-level Bad Bunny courses. We share our thoughts on the performance overall, and then break it all down, beat by beat, from the flags to the telephone poles to Lady Gaga and so much more.
TRANSCRIPT
Traci Thomas 0:00
Hey everybody, it is me. Traci Thomas, host of the stacks. I'm here again with another episode of the stacks unabridged, which is our bonus episode that is exclusive to Patreon and sub stack paid subscribers. I am thrilled today. We are bringing it back. We are doing another Super Bowl Halftime Show breakdown this year, of course, we are talking about that dude, bad bunny. We are talking about the performance, the politics, the beauty, the whole thing from start to finish. And this year, I have brought in two incredible women to help me break it all down. I am joined by Vanessa Diaz and Petra Rivera Rideau. They are the authors behind the brand new book pay fucking ere how bad bunny became, the global voice of Puerto Rican resistance. They are also both professors who teach courses on bad bunny. So we are going to be getting into the esthetic, into the politics into every single reference. I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. Yes, it is long, but baby, it is good. All right, it's time to dive in. Me. Vanessa Petra, and of course, our boy, Benito.
okay, everybody, it is our second annual Super Bowl breakdown podcast, bonus episode for the Benito Bowl this year, I am joined by two academics who wrote the literal book on bad bunny and politics. The book is called P FKN R I don't how do you actually, you guys should say it, because it's like, pay fucking ere
Vanessa Díaz 1:59
Yeah right. Pe fucking ere.
Traci Thomas 2:01
Pe fucking ere. Okay, there's a subtitle. It's how bad bunny became, the global voice of Puerto Rican resistance. The authors and My guests today are Vanessa Diaz and Petra Rivera Rideau. Ladies, welcome to the stacks.
Thank you. We're super excited.
You guys have had a had a busy week between the book came out on January 27 the Grammys were that next weekend we got the Super Bowl. Who is more tired, you two or bad bunny?
Vanessa Díaz 2:32
It's close. It's very close.
Traci Thomas 2:34
He hasn't even been doing any media. So I think you guys
Vanessa Díaz 2:38
I mean, I think because I have twin four year olds, and I'm also teaching that it's probably us. You're right. Okay, probably us. That's right.
Traci Thomas 2:48
I tend to believe that, okay, we're gonna dive right in. We're gonna talk about the show. I think the best way to do it is sort of high level. We got 13 and a half or so minutes of a performance going into the night, what did you think you were going to get, and did you get what you thought you were going to get?
Vanessa Díaz 3:15
Going into it, I knew that we were going to get messages, because bad bunny is like the master at getting lots of messages into everything he does. So I knew we were going to get them. Didn't know what they were going to be, or kind of how intense it would be, and I got everything that I thought was possible and way more, way more.
Traci Thomas 3:41
Okay. What about you, Petra?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 3:43
I also thought there was going to be some kind of, you know, he's like we talked about in our book, like he always uses his platform to say something. But there were a lot of surprises to me. One of the funny things is that in my family, so I have two children. They're nine and 12, and they love Kendrick, and they also love bad bunny. So both of these years, we've done, like, family set lists, like, what is he gonna play? And I definitely lost, like, because my son had like, lo que la Paso Hawaii. And like, I was like, There's no way it's slow. Like, that's like, like, there's, I don't know, and, yeah, they really, my kids definitely won this year. It's sort of funny. So there were, I was really surprised. And I, you know, there were certain things I knew we were going to see. I knew we were going to see the Puerto Rican flag a lot.
Traci Thomas 4:40
Did you know we were gonna see the light blue one? Can you tell sorry, I read the book? But people maybe haven't yet. Will you tell folks about the light blue versus the dark blue Puerto Rican flag?
Vanessa Díaz 4:58
Sure, I can start. There's a lot to say. So prior to US occupation of Puerto Rico, the there are actually multiple Puerto Rican flags, but the kind of most common flag that's known as the Puerto Rican flag that now represents independence, it looks the same as the one that's their official flag that has the dark blue but it has a sky blue, or as bad bunny refers to it in his songs as well clarito. So like a light blue triangle that actually was created to be the inverse of the Cuban flag. There's a lot of like overlap in collaboration between Cuba and Puerto Rico. And so the inverse is the sky blue stripes with the red triangle in Cuba Puerto Rico is the light blue triangle and the and the red stripes, then better. Petra I don't know if you want to jump in with the Gag Law and then the change of colors.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 5:57
Yeah so I think we should just say, like, the change of colors, right? Like, so you'll also see a Puerto Rican flag with a dark blue triangle that is meant to match the darker blue color used in the US flag, right? And this is a shift as a result of us colonialism, right? So I think for bad money to have the light blue flag is really critical. It is. It is not necessarily the independence flag of Puerto Rico, but it is a widely recognized symbol of, you know, supporting independence. And then the other thing about the flag is, you know, at some point, right, the United States takes over Puerto Rico in 1898, the gag law is the law that existed from 1948 to 1957 that made it illegal to express anything supporting the independence movement and including owning on displaying a Puerto Rican flag.
Traci Thomas 6:54
So even in your own home, you couldn't even have the flag in your own home?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 6:58
Not even in private.
Traci Thomas 6:59
I thought America had a First Amendment. What am I missing?
Vanessa Díaz 7:04
I mean, that's like, the whole tension with, like, the history of Puerto Rico is that, like, they thought, Oh, the US is this young nation. They're gonna liberate us. And they were like, actually, no, we're just gonna keep you in perpetual colonialism, and also, like, take away every Liberty you ever thought you might have, including your flag. And then the rebranding happens within the context of the Gag Law. So 1952 is when we see the dark blue triangle emerge, and then the end of the Gag Law.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 7:40
But I think your your point, Traci, about the First Amendment is really important, right? Because Puerto Ricans have been US citizens since 1917 but the citizenship of Puerto Ricans is not the same, right? And so if you live in Puerto Rico, you don't have any voting representation in Congress. You can't vote for president, but you can be drafted right into the military. You can receive certain federal benefits, but at a lower scale than if you lived in the mainland us. So I think that's important, because there's a discussion in you know, Puerto Rico gets its own constitution in 1952 but the US Constitution supersedes everything in the Puerto Rican constitution. Yeah, and then, and then, ostensibly, that means you should have free speech, right? Because that's part of our our rights as US citizens. And yet, like people don't realize that, like COINTELPRO was the first group they were surveilling were Puerto Rican independence activists, and then, you know, using those tactics of surveillance to go after the groups that we often think of, like the Black Panther Party and things like that. So I think it's an interest, it's an important question, because it's kind of like we are in this moment where we have free speech, but then, like, people are like, not really having free speech, but in Puerto Rico, that's been the reality for a really long time, you know.
Traci Thomas 9:09
So, okay, so you knew that there was gonna be the flag. What songs did you think he would play that he didn't play? What was on your list, Petra, that you were like, Oh, for sure.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 9:21
I was pretty convinced he would do I like it, whether or not Cardi B were there, like, I didn't. I wasn't necessarily convinced Cardi B would be a guest, but I was convinced he would do I like it. That was a really major song in his career.
Traci Thomas 9:53
When you saw her, weren't you like, it's gonna happen?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 9:57
No, because as soon as I saw her in the casita I was like, okay, she's not coming on the stage.
Traci Thomas 10:02
Oh, see, I thought it was gonna be like, she was gonna be like, yeah, baby, you know she's like, bust out. I also knew that Jay Balvin was up there for the Super Bowl, like I'd seen him on so and I was like, oh, it's happening, like, you're gonna get the moment. What else, anything else, Vanessa, that you thought for sure?
