"It's Bad Bunny's world": Mass. Latinos and fans rally around halftime show
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Vejigantes, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Boston, is taking catering orders and planning to broadcast the Super Bowl. Photo: Steph Solis/Axios
The Super Bowl is still days away, but Nivia Piña-Medina says she already feels like a winner.
- For her, it's all about the "Benito Bowl."
Why it matters: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, the Puerto Rican artist better known as Bad Bunny, will make history with the first Spanish-language Super Bowl halftime show, potentially drawing millions of viewers who otherwise wouldn't care about the Patriots playing the Seattle Seahawks.
- Yes, even in Massachusetts. The Bay State is home to the fifth-largest Puerto Rican population and hundreds of thousands of other Latinos, after all.
State of play: Look closely and you'll see Puerto Rican flags popping up alongside Patriots banners on event flyers and at restaurants and stores getting in on the hype.
- Piña-Medina, a Puerto Rican restaurateur, has planned a Benito-themed watch party at her restaurant Vejigantes in Worcester.
- She's also having a TV set up at the South End location to broadcast the show, like many restaurants and bars across the state.
What they're saying: "It's Bad Bunny's world," says Francisco Recillas, better known as Boston-based DJ Sisko.
- Bad Bunny songs have been requested so often at clubs that it's become a meme — and it's kept bilingual DJs like Recillas busy in recent years.
- On Sunday alone, Recillas has back-to-back gigs at Grace by Nia, Scorpion and Memoire.
By the numbers: A new Emerson College poll of 1,000 people suggests most of those under age 30 are excited to see Bad Bunny perform.
- 52% of Black respondents and 50% of Hispanic respondents expressed excitement, compared to 31% of white respondents.
Between the lines: The reggaeton artist's meteoric rise from bagging groceries to global stardom — without crossing over into English-language music — makes his performance even more historic, says Piña-Medina.
- For some, Bad Bunny's appeal is his ability to produce banger after banger, sometimes incorporating salsa, bomba and other Latin genres.
- For others, it's his vocal opposition to attacks on LGBTQ+ people, the displacement of Puerto Ricans from the island and the Trump administration's deportation efforts targeting Latinos.
Zoom in: Elsa Mosquera, founder of the arts organization Ágora Cultural Architects in Boston and is planning the third annual BoriCorridor Tour music series.
- Mosquera, who was born in Colombia and lived in Puerto Rico before settling in Boston, says it's impossible to separate the politics from the music right now.
- "Just the fact that we stand up in the center of Boston, in downtown Boston, we get a microphone and we speak in Spanish — that is political."
What we're watching: The halftime show has also raised some hopes about a potential economic boost for Latino-owned businesses capitalizing on the Benito buzz.
- Bad Bunny's residency in Puerto Rico generated an economic impact ranging from $200 million to $733 million.
Reality check: Massachusetts businesses likely won't see that same boost — not for lack of interest, but because of layoffs, increasing costs and fears of getting detained by immigration agents, says Piña-Medina.
- At the end of the day, though, it doesn't dampen her excitement: "Personally, it's an honor."