I have been randomly dropping what little Spanish words I know in any conversation, with myself, with my mates, with anyone who would listen because of Bad Bunny’s halftime show at the Superbowl. I have been enunciating with my subtle lisp when it comes to my S’s and dropping my g’s and j’s because of the Spanish dialect, ladies and gentlemen colour me obsessed with that performance.
I took Spanish at University; did I tell you that? And now I know it was all leading to this moment even if the only word I mastered then was Ingeniero… I DO NOT KNOW WHY but that is one word in Spanish that I actually pronounce with confidence. Nothing else stuck because at one point I simply stopped showing up to class, hindsight and all that. I know there have been more than enough hot takes about the show, its many messages and dual meanings, so you can rest assured this is not a hot take but rather, a tidbit of what I took away from it, lend me your ears and eyes, I shan’t keep you too long.
If Kendrick was standing on message to an administration and its oppressive regime, Benito Ocasio furthered that message by aiming to be the voice of the many where the few seek to divide us because believe it or not, ICE, the media moguls, and institutions like these are the few and we, the people, are the many.
Aside: I didn’t know who he was until very recently; I actually thought he was the chick “cash me outside how ’bou dat”. Don’t laugh, popular music is not something I engage with frequently, I know one Taylor Swift song, and I am not inclined to know more, I cannot pick out Olivia Rodrigo in a line up or tell you who any of the Lils are outside of Lil Jon.
However, in typical music fashion, a medium that transcends, a clear-cut message came through following that half time performance, COMMUNITY. Throughout the 13 most influential minutes on the world’s stage, that message rang loud and clear. A message we need to hear and heed from a person who stands confident in his roots, is deeply proud of where he is from, and celebrates the culture that birthed his identity. I love that for him, for us and for his fellow Pisces.
Another aside; He is a MARCH PISCES that energy of creativity is unmatched.
But before I get carried away, back to the show; yes, it was a rallying cry and a middle finger to the oppressor of the sort, it was also a clarion call on the importance of community, and love, and that need to go nuclear in your own hood. The community that includes the mum and pop shops down the road, the nail salon on out high street, the local barber who knows what fade suits your head shape best, being in the spaces that fosters community, the everyday people.
It reminded me of growing up in a Nigerian household, that scene with the kid lying across multiple chairs at a wedding, I was that kid, there isn’t a party where a child does not do that when I’m from. My parents threw parties that blocked entire streets, and thoroughfares, which brought people together. Christmas was not only for us, but for our neighbours. We were raised by the community and Bad Bunny reminded us of those days when life was relatively uncomplicated even if we had very little by way of resources. Yes, the symbolisms aplenty, the lack of resources, the labourers toiling in the heat, the distinct lack of electricity with references to the electrical poles gave me flashbacks of NEPA. Despite the difference in our culture, I actually don’t think there are that many, I felt that moment on a visceral level.
The set was of his native Puerto Rican landscape and in the midst of it all were his people, his family, his friends, his neighbourhood, his community from the workers in the field to the woman who runs the last Pueto Rican social club, to the Marchetta, and the bodega owners, even the nail salon. He knows them all and they all know him. Community fosters an understanding of the fundamentals in our humanity; love breeds community, community breeds unity rooted in love. United we are stronger because we lead and live with love. He inspired a sense of curiosity in people different to us, he asks us to lean in closer to those around us whether they be our next-door neighbour, or the person on the train making the same commute to their place of work like we are. He challenges us to venture outside of our comfort zones, be present in our communities that we may overcome systems of oppression and inspire an audacity to hope, as it were.
We are all part of a microcosm that matters in the grander scheme of things. I don’t think I have ever watched a performance as much as I have watched this simply because of that leading message; of love and the community it fosters. I want to do better.
Community is your next-door neighbour, bossman up the road, the neighbourhood gossip sitting outside the local café who knows everyone’s business, the old lady pulling her shopping trolley up the road, the young boys and girls drawing with chalks on tar to play hopscotch, parents at the school gate etc. There is power in those core memories we form by getting to know each other, by rallying around each other. By caring, by simply caring. Much as it was a subliminal political message to the people who are seeking to hold the world hostage, there was a wider message to us the people, that we only drive out their hate with our love for each other because love is rooted in our humanity. No one wins in isolation, regardless of what the people with influence tell us, we are all inextricably linked to each other and that community with our next-door neighbours, strangers to a small town, or big city, is the one they would have us fear.
The people they would have us fight.
The ones they would have us blame.
The ones they tell us are “coming to take our jobs”.
The labourers next to us on the fields.
The sellers across the road.
The baristas and independent shop owners.
The nurses and doctors and carers from other parts of the world who have made a home next to us… this is the community they hope to pit us against and isolate us from; each other. When the person trying to convince you that the one toiling next to you under the beating sun, is the enemy, look closer my friend, they are doing so from the comfort of the shade.
Recognising the humanity in each other is both a form resistance and the activism that binds us together. Together, our humanity cannot be broken, nor can it be denied because that humanity is also the next man’s humanity, our humanity is love and in the words of Benito himself, “The only things stronger than hate, is LOVE.” So, let’s go forth and love each other.