Vanessa Díaz 10:18
I actually really thought that young Nico was gonna perform with him, but she was in the casita as well, but I knew she was up there. And I, I, what I did know was I was like, He's gonna showcase some young Puerto Rican artists or a queer artist. And so, like, instead, we got an older queer Puerto Rican artist than Ricky Martin. But I, but I so I thought, I thought young Mikko, like, I, I mean, to be honest, like, the reason I was like, I don't know about that song, is because that's a really explicit song. But also I had, I had told myself there's no way he's gonna do safaera, yeah, because it's so explicit, there's no way he could do it. And then when he started doing safaira, I was like, You did it? Like, how? Like, oh my gosh. Like, once he started safaera, I was like, all bets are off. He could do anything at this.
Traci Thomas 11:08
Yeah, I'm an Un Verano Sin Ti person. I just love the album. So I was really hoping we were gonna get like Ojitos Lindos. Or, like, I just or like, neverita. Like, I just love those songs. I know they're not super bowl songs, but I also thought maybe we get Después de la Playa
Petra Rivera-Rideau 11:25
I was surprised that we didn't hear that
Traci Thomas 11:45
Okay? So one of the things I learned in your book as I was watching the show, because so going into the halftime show, I think a lot of people on both sides of the political aisle were like, bad bunny is going to do? Is going to protest? He's gonna protest this political moment. I think a lot of people thought that it would certainly be in conversation with the sort of in your face way that Kendrick did it last year with, like, a lot of allusions to the lie of America and all of these things and so go and, you know. And also people are like, he's gonna wear a skirt. Like, Oh my god, though, esthetically, he hasn't been wearing the skirt as much. He's been really into that boxier look. So I wasn't, I was expecting a Slack, just based on the trend. But I think a lot of people thought it was going to be, you know, we were going to see no ice or like, there was going to be some commentary politically that felt extremely in your face, speaking to the moment, what we got, I think, I mean, I would say was obviously extremely political, but much more the party as protest, which you all have a whole chapter in your book about, which I was like, right? I should have seen this coming. But he does. He does this whole almost day in the life kind of show from start to finish. What did you all make of sort of the smallness of the moment he gets his you know, he gets his shot, he goes by the jeweler, he gives people a ring like it's very everyday little moments. What did you make of that as sort of the centerpiece of the thing?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 13:24
I thought it was great. I mean, I thought that was a very political move to kind of showcase the everyday life of Puerto Ricans and also Latinos more broadly. Right, like the taco stand. You know, for instance, So the wedding scene was one that like the wedding itself, fine, but the reception scene with all the multi generational people dancing, the kids sleeping in the chair, all that stuff, I thought it was a really beautiful thing to see as someone celebrating these everyday people. I also thought that like in this moment when Latinos are being represented as like foreign, threatening, creepy people that need to be cast out of this country to see everyday things, getting your nails like just regular, regular stuff is a sort of statement on like Latino humanity right in this moment. And I felt like having these family moments, these scenes of everyday life, having a Casita, you know, this house with like, these incredibly huge stars, but like, at one point, like you didn't really notice them, right? Like they're they're just as much in the background as the background dance first, right? Right, to me that that was really a really sweet, nice thing to see, and very kind of on brand for bad bunny, who is someone who seems like exceedingly humble, where everything he does is like a giant group project, and he's constantly giving credit to all these different people all the time. And so I felt like that was also like really on brand for him to highlight everyday people and not just like these other huge stars all the time, and even Lady Gaga, you know, she was a wedding singer, like she was in the scene. She was obviously the focus of the scene. But like, also, people are like, holy crap. Someone just got married. Yeah. What's up with those people?
Traci Thomas 15:38
I want to put a pin in the Lady Gaga thing, because I think we need to spend some time with that. I got a lot of questions and thoughts
Vanessa Díaz 15:43
yeah, we can come back to it.
Traci Thomas 15:45
Yeah, I want to come back. Oh, don't worry. I got my stacks pack the like, you know, the people who are sweet, Patreon supporters. I was like, I you know, we're gonna do this episode. What do you guys want to talk about? The first question was, Lady Gaga, my best friend. I said, What do you think of the show. She wrote back, yeah, but Lady Gaga, so I definitely want to talk about the Lady Gaga of it all. I think it's important
Vanessa Díaz 16:08
I also think for me, there's those little touches, but I'm kind of fascinated by the idea that that anyone could have seen that performance and not seen it as profoundly political. It's kind of mind boggling to me. I understand that many people didn't get every reference that I understand. Sure I don't understand how you can have a scene open with people who are working cane fields and not go, Oh my gosh, this is political. We're talking about labor. We're referencing enslaved labor. We're referencing the wake of slavery and the continued exploitation of labor. These figures are coming back in all these different moments, doing difficult labor like this theme of labor, Latinos are also stereotyped as just laborers, like, that's what they're here for. And like, yeah, they're holding the whole thing together. This doesn't exist without them. The laborers are the center of the story in many moments. But then it brings in like, but these are also people who are dancing and being in family and just this, this complexity. But I think for me, at this point of kind of kind of come to, like, accept that kind of what Petra and I wrote about in our in our opinion piece for New York Times, which is, like there were two shows. Because when I hear people and I mean, I've been debating this with people who are like, it was just like a party, all the messaging was lost. And I'm just like, okay, tending the canes not a message, we're okay. Then, then that's like, it's just wild to me.
Traci Thomas 17:48
I think that part of this, and you guys, have you talked about it in your in your New York Times piece, I think part of the reason that people didn't see what you saw and what I saw is partially because they don't know the history and the story, even the recent history, like a lot of people, don't know about the blackouts that are still continuing to happen. So I think for a lot of people, you see like, oh, it's cool. They're performing on a on a pole, and there's a, you know, pyrotechnic or, Oh, it's the cane fields, because it's Puerto Rico and that like it just esthetically looks like, and I think so many people a don't know their history in general, like they're not connecting people laboring in the field as laborers and that that could be tied to, you know, enslavement, or or, you know, any of those things, because they're also just that's not where their brain goes, right. And so I do think there are plenty of people who all they can recognize is like dancing and like dance music, and especially because for many Americans myself included, like I don't speak Spanish, and so if you also aren't hearing the words, I can understand how you could miss it. I think that the protests, though and the politics are not hidden. So I think if you can open your eyes to it, if you're paying attention at all, you can see it. But I do, I know people. I mean, I know people who thought that Kendrick's thing wasn't and I was like, it's Sam Jackson as Uncle Sam. Like, it's red, white and blue. So I do think, I think some of it's like, we're just stupid. People are stupid. But I don't think that's on bad buddy, like he put out a political piece of work, certainly. Yeah, I think that there's also multiple layers of politics, right? So, I mean, elapagon, we knew was going to be there, and so that's the song that happened, sort of like towards the very end, where it's right after Ricky Martin, there's the pyrotechnics, and then it cuts to the telephone poles, and it's got the three dancers, and then the one empty pole that was so dangerous.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 20:06
It doesn't surprise me that people missed some of the very Puerto Rican specific messaging, yeah, but there was a lot of messaging that was not Puerto Rico, right? The entire end
Traci Thomas 20:20
yeah, the flags were pretty in your face.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 20:23
And then, you know, I've heard some people say, Well, he didn't say anything about ice, but he referenced his Grammy speech in the whole last third of that show, right? Like the kid who receives the Grammy is watching his speech where he said ice out and the screen around the stadium has his quote from his speech on it. So I'm like, he didn't say ice out, but he didn't. He used visual references that were central to that Controversy The week before, and I think there are some people who don't, you know, I have relatives, they're never gonna watch the Grammys and stuff, whatever, like, they wouldn't see that screen. And know that was his Grammy speech, but he was saying it without saying it.
Vanessa Díaz 21:17
I think that's kind of what we were anticipating, that it wasn't going to be ice out, but that it was going to be very political, for sure. And I think, like, I understand there's kind of, like a bit of pushback, of, like, well, it should have been even more political, or that, right? Like, why wasn't it as forceful? And kind of a tension between our point, which is that actually the protest can be the party like and the party the pro like, right? And that joy is also resistance, and that we have to really think expansively about what resistance look like, looks like, and also what sustaining resistance looks like, that there is a moment for him to he has a few seconds, and he gets on stage and he says, bah, bah, bah. You know, ice out. We're not animals. We are human. Like that moment is for that and that this moment is like, and there's this other part of resistance, which is taking what I said there and showing you what I meant by it. I'm showing you that we're human. I'm showing you we're American. I'm like, he explained that in the show. What his speech was at the Grammys, he showed us this is what I mean. We're human, we're American, We're not criminals. This is who we are. We are loving people. And the moment for me, that was right before the abalon moment, where he fell backward into the crowd, that was another dangerous moment. It was dangerous, but the point was, my community has my back. We have each other's back. And at every turn, it was friends together having each other's back. It was family members together having each other's back. It was a wedding. It was like artists that you like Ricky Martin, who he has collaborated with. It was so it was so familial and familiar and so intentional in explaining what he meant in his speech, and in showing us that we actually need all of these parts of our lives to keep going, to keep resisting, the fight doesn't exist if we can't also stop and celebrate and show love and show that we have each other's backs. And so I, I really take issue with this idea that, like, it should have just been this kind of protest instead of going actually, there's so many kinds of protests and and we have to keep all of them going so that we can keep the movement going.
Traci Thomas 23:43
Yeah, and I want to so you both are academics. You're you teach about history and about and about this culture, and my background is in performance. And so people listen to the show, they will know that one of my personal obsessions is audience. And I think one of the things that bad bunny is exceptional at is knowing his audience, I think, throughout this entire week. But from Grammys to the Super Bowl, he was very clear. I mean, at the Grammys, the first speech he gives it in English. He doesn't do that a lot like he the ice out speech was very clearly that he was saying publicly in English, so you wouldn't miss the message, including the line, the only thing that is more powerful than hate is love, which comes up again in the Super Bowl. So you think he just said that and then they added it to the show. No, he's thinking about the story he's telling from that first speech in English, the second speech is in Spanish. He does this whole performance in Spanish, and it's not because he has to, it's because he's made this choice, right? He's making the choice to do the political and the party together, like we've talked about, and then also this ending. Right? This ending with the flags he's saying, in case you missed that, I was doing a political thing. Here are the literal symbols of nations on the continent, right? Like he's like, on these continents, like he's clearly obsessed with that. And the other piece about audience, which is much smaller, but I noticed, and I think about all the time with Super Bowl halftime shows is like, oftentimes, when the main person goes onto the floor, and there's a lot of people on the floor with them, they get totally lost. Like, see the Usher halftime show a disaster of focus. And I felt, I mean, I could barely I was like, having, like, who's your audience? Panic Attack. But I thought that what he did so well, which was in juxtaposition to what Kendrick did, which was Kendrick, it was very clean. All the lines were so clean. It was easy to see him at all points. It was very angular on purpose to like point at him. And what bad bunny did is like he was, they were still able to keep the focus on him. It never felt like he was lost in the crowd, except for when he wanted to be so like during nueva yo, when the people like going back and forth in front of him and like around him. But I just thought, like I to me, even if you don't think about audience in the same way, I think what you feel at home is taken care of when you know what you're looking at, and you can tell that thought has gone into it, like it's very, very clear. With that being said, I want to kind of go through the show a little bit. Okay, note for note, So we open with this guy being like,
Vanessa Díaz 26:42
How wonderful it is to be Latino, right?
Traci Thomas 26:45
And then we get the like bad bunny Gone With the Wind opening credit moment over the cane fields like a swooping shot. And then we are on the field with our grass people and our people in the cane fields, the grass people taking over social media, fascinating. The every Get Ready With Me, with every person who flew across the country to be a grass person, obsessed with them. I just, I'm like, Who knew? Like, my Halloween costume will be picked so early this year. Everyone's gonna be a grass person. If you're not one, what have you done with your life? But we get, we get the his back with Ocasio and 64 which he has come out to say as a tribute to his uncle, who wore that number in his own football career. Yeah. And we get his guttural, ey, and we get Tití Me Preguntó with people kind of working The cane field
Vanessa Díaz 28:05
The moment between the queer Rico, I said, Latino. What flashes on the screen is Benito. Benito, Antonio Martinez, Ocasio, presenta espectacular del medio tiempo, del super taison, right? And so. And it's in cursive, so it's like a nod to like a telenovela kind of opening. And also it's in Spanish. It's in Spanish. And it just was like, here we go, like, here we go. It's going to be everything and more, and then to have again, this is like, back to mine and Petra's. The party is the protest, who opened with titima pregunta, which is decidedly not a political song. It is a video. It is party in the streets per REO all day, like all the Latinos in the streets of New York City, partying Right? Like, this is a party track. There are no if ands or buts about it. And then cane fields, like it was like, yes, because we are this and we are that we are partying in the streets and we are busting our asses, right? We are, when we bring this history with us, when we party, we're bringing all of that history. So it was just, I was like, overwhelmed with like, holy, oh my god. And then he starts to turn the corners. And when we say in the opinion piece, we felt, seen, heard, represented every corner we turned, it literally was like, and he turns a corner, and it's Coco frio, and he turns a corner, and the girls are getting their nails done, and the guys are playing dominoes. And then there's, like, these women sitting on bricks, which, like, I've actually seen some fascinating interpretations of that, but those are the bricks that are like the foundation of Puerto Rican homes. And it would actually the interpretation I've seen that I'm taken by is that it was those women being like the foundation of Puerto Rico or of Latin American culture. That's the take I saw, that I'm like, I'm into it. The piragua Stand like just the nostalgia
Traci Thomas 30:21
Oh, I gotta tell you, when I saw the piano was then I was like, are we gonna get Lin Manuel Miranda? I was terrified that I was because I was gonna be confronted with one of my most irritating. he wouldve found a way he would have been like, Hey guys, I wore my white top. I'm ready to go
Petra Rivera-Rideau 30:44
If Bad Bunny wanted Lin Manuel there. He would have been there, oh,
Traci Thomas 30:46
yeah, that's true. But Lin would have been like, Oh, I could just push the piano stand
Vanessa Díaz 30:50
and then the taco stand and then the boxers and then the jewelry stand. It was just like, it was like, Oh, you're turning our corners. You're doing our thing. Like, yeah, totally.
Traci Thomas 31:01
And he also, we should have said this, he starts also, you know, on a football field. And I think, you know, there's this comparison between athletes, especially black athletes, that are compared to, like being slave, the $40 million slave is like a book, and he's holding the football, and it starts in the field. And not to put too fine a point on it, but he does end in the end zone, and he spikes the ball and sort of this, you know, narrative, and the child gives him the ball. So he is also carrying the football metaphor through which I was like, Okay, I see it. I mean, I don't. I didn't mean it, but I saw it. So then he there's a proposal there. It's different people than people than people who actually get married. But it's a little, you know, prep, and then we go to yo pero sola, which is a song about twerking by yourself. Basically. Will you guys talk about this dance, because it is also factors heavily into the book. So will you let people know why this song is important, what it means and what it says about sort of women representation, women in a reggaeton, the sexism, all of that because it's a it's a really important piece of bad Bunny's story.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 32:31
I actually don't think it's the same as twerking. It's often, it's often translated as twerking, and I think traditionally, is more like grinding like, you know, two people, partner dance. It's a partner dance, two, one kind of grinding against the other. To me, the best example they there is a scene when he comes out of the casita and they are playing the all these old reggaeton songs, and you see different couples dancing per REO together back to front, and then he goes to the truck to sing ao. And there's these two men facing each other dancing, and they're doing pen reo. That's like, it's a very sexual dance. You know, in in the early 2000s there was a lot of moral panic about pereo and how pereo was going to encourage underage sexual activity and cause teenage pregnancies. And it was sort of like seen as the kind of degenerate moral, like immoral, nasty thing that if we could just get rid of it, we'd all be like respectable, happy people together, you know, sure. So it has been very stigmatized. And so I think the casita in the residency, and the casita here was like a showcase of, kind of reggaeton and pereo, and then Joe perio sola is a song about a woman, basically like women should dance and not feel like they're getting harassed, essentially, right, like, and she wants to dance it alone. And I have a lot of like, complicated feelings about that song, I have to say, because, you know, there was a song by Evie Queen, who is one of bad Bunny's major influences, like the most important woman in reggaeton, who what was called quiero Bailar. That was basically like the same exact song. but I think part of what made yo pereo sola so important was also the music video, right? So when this is the music video, where he famously wore full drag, which is not only unusual in the world of reggaeton, but in the world of pop music, like, give me a guy who's worn like, full drag in hip hop or in pop, like, there that's just, like, not a normal thing in any genre right now. And the video also had a lot of messages around protesting domestic violence and gender based violence. So in the music video, there were signs that said things like new new names, which is a slogan that comes from a lot of activism around domestic violence in Latin America. So it was a song. The song itself is about like a woman being able to have her own autonomy dancing. And then in the context of the music video, which is incredibly memorable and a huge cultural moment, that it's also speaking around like violence against what you know, against violence against women, it's supporting queer rights and trans rights and kind of pushing the boundaries of male representation. So he just did that for a brief second in the in the halftime show. But if you are familiar with his repertoire, then you know what that song is about, what that song and what by what I mean by that is not just what it's lyrically about, but what the whole sort of cultural moment around it stands for, right? Yeah.
Traci Thomas 36:19
Do you think that because so after that song, it goes into safarera and party, party, that song that I love, I could have done eight minutes of party. they continued the dancing, the sort of that style of dancing, and it was a whole slew of women just fit it out in their Zara outfits. He wore Zara. Everybody wore Zara clothes and then Adidas sneakers, because that's who he's sponsored by Adidas.
Vanessa Díaz 37:10
Yeah. Wait, was it really? I heard about, was it really Zara clothes?
Traci Thomas 37:13
I read an article that said it was Zara, which I thought was weird, because Zara is a Spanish owned company, which sort of was just like doing, like, colonialism again, but I don't know.
Vanessa Díaz 37:21
They're a very controversial company, so I know I think we should not shout them out.
Traci Thomas 37:27
Well, all I know is that's what he was wearing. We can take up that part of benitos politics at another week. But it was this continued dance moment for these women. Did you all make any anything of that, that in this section, it was only women dancing besides the people in the Casita, like Pedro Pascal was back there.
Vanessa Díaz 37:49
Yes. I mean, I think that it was really what Petra was speaking to, which is, like this song. The messaging of that song is that women should be able to dance by themselves, not feel like they're doing it for someone else not feel like that is a risk for them to just be dancing. And so, like, the fact that there were so many women, like, all different shapes, sizes, colors, and they were like, having the time of their lives like that is the vibe of that song. And so I felt like it was this really important moment in in all of it, where it was just, it was about them having that space. And in fact, when he starts Safai era, I mean, the little portion that he did was largely bleeped out. But also, you know, part of what we talk about in the gender chapter in the book is that many of his lyrics, you know, they're critiqued for being misogynistic. In fact, many of them center women's pleasure center women's agency. And so the part that he did was, like, it's about, like, what the what the woman wants. If your boyfriend won't do this, then, like, Forget about him. A lot of the critique, of course, I mean, people are going to critique bad bunny no matter what he did, and he knew that, that's why he just did whatever he wanted to do. But I think it's really fascinating that, on the one hand, like conservative critique is like, Oh, well, you know, it's not in English, and we can't understand what he's saying. And then they're like, We don't understand what he's saying, but he's saying this and no one can understand him, whether it's in English or Spanish, because he talks like no one can understand him, except for he's saying these horrible things. And it's like, are you listening? Are you not listening? Can you understand them? Or can you not understand them? And also like you're not even hearing that there's things that were bleeped out, first of all, and the other part of it is he's saying things that aren't actually in those moments. I'm not saying he never said a misogynistic thing in his life. He's not saying something misogynistic there, and it's just like, yeah. So to me, that moment was really important. I loved seeing all the women dancing. I thought it was beautiful, hot, all of those things. And. Um, and then I loved that transition when he walks through and they do the like medley of the old school reggaeton into the truck scene like I just it was glorious.
Traci Thomas 40:10
Yeah, one of the moments that stood out for me was that next scene where he's where they're in the more brown color, and he falls through the roof. He walks out they do like a little gasolina, you know, homage moment you get the three black women doing the head rolls, which I love, because a the Afro Caribbean, Afro Latina community, I felt like we needed that moment. And also it reminded me of the little like talking nymphs from Kendrick show, you know, like the girls that he had. It was like the same kind of like choreographical like callback, which is important to note for those of you who care about choreography at all, the same choreographer, charm LaDonna, she did Kendrick show, his show, bad Bunny Show, and Beyonce show, and also the weekend, which I thought was horrible, but same woman, so I do think you know, she's a black woman from Compton, so shout out to her. People don't get to say her name enough, but she clearly has a keen eye for audience as well. He walks out, he falls through the roof. He walks out. They're on the truck. They're dancing. We get that grinding moment of two men, which I think for most people at, if you were at a Super Bowl party, everyone was like, oh shit. Like, that's how it was, where I was. I've heard so many people reference it. And then, and then we get this great dance party. This the circle, like he's up on the truck, and they're all dancing around him. And it just was like, if this isn't, if you don't want to be in there, right? Like, if you don't want to be dancing at that party.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 42:16
And also, the song is a, Oh, right. So whereas, like, Yo perio, sola. It's another per REO reference, right? It's ao because that's the end of the word per reo. And it's a song about per REO being from Puerto Rico, and, and, and it's kind of roots, and it's, it's his producer, tiny, sort of like citing himself, because he's been producing for 20 years. And you know it, it's another celebration of this dance That's very maligned for for people who are like old school reggaeton fans, for those of us who were around when gasolina and paquetos and Hector el father and all those people were popular, and we witnessed those debates to have it. Book ended by two per REO love songs, like meaning, like, we love pereo songs. Was really cool. I liked that a lot, like, and I knew it would bother people, you know, I knew it would, and I get it because I teach at a women's college. Like, I've gotten emails from like, like, Latinos, like, how can you teach at a women's college and, like, support this guy who does this, like nasty thing, so people are still bothered by it. So I really, I really liked that juxtaposition there.
Vanessa Díaz 43:50
We forgot a little tiny thing that's actually critically important. So rewind. Okay, so right after party, he actually goes into a little bit of Voya verte popular, yeah, and he does a little snippet of that. And it's after that that we get the interlude of the old school reggaeton, and then into ao. And I think that's really important, because he it's a decide, it's a decisive moment where, like, now he's literally taking us to Puerto Rico, and he's taking us to these old school Puerto Rican artists, and then into EO, and it's, and it's like, basically, like, we're going into this, this moment in in Puerto Rican history that I thought was really smart, all those little, tiny little bits, like they were intentional,
Traci Thomas 44:38
yeah, the sort of, like, interstitial moments that like, really the connective tissue, yeah. Okay, so then he walks through, well, we get the little shot of the little frog guy on the screen, the little like mascot of, say it again,
Vanessa Díaz 44:54
it's called a Sapo Concho,
Traci Thomas 44:56
and he's the little mascot of this album, right? And is there a Puerto Rican significance. Will you tell us about it?
Vanessa Díaz 45:04
So the Sapo goncho Is the crested Toad of Puerto Rico, native and endemic. Meaning, like it only exists there in a very small space. It cannot live outside of Puerto Rico. It does not live anywhere else, and it is actually critically endangered, meaning it is near extinction, and that is because of invasive species and the decimation of its natural habitat. So in the context of the album debit ads photos, it is like this emblem of like, what remains in Puerto Rico, and kind of like, how can we save this critically endangered creature? And and, in fact, it's not just the Sapo Concho. It's Puerto Rican culture. It's Puerto Rican people who are losing their who are losing their land there. They are also critically endangered of displacement, forced migration, gentrification, all of these things it. So he's kind of this emblem of it, this little like beloved emblem. And it's also really important to note that the the kind of iconic other creature that's similar is the cookie frog, right? So there's the crusted toad and there's the cookie frog. And most people know the cookie because it's another, like, it's another animal that's kind of like represented as really symbolic. It's also native to Puerto Rico, but it's not as at risk. And so that choice, like more people are familiar with the cookie bad bunny, chose to focus on this crested Toad, and has made it now, you know, brought attention to it, which I think was smart, and reminds me of the way that people have gotten really into the oh my gosh, Axolotl. The Axolotl it's the same thing, right? The axolotls live in, like, a few little ponds in Mexico. And now, like, kids all over the world are obsessed with axolotls because it became a character in this game. And so I think bad bunny, I'm imagining that there was something was like, Oh, I can teach people through this little this little animal, this little character. And now it's like the NFL selling like Sapo Concho gear. It's like, makes people ask questions. So anyway, we get to he's very important to the album, very important in terms of, like, Puerto Rico's history and cultural kind of survival and, and we see him up on the screen, like yelling and, and it's like it's a little moment before we pan to the orchestra starting to play Monaco,
Traci Thomas 47:24
which is another song that I absolutely love, those strings. How can you just stop when those I'm like, How could you switch to another song?
Vanessa Díaz 47:59
He says the only reason he's in the Super Bowl is because he never stopped believing in himself, and then he says you should believe in yourself too, and you're worth more than you think. And I thought that was a really critical moment, again, in the context of ice right, of the devaluing and marginalization of Latinos, he's saying in Spanish, you're worth more than this, right? I thought that was very powerful,
Traci Thomas 48:30
yes. And then we throw to the wedding. I've heard a lot of like, sort of metaphors and analogies, of like, this is his love song, support love his album, his love letter to Puerto Rico. So this is him, like, marrying like that. That's the ultimate, you know, embodiment of love is a wedding. And so that's why we got a wedding in the show. What did? What do you guys think? Is there a reason that we got a wedding, or was it just sort of like a fun, a fun thing to do, which is allowed, it's the Super Bowl,
Petra Rivera-Rideau 49:00
I don't know. I don't think it's that deep. I think it's very hard to recreate the vibe of a family gathering at the Super Bowl stage and a wedding is a great way to introduce that and those images and feelings of the, you know, multi generational people salsa dancing, the kids sleeping in the chair, the kids running around. That's a scene that is familiar in many different family gatherings, from a more casual gathering to a wedding. And I think a wedding signifies that this is a familial space. And I don't know how else you could do that in 30 seconds at the Super Bowl
Vanessa Díaz 49:42
So one thing that I've that I did not see initially, but And again, like some of what we're saying is analytical speculation, because everyone gets something different. That's like the beauty of art, but that He only says the first line of Monaco, which is es lo que tuquerias de. This is what you wanted, right? And so he says, This is what you wanted. And then he pans to the wedding that opens up to Gaga. And so I have seen some interpretation saying that he has the one person who really like says anything in English is like a white blonde woman who's singing in English, right? But he so he picks this person, and I think it's a complicated choice, and we can talk, I think, now a little bit more about, yeah, yeah. Well, so a couple of things, right? He says, This is what you wanted. And he pans to like this, this white blonde woman who's singing in English. And, I mean, there's a lot going on with Gaga, but I think if, if we kind of take this idea of like, oh, well, if we just put a white like blonde woman singing in English that it'll all be okay. But actually, Lady Gaga is also a controversial figure in her own right, and I think you know, she's someone who has advocated tirelessly for the LGBTQ plus community. I've gotten a lot of these same reactions, like friends going like, Well, why was she there? I my understanding from multiple people in advance was that he was, he was intentionally going to pay homage to kind of like queer folks, and the idea that he says, bailar sin miedo, amarci miedo, like dance without fear, love without fear. We know he's done a lot to advocate for the queer community. And so when he goes up there, and then he's like, dancing with Lady Gaga. I think it was this moment to be like, we can come together, as long as we're on the same page about the same things, then we can come together from different cultures and different languages. She's someone who advocates for things that I also advocate for. And to me, like the only two people that we get who are not part of his sort of like existing touring crew, which is a slew of amazing musicians, but they're not necessarily household names, are Gaga and Ricky Martin, who within the queer community, are icons. They are icons and Gaga. You know, the I think, again, like some of the critique or kind of questioning I've gotten is like, well, but has she come out as queer? That's the same thing that happens to bad bunny. You're like, well, he advocates for queer people, but is he queer baiting? Because is he queer himself? Has he been with a man? Has Gaga been with a woman? And like, you know Petra and I think both teach this piece by Julio Capo Jr, called Bad bunny is queer to me, and it's this whole thing about like. It's not about who like queerness is much more than just who your sexual partner is. It's about an understanding. It's about advocacy. It's about seeing love as like and seeing everyone as human and fine in their own skin, and accepting them so to have bad bunny Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, I think that was this really important moment for for the queer community.
Traci Thomas 53:05
I do want to push back, because, as I talked about, audience is my thing, and I do think in the entire course of the show, to me, this moment was unclear. This was the moment in the show where I felt like I was like, doing the thing where I was like, what's going on? What's going on. Why is he doing this? Let me try to justify this for him. And I think that there are answers as to why he picked Lady Gaga, which you both have said beautifully. But I don't think storytelling wise, narratively, the vision that he had for the story, I don't think it's this served what he did everywhere else. I thought it was super murky. I thought, like, because then I'm like, okay, maybe he has her on because he wants to have an American who's, like, a good ally and a supporter. But I'm like, But why her? Why Lady Gaga? And then I see online, like, he's a big fan of Lady Gaga. I'm like, is he not a fan of everyone else? And then I see online, well, this is a song she sang with Bruno Mars, and he's Latino. And I'm like, so then why not have Bruno Mars, like, I just started doing all of this, like, what's going on here, and so to me, this was the weakest moment in the show, just because I thought it wasn't as clear as everything else. Like everything else felt so like, I can see what you're doing, and this didn't feel like that. I do think that like this is what you wanted, bit or, like, this is what you asked for, bit right before, like, the line of the song before that, like, goes into that. I think that is, like, sort of a clever, like, you know, a little tongue in cheek moment. But I just every like, I've watched this back a few times, and every time I'm just like, I don't I just like, I don't know, but the Los sobrinos, the like band that are with her, that it's like his band, these, like young musicians obsessed with them, like, I could have just looked at them playing, like, I just, I just it, just, I don't, I don't. You know what it is for me, it didn't add value to the show for me. Other like Ricky Martin added value to me. I was like, Holy shit, he's doing it, like, in a way that this was sort of just like, okay, like, Lady Gaga is just everywhere.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 55:10
Like, yeah, there was a feeling of randomness to it, yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think
Vanessa Díaz 55:16
I don't disagree with you. Just I, I have spent the time analyzing it in the moment, I was, I was a bit, I wasn't confused, like, especially because I think of her within, like, the queer icon, and I was kind of waiting for him to bring in queer icons. So I was like, Ah, this was the first queer icon we're gonna see. Yeah. Like, I really, I thought that. But I also agree, like, fluid wise, like, I know that that song is huge, but I actually didn't know that recognizes and so I was like, What is she singing? I'm but I was so overtaken by Yes, like, my kids are obsessed with no sobrino. Like they're like, Christa Santana, who plays the bass. That's one of like my kids are, like, my daughter pretends that her guitar is an upright bass because of her. So they were like, Crystal. They were like, losing their mind. So my focus went to them, and then that beautiful wedding scene and the dancing scene, and then into baila in all viable. And like, to me, like that moment, I feel you. It felt we were like, Let's go to baila in all viable. And let's like, just enjoy this other moment. So let's scoot right along. Yeah,
Traci Thomas 56:42
Out of that, we get the fall from the roof into the arms of the people to my favorite song. To me, choreographically, this was the other moment in the show that I thought was spectacular, the lines the circle and then we get the Grammys bit, which we talked about The little boy watching the TV, we see him watching bad bunny speech at the Grammys from the week before, when he wins Album of the Year. He hands him the Grammy. We get the shot of the just an adorable child. holding a Grammy. So cute, so good. And then we go to Ricky Martin in Spanish, singing lo que le paso a Hawaii, which is a song about how colonialism fucked up Hawaii, and we don't want this shit for us. This is about gentrification. This is about destruction. It's about all of these things. I told you guys this before, but I have to say it on record thanks to your book pay fucking ere. I was at a Super Bowl party and I said, you know, I think he might bring out Ricky Martin. And people were like, no, why do you think that just because he's Puerto Rican? I said, well, in the summer of 2019, there were some protests against the governor of Puerto Rico, and bad bunny left his tour. He left Europe. He dropped off some tour dates. Came home. He said, We got to come home. He said, I need my people, and my people need me, or my people need me, and I need my people, which I love. It's a banger of a line. Ricky Martin did the same. Ricky Martin was there, and I said, if this is going to be a political show and he's going to bring someone out, Ricky Martin would be a genius pick. So then we got Ricky Martin looking like a snack, just looking gorgeous, singing in the chairs from the cover of the album in Spanish, which Ricky Martin famously a crossover artist, famously was in the closet for years, comes out, it becomes a queer icon. This, to me, is the moment of the show politically in the if you know, you know right, like, Oh yes, I think the obvious political moment is the flags. But to me, when this happened, I said, Oh yes, Benito, how did you all feel about this?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 59:58
I had the exact same reaction, I have to say, you know, I didn't think Ricky's actual performance of the song was that great, just putting that out there. There were a lot of things about this moment that struck me so much, right? And you're right. It's the chairs from the album. It's also the scene in his residency in Puerto Rico, when they performed that song, and every Sunday, a different artist sang it, and Ricky did not sing at the residency, which people thought was kind of weird. He was there hanging in the Casita, but I think there were people waiting for Ricky to show up and sing the song, so I think that was cool, but I wanted to speak to what you just said about the crossover, because, again, thinking about the response to the announcement of bad bunny, right? And this idea that we're not going to understand it, we're not going to recognize anything. We're being excluded, right? Ricky Martin is some a household name in the United States, and he's a household name for this crossover in English and also embodying every like Latin lover stereotype that exists. That's right, right? I mean singing, Living La Vida Loca, singing, shake your Bon Bon, literally having lines in his song, saying, I want to be your lover, your only Latin lover, right? He had to perform that. And he also, you know and this was a time period when he had not yet come out, right? He doesn't come out till 2010 and it's been really nice to see 50s Ricky Martin, like Ricky Martin in his late 40s and 50s, sort of not giving a crap, and just like doing his thing and speaking about things, because that's not like what he did, right? And he didn't do that, and he writes about it in his autobiography. He didn't come out because he felt like the risk was too high that everything he had built would be destroyed, right? And here we are, like, having him be his whole self, and then he's singing, you know, he's singing a song that is, you know, elapagon is, of course, like a classic political anthem. But locally, Pastora Hawaii is arguably, like, to me, bad Bunny's most profound and explicit political critique, and to have the guy who the hip shaking guy, you know, right, come and be like in Spanish and sing that song, that was amazing to me. And I just felt like, sort of like what you were saying, Vanessa, like es lo que tu Korea, right? It's like you wanted to see people, you know, I'm serving Ricky Martin, but he's gonna sing about how much the US sucks and we gotta hold on to our flag.
Traci Thomas 1:02:56
Also like I'm serving you, Ricky Martin, but I'm serving you like a real Ricky Martin
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:03:01
yes, right? The Ricky Martin, you never were allowed to know, right, right?
Traci Thomas 1:03:04
Because, like, he sort of is a metaphor for this song of, like, this thing that was in some ways destroyed. He couldn't be his full self. He didn't sing in his native language when he, like, first came on the scene or whatever. And also, like, there's a moment in your book where you talk about him being, is it the Kelly Clarkson show? Yeah, and he sort of is, like, isn't bad bunny amazing? Like, look what she's out here doing. And I think that, like, that 20 year difference, or whatever between them is just, it's so huge. And in the conversation about, like, the Super Bowl, I've heard a lot of people say, like, you know, Beyonce thought she was being political, but it was nothing compared to, like, what bad bunny and Kendrick did, and I was just thinking like, but in those years in between, think how far we've come, and I think that that's also really exemplified in seeing Ricky Martin on stage in this, like, extremely pro Puerto Rican Spanish language, like Latino thing. Like, it's not that Ricky Martin didn't want to do that. It's that that was not possible. He didn't choose to be closeted because he thought, like, this is the right thing to do. He was pushed into that place. And so I think, like, that piece of it too, of like, he gets to have this moment, like, as his whole self in front of the world, again, was really, really powerful, huge, huge. Then we get el ABA Gon, which is the song about the blackout. This, in my understanding, correct me, if I'm wrong, this is, as you said, his political anthem. I think this is sort of like his, all right, if we're comparing it to Kendrick, this is his big song that people just like want to sing and chant out. And I will tell you this when I was watching the show again, as I've mentioned, I don't speak Spanish, but when he looks in the camera at the beginning of the song, and I think he does like a little like gesture I said, I don't know what he's saying, but what he's saying is, for sure, Fuck you guys. Like it was so clear, the tonal shift from where we had been to where we like that shift. Like, again, from an audience standpoint, I was like, I don't fucking know what you're saying, bro, but I know exactly what the fuck you're saying. Like I said, I can't wait to watch the tiktoks on this moment. He climbs the pole. Well, we have the spark, which is like to signify the power's gone out. It happens right behind Ricky Martin, and we cut there. We've got these three dancers who are all harnessed amazingly. And then we get our star unharnessed climbing up there, giving me a heart attack. He this song, he you talk about it in the book. He didn't want it to have swear words in it, because he wanted it to be this anthem. He worked with his producer. Is it mag? Is that? How you say it? Who is a bop King? Because every song that he does is my favorite song. And then they have this line in the song that's basically, like, I like Puerto Rican pussy, essentially, but like, that's, that's the direct translation. But it's also, you guys sort of try to make it into, like, the motherhood the center, like the root of Puerto Rico, or whatever. But in the song, in the full song, this bit is just, you can't help but sing it. They don't do it in the show because, obviously that's going to be bleeped out. But he does get his cabron in. He does get his because the song starts with, like, Puerto Rico, like we're so fucked and also we're so fucking tough. It's like a dual meaning in the way that you know tough and tough can be in English, like we're tough and it's tough.
Vanessa Díaz 1:07:02
I mean, I thought that the telephone poles were incredible, because, like in our classes, and we talk about it in the book, specifically that there were Puerto Ricans, because the response in the wake of Hurricane Maria was atrocious. The US was basically non responsive, not delivering tarps, not repairing electrical wiring, like there was all these power issues. Is the longest blackout in US history that lasted over 11 months, and people were so desperate that individuals without any training are risking their lives climbing these electrical poles to start repairing cords so crazy on their own, no protective gear, no nothing but wait. Our president did something. He came and he threw paper towels through, paper towels at people who are dying. Yeah, let's not forget that he came and threw paper towels at people, because I think that is a response, you know. And so this was actually one of those moments where, like, my students, that was the first thing they wanted to talk about. They were like, they had just seen the documentary about hurricane Maria, and they were like, my students were like, almost in tears. They were like, I saw that. I can't remember his name. We mentioned him in the book, but we they were like, we saw him. It was him, like, climbing and doing these repairs because he had little kids and, like, they can't keep milk cold and they can't keep insulin cold, and so that moment, like, it was so profound. And I get that it's insider stuff, but you know what? It was insider stuff that mattered so much. It was so evocative, goosebumps, tears, all of the emotions there.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:08:37
I also think another part of this song performance that was very little blip. But when we're talking about him looking in the camera, you know, the title of our book perfect, is a song of his from before a pagan, but it's a phrase that pops up a lot in his work. And there's and he says it in a la pagan was perfect, right? And he said estos at the Super Bowl. He changed the line, and he winked. Their camera was close up on his face, and he winked. And to me, that was another really interesting moment.
Traci Thomas 1:09:14
What is it that he said? What's the translation?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:09:19
This is Puerto Rico. So like, it was, you know, he can't say it by focusing on US television. But it was like, You know what I mean, right? I'm not meaning like, this is Puerto Rico, like, and, you know, like, look at this awesome Puerto Rico. It was like, You know what I'm talking about. And I loved that little part with the way I loved it.
Traci Thomas 1:09:40
And then and then. So we finished this moment. Then we get the song cafe con Ron and yes, then we get the rushing of the people down with the flags. It's let the charge is led by the US flag and the Puerto Rican flag, and then all the other flags come out, he hits us with God bless America.
Vanessa Díaz 1:10:26
America, not America, America.
Traci Thomas 1:10:28
Okay, that's a distinction that I did not know. What is the difference?
Vanessa Díaz 1:10:32
So America with an accent on the E is the way that in Spanish you refer to the Americas. And in English, when we say America, it typically refers to the US, the Americas. There's a whole like school of thought, like the Americas as this space, this connective goddess, okay?
Traci Thomas 1:10:51
And he's got the football again. We're back with the football. It's the third appearance of the football. And then he starts listing the countries, notably from the South to the North. Why do you think he did it in that order?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:11:35
Well, I think it allows him to start with the Latin American countries. And I think this was a moment to this, to me, was a, you know, a very clear assertion of Latino belonging in the United States. And so if you start with Canada, it's a lot less of an assertion, right? I thinkit was really important that he included countries like Jamaica and Guyana, right? Countries that are not Spanish speaking countries? Yeah, in that list as well. And I think the flags were really important also. So I, you know, I love flags. I have a kid who loves flags. He has a coloring book flags. So we know a lot about flags in this house. And there was flat a flag we didn't know. And I was like, I can't believe there's a Caribbean flag. I don't know. So he looked it up, and it was Bonaire, which is a Dutch territory near Curacao, right? And I think it's also really important other territories were in those flags, right? Bon air, the British Virgin Islands, the US Virgin Islands, right, right?
Because he didn't say every country, but he had all the flags, and
he said the Antilles Right? Like you can't list every single Caribbean country, like there's so many Right, right, right. He said he listed big ones like Guyana and Jamaica, but he said, and the Antilles Right, right? And to me, the fact that they included other territories was so critical, to the it there are other countries and other independence movements happening in the Caribbean right now, and by having those flags, I thought that was really I had not, you know, calling out Latin American countries and showing Latin American flags is not unusual, right? What's unusual is also the inclusion, to me, of the territories in those visuals that was really powerful to me, for sure.
Traci Thomas 1:13:28
Yeah. I mean, like we said at the beginning to me, this moment is, like, in case you missed it, here is the sub. This is the conclusion in the academic text, right? It's like I gave you a thesis with my opening thing. But like, in case you missed it, you could just read the conclusion, and you're gonna get the story here, which is, like, you know, it says on the football together, we are America. A small note. He needed to hold it in the camera a little bit longer. We didn't get, yeah, it was just,
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:13:58
I couldn't, I know, it said that till after the show is over.
Traci Thomas 1:14:02
Yeah, just a small note for next time Benito. And then right before he spikes the ball, he says, in Spanish, we're still here.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:14:10
I wanted to say like so cafe con Ron. When he plays that at the Super Bowl, it's with the kind of like EDM sounds of the Chota de Puerto Rico, part of that song of apagon and planetos de la cresta come out, and he is surrounded bad money is surrounded by plena performers with the flags. And I think that is really important, because plena is a protest music in Puerto Rico and Afro Caribbean music. It actually, you know, it's a music that's credited to Afro Puerto Rican populations. But a lot of one of the things that happens in the Caribbean is that people move around a lot. And there were a lot of people who were coming from other European territories, British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands from Haiti, and they were also. Involved in the creation of plena, and those histories get kind of erased in this sort of national when Puerto Ricans talk about plena as, like, autochthonous national music. And I don't know if I don't know how much bad bunny knows about, like, the inter Caribbean mingling that produced plena, but to me, it wasn't just that he listed the countries, it wasn't just that he had the flags, it was that he had live plena performers as the soundtrack to that that also made it very, very powerful, like a musical link to the Caribbean, and also a music that is about protest everyday people like, because I have to admit my eye, when cafe called came on and it was the Chota Puerto Rico, I was like, Are you kidding? Really? Like, where's planetos de la crest? I was I was mad, hear this, to this EDM song. And then when they came out with, like, all the planet people, I was like, oh my god, amazing. You couldn't be on the polls because you had to leave the charge like
Traci Thomas 1:16:06
the sound of the plena music people would find most recognizable in DTMF, right? That's what the song that you talked about in the introduction, yeah?
Vanessa Díaz 1:16:14
Or Cafe confront, thats a very traditional plena.
Traci Thomas 1:16:18
Okay, actually, yeah, great, yeah. I just want to make sure people who aren't familiar, who haven't read the book yet, like, the book yet, like because I did a lot of as I was reading, going and listening to the songs, to try to get a sense of this.
Can I also tell you that we have a p fkn r playlist? On Spotify and Apple Music eventually, on tidal, yeah, it's, it's, it's exquisite.
Yes, we did a book on the show for book club a few years ago by Danielle Smith that is like, about black women and pop music. And one of my amazing listeners, Sharda, went and she went through every song mentioned in the book and made us a playlist for shine bright. So you are talking to the right people who will find and listen to that playlist. Oh yeah. The stacks pack. We are people of the past. Vanessa, you wanted to say something about Saki?
Vanessa Díaz 1:17:08
Yeah. So we talked about, we talked about the Sapo control figure, and so that figure we also see in bad Bunny's short film called debit on most photos that comes out just a few days before the album drops in that right? The Jacobo Morales, this actor plays an older, bad bunny who lives in the casita. That's actually the very first time we get exposed to the casito and to the casita and to Sapo Concho is in this short film. So concio and the actor playing the older bad bunny are in the casita talking, right? So Concho is sort of like this claymation type character talking to him, representing this, this old culture. I won't go into the like depths of the meaning of that whole film, but that later in the film, Jacobo is at a panaderia, and he can't pay for what he's ordered because they no longer accept cash. And in Puerto Rico, it's very common, like the panaderias are cash. They if you live in the neighborhood, it's very common to, just like, have a running tab there, like in old times. And so he's like, I don't have a credit card. I don't have Apple Pay. Like, can I pay cash? No, we don't accept cash. This is cashless. Well, can you I know the owner? Can you just, like, take it down? Oh, no, we don't do that anymore. And this, like, younger Puerto Rican man comes over and pays for Jacobo Morales his food, and he looks at him, and he says, seguimos aqui, we're still here, right? We're still here. And so in the moment in the halftime show when he says seguimos aqui, he's referencing that. He's referencing that Puerto Ricans are still here. He's referencing that like, no matter what, you can't take us away or our culture. But he's also then speaking to the broader Latino audience, which is like, they can't take us away, they can't deport us, like we are not going anywhere. The Americas are more than just the US. We are all family. We all belong, and we're still here, you know? And so he does that and throws the football.
Traci Thomas 1:19:23
I mean, I think, like, I want to just do two things to wrap up this, this conversation. One is that I think, you know, rightfully online, I saw a lot of people making comparisons between the Kendrick show and the bad Bunny Show. And I certainly think, like, if there is a thesis of both, it's like, Kendrick show is like, look what you did, and bad Bunny Show is like, and we're still here, right? Like that these two pieces of work are in conversation. This is who we've been, and we are still here. This is who we are, and I really like thinking about them in conversation because I like to think of art and conversation, but also because I'm a fan of both of their work for totally different reasons. And like, you know, when we were putting this episode together, I was sort of a little nervous, because last year, when we did this, we did it on a whim with my friend David Dennis, who's a sports writer and a pop culture person, and he and I are both black Americans. I'm a black Californian like Kendrick Lamar and so so much of that show we just did off the cuff. It was like we knew this. I knew this information in my heart. And for this, you know, I prepared a lot. Obviously, I read your book, which was preparation without it being preparation, but like it was, I read the book separate from needing the references. But then I read a lot of the op eds you wrote, and I looked at what people were saying, and as I was like, sort of consuming it, I was like, I actually didn't need to do all of this because it, it is the same thing. Obviously, these aren't my references. Like, you know, I saw Serena sea walking, and I was like, okay, Wimbledon. Like, here we are. But in the same way that you all see these little moments, and you're like, Okay, this is it. But the spirit and the energy and the celebration with the protest. The protest is the party. The party is the protest, right? Like those two things are so present in both of these halftime shows in a way that I was not expecting, but like made it feel like so good, and I so thank you guys for writing all of this stuff so that I could be in on so much of it. But I do think, like these two things in conversation are just like spectacular pieces of halftime show performance history.
Vanessa Díaz 1:21:36
It's so not an accident either, right? Like Kendrick lamar's last album also has a lot of inflections of Latin music, right? Because he grows up here and like, you know, if we think about what South LA is like, like it now, especially it's a very Latino space. It's also a very African American space. It's the intertwining of these cultures, and I think we saw it with bad bunny really clearly is that, like, blackness and latinidad are not separate things, right, right? They are not that latinidad encompasses a lot, but like the music we're listening to is like rooted in it is black music, right? It is black music. And the connections that we see across the like diasporas of the Caribbean and African American culture like these are not coincidences, and so the fact that these are in dialog, I think, is directly speaking to that. Like, there's a journalist who I was in conversation with a couple of times. This, this journalist, chagoon, and he sent me this meme because we were in disagreement about the show. And he sent me, or not a meme. It was a quote from Carlos Santana, saying, like, well, all everything we call Latin music is actually African music. And I was like, of course not. There's, there's no point to argue here. We're talking about that. We're talking about overlapping histories here. And so, of course, these things are in dialog. And I think that it was so important for people to see that a lot of like, comments I've seen is like, Oh, well, he had so much black representation. Like, yeah, he always has black representation, because he understands that we're talking about black music, that he is part of this culture that, you know, if people want to speculate about who he is racially, like, that's kind of a separate conversation.
Traci Thomas 1:23:18
I thought he was black. I didn't realize that he's like, not
Vanessa Díaz 1:23:22
Well, I think never, yeah, it's like parsing apart body parts. I mean, I don't, I think that I would agree with you, right, but Right, but, but does he identify as a black person? No, I think he understands, like this context, and that he is a part of this and that, and that blackness is an integral part of not just the music he performs, but of his life and his culture. And these things aren't separate. And so anyway, I just, I really appreciate that context that you brought up, and to say, like these things are in dialog, and it is not an accident, it is not a coincidence. It's because these histories of colonialism that they're both speaking to, and that's because that's their communities.
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:24:02
Yeah, and I think it's like, also worth pointing out, right? Like both of them had serious political critique in a kind of cheeky way, yes, right? You know, like Kendrick Lamar his I just remember feeling this kind of like, I see your little joke here, like with Samuel Jackson. You know what I mean? Like, they're kind of irreverent and jokey in, oh, in the way of like, pointing out the US as hypocrisy. And I think that's a kind of artistic tradition in a lot of black American and black Caribbean communities. And I also, you know, and Puerto Rican has, like, like, there's just so many reasons why you could see these as part of the same arc. And, you know, like Puerto Rico's colonial status and racial is the racialization of Puerto Ricans is part of the same kinds of racial narratives that were used to exclude black Americans from citizenship, right? Like the same Supreme Court that decided Plessy versus Ferguson is the same Supreme Court that said that Puerto Ricans were foreign and in domestic sense, right? That's not an accident, right? So, like, I think it's, you know, I thought a lot about that too, in part, because, like, I said, my kids, two favorite singers are Kendrick Lamar and bad bunny. So, like, they are, like, they're like, oh my god, who's gonna be next year? Because they're always gonna be my favorite singers.
Traci Thomas 1:25:38
And you gotta warn them. You gotta warn them. When I was a kid, like, I was, like, I was a kid, I was like, loving Janet Jackson and, you know, the Jesse Timberlake. And then they said, Enough, we're giving you the Rolling Stones or Tom Petty, yeah, this ship is gonna sail, and we're gonna get crap Super Bowls again, hopefully not soon
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:26:00
Even if we don't get crap Super Bowls. It's like this through line. I'm like, who can keep the through line going? I don't know.
Traci Thomas 1:26:09
I thought the same thing. I was like, do they go full like k pop? Do they do like a K Pop Super Bowl? I don't know. It's a totally different thing. It's a total I mean, the politics of that are totally different and come from a really different place. But I also feel like maybe you go just like, just like pop, you know, like you just, I don't even know who it is, because everyone who I'd want has done it. Hopefully you don't go Taylor Swift. My nightmare is that this is. it's not an impossibility. But I think Jay Z is still in charge, and I can't imagine him doing it. I mean, maybe Jay Z does it himself at some point
Vanessa Díaz 1:26:49
my understanding is he's super like that. The decision is very much like on him, yeah. But I also know that they have talked to Taylor Swift about it, so it's not like it hasn't been discussed.
Traci Thomas 1:27:00
I know that. I know that Taylor Swift is on the table, but I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. In the book, you have a chapter that's all about bad bunny lost in translation, and it's a chapter about how he has shown up in like the United States media interviews when he performed at the Grammys and they put the like singing in non English. It's about how interviews were interpreted in translation. What if anything do you think might have been lost in translation with this Super Bowl performance?
Petra Rivera-Rideau 1:27:35
God, so many things. I mean, I'm sorry. I I want to go back to a comment that Vanessa said about the Super Bowl and people saying, Oh, he didn't lead into any politics. I mean, the number of headlines I've seen saying bad bunny is all about joy and parties is so like, I'm like, yes, he's about joy and parties, but their headline is that I don't remember the exact wording of the headline I'm thinking about, but it's like he leans into joy and avoids politics, right? you know my aunt called me yesterday, or my aunt texted me yesterday to tell me that she was watching a morning show, where they were like, look at all the shrubbery. And it's like, that's not just shrubbery, it's sugar cane. Hello, people, sugar cane is important. So I feel like there's a lot of stuff that I think went over people's heads. and it's really interesting to me, because it's not, you know, obviously, like, the Maga people are just going it completely insane, and that's predictable, but they're, it's, it's the other people who have imagined, like, just the number of people who are presenting themselves as, like, very smart, astute analysts of popular culture, who are like, nothing political happened in the show. I'm like, Wait, what did we watch the same halftime show? Like, what are you talking about? And I think I'm also thinking about, like, one of my, you know, we were talking about the Apollo thing in class today, and the guy, the people dangling from the electrical poles, like, we're talking about somebody that someone knows in the class who thinks that, you know, is like cool acrobatics, like, you know, like a flashy, you know. So I just the Puerto Rican references I get why people wouldn't understand them. I mean, part of why we wrote our book was to help people understand like the book is about bad bunny, but it's really about Puerto Rico, right? Because we want people to learn how this place, you know, the meaning of this place and and the role of colonialism and shaping Puerto Rican life. So, you know, if you read the book, you'll get references more, but how could you watch that end and be like it? There was all joy and no and and no protest, and all party like, I was like, Huh?