Is He a Good Bunny or a Bad Bunny?

Hello Ms. Liberty,

It's been a few days since I've checked in. I went on a quick vacation for a much-needed change of scenery. While away, I heard bluster and angst, something about half-time entertainment. I tried not to focus on it until I returned home. 

My first screen encounter with Bad Bunny was in the 2022 American action comedy film Bullet Train, directed by David Leitch and starring Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock. The film also featured a diverse group of young, up-and-coming artists, including Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, also known as Bad Bunny. The story centered on a group of assassins from around the world who found themselves on a Japanese high-speed train, each having had previous conflicts with each other before boarding. Bad Bunny plays the Wolf, a Mexican assassin, who seeks vengeance on the Hornet, an assassin who specializes in poisons. It's a fun movie with clever twists and dialogue that keeps you on the edge of your seat. 

Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper and record producer. Dubbed the "King of Latin Trap," he is credited with helping Spanish-language rap music achieve mainstream popularity worldwide. Besides being a singer, songwriter, producer, and actor, Bad Bunny is a professional wrestler. 

Bad Bunny's third solo album became the first all-Spanish album to top the Billboard 200. He received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and later received three Grammy Awards and eleven Latin Grammy Awards. He was noted as the most-streamed artist on Spotify from 2020 to 2022, and in 2024, Bad Bunny sold over $7 million in records worldwide.

As soon as I heard this Latin artist, born in Puerto Rico, was named as the headliner for the 2026 Super Bowl LX halftime show, my instincts, or more like the recent acclimation and awareness of the hate and ignorance surrounding me via the political media, the voice in the back of my mind went, "Uh oh. Here it comes..." 

The predictability of the blatant ignorance came true as conservative commentator Tomi Lahren and other like-minded MAGAs "forgot" that Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory and those who are born in Puerto Rico are United States citizens, as granted by an act of Congress. This citizenship also makes Puerto Ricans eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits. They do not need a U.S. passport to travel to any U.S. state and can live, work, and study in any state or territory, just like other U.S. citizens. While residents of Puerto Rico cannot vote in the general and presidential elections, if they eventually reside in any one of the 50 states or Washington, DC, they may register to vote. 

There was a MAGA meltdown at the thought of "unpatriotic" music being sung in Spanish instead of Lee Greenwood singing over and over his one hit tune, "Proud to be an American..." While Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, got all giddy and wet, and her special friend Corey Lewandowski got all hard thinking of the possibilities of Bad Bunny's music drawing enough people to fill an ICE arrest van. 

What are they afraid of? Are the MAGA critics concerned that at the end of the half-time performance, the handsome Bad Bunny will toss rolls of paper towels out to the audience? 

Me? My feelings on this? I think this is a bright, bold, and rather refreshing move, especially if Roc Nation and the NFL want to continue growing their halftime audience and commercial supporters. 

Love You Always,
C~ 

P.S. I'm looking forward to seeing Bad Bunny host Saturday Night Live.