MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥� When said 鈥淕od bless America鈥� during the and then began naming countries across the continent, the line landed as both wordplay and statement. In Spanish, Am茅rica often means the entire hemisphere, not a single nation, and the distinction mattered to millions watching from afar.
In a packed bar in Mexico City, the moment drew cheers loud enough to cut through the music.
Plates of brisket, pulled pork and mac and cheese moved between tables as beers kept flowing. Fans in NFL jerseys had spent the first half reacting to every play. Several giant foam fingers bobbed above the crowd. When halftime arrived, the attention did not disappear. It shifted.
As Bad Bunny took the stage, people stood up, phones raised. Some danced between tables. When he listed countries across the Americas, the cheers grew louder. When he said 鈥淢exico,鈥� the bar erupted.
鈥淚t really moved me,鈥� said Laura Gilda Mej铆a, a 51-year-old schoolteacher and longtime NFL fan watching the game with her two children. 鈥淲ith everything that鈥檚 going on politically in the United States, and all the hostility toward Latinos … seeing a Latino come out and sing in Spanish at the biggest show in the world was incredible.鈥�
Across Mexico, Puerto Rico and Latino communities in the United States, was received as more than entertainment. Many fans described it as a moment of pride and recognition: a Spanish-language artist commanding one of the most watched stages in American pop culture without translating himself, at a time when Latinos say cultural visibility and political vulnerability exist side by side.
Many in Latin America resist the idea that 鈥淎merican鈥� belongs to a single country. By invoking 鈥淕od bless America鈥� and then expanding it to include dozens of nations, Bad Bunny turned that linguistic tension into a statement of inclusion.
U.S. President Donald Trump railed against the performance on Truth Social, calling it 鈥渁bsolutely terrible鈥� and 鈥渁n affront to the Greatness of America.鈥�
Mexico watched closely
Mexico is one of the NFL鈥檚 largest international markets, with tens of millions of fans and a long-running presence of regular-season games. The has become a major social event, drawing viewers who tune in for the game as much as for the commercials and the halftime show.
That made the performance feel especially consequential there.
Chrystian Plata, a 33-year-old singer and New York Giants fan watching with his parents, in-laws and his 2-year-old child, said the halftime show was the emotional high point of the game for him with the way it tried 鈥渢o unite the traditions of all the people who migrated there and also made the United States rich.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 not a huge Bad Bunny fan musically,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut culturally he did it very well.鈥�
Those reactions echo what many in Mexico have been expressing since Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime headliner.
In early December, as fans walked past street vendors selling his merchandise ahead of his Mexico City tour opener, Mar铆a Fernanda Sim贸n, a 35-year-old psychologist, described feeling surprised by the scale of his influence.
鈥淚 love that people want to speak Spanish because of him,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or a long time… everything Anglo, everything 鈥榞ringo,鈥� everything light-skinned, English 鈥� that was what was 鈥榠n,鈥� what was 鈥榝ashionable鈥� 鈥� and now seeing it flipped makes me feel excited, like being Latino is 鈥榗ool.鈥欌��
Not everyone in Mexico shares that framing. Jos茅 Manuel Valenzuela, a cultural studies researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, cautions that the belief that cultural value flows only from the United States reflects a long-standing, 鈥渃olonized鈥� perspective shaped by history, power and media. In his view, Bad Bunny鈥檚 moment is real, but it does not erase deeper inequalities that made such a reversal feel novel.
Puerto Rico in the spotlight
In Puerto Rico, watch parties treated the game as a prelude. In San Juan and nearby communities, neighborhoods buzzed as the Super Bowl itself faded into the background and attention .
Alexandra N煤帽ez, