Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show landed with particular force across Mexico, Puerto Rico and parts of the United States after the performer delivered a line that many listeners connected to more than one meaning of “America.” During the 13-minute set, Bad Bunny said “God bless America” and then began naming countries across the continent, according to the Associated Press report from Mexico City.
The reception in Mexico City carried the moment’s details in real time. In one packed bar, Laura Gilda Mejía, a 51-year-old schoolteacher and longtime NFL fan watching with her two children, said the message resonated amid political tensions in the United States and hostility toward Latinos, adding that it was “incredible” to see a Latino sing in Spanish at the biggest stage in American pop culture.
Mejía described a broader emotional draw for viewers outside the United States: she said the show mattered because it represented visibility and recognition for Latinos, and because it came at a time when some audiences felt cultural vulnerability alongside political pressure. As the halftime segment unfolded, the report said that phones rose and attention shifted from the field to the stage; when Bad Bunny said “Mexico,” the bar erupted, with people continuing to react loudly even as the game resumed.
People in Mexico also discussed what “America” can mean linguistically. The AP account described how the word “América” in Spanish can refer to the hemisphere rather than a single nation, and how Bad Bunny’s decision to invoke the phrase and then expand it to include dozens of places across the Americas turned that linguistic tension into what fans described as inclusion.
Not all observers framed it in celebration-only terms. José Manuel Valenzuela, a cultural studies researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, said the belief that cultural value flows only from the United States reflects a “colonized” perspective shaped by history, power and media, according to the AP report. Valenzuela said the moment was real but does not erase deeper inequalities that can make such a reversal feel novel.
In Puerto Rico, the show was treated as more than sports entertainment, with the report describing watch parties where neighborhoods buzzed as attention turned almost entirely to the 13 minutes on stage. Alexandra Núñez, a resident of Caguas south of San Juan, said “This is an achievement,” arguing that “Music has no borders” and “Language has no borders,” and also drawing a distinction between Bad Bunny and earlier Latin pop stars who, in her view, reached U.S. audiences by changing sound or language.
Nuñez said she saw a key difference in the way Bad Bunny appeared on the Super Bowl stage. She argued that Bad Bunny did not have to “cross over” in the way she associated with other performers, saying in the AP report that “He took what already existed and brought it there” rather than changing it, while also insisting that the performance reflected a global culture rather than a single national one.
In the United States, Latinos described the night through a similar lens of cultural recognition combined with caution about limits. Carlos Benítez, a 29-year-old risk analyst in New York City, called the performance “an achievement” and said Bad Bunny was signaling that he would sing in Spanish and that audiences would understand if they could. At the same time, Benítez told the AP that visibility does not automatically produce direct change, saying the show would not immediately transform the views of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Vanessa Díaz, an associate professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance,” said the performance reflected a broader shift in what “mainstream” means in the United States. Díaz said Bad Bunny is not an alternative figure but a mainstream one, while also arguing that observers were surprised not only by a Spanish-language artist reaching the Super Bowl stage, but by how Bad Bunny’s global success has come after years of hits with listeners who do not speak Spanish.
The political context around the entertainment also shaped how people interpreted the moment. The AP report said U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the performance on Truth Social, calling it “absolutely terrible” and “an affront to the Greatness of America,” while Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that a phrase shown during Bad Bunny’s performance — “the only thing more powerful than hate is love” — underscored her view of unity delivered through singing in Spanish at the Super Bowl.
Back in Mexico City, as the game resumed and fans turned their attention to the field again, the AP report said the excitement lingered. For Mejía, the schoolteacher, the night did not resolve the contradictions she sees between cultural celebration and discrimination, but she said it mattered that the moment happened and that it happened in Spanish, according to the report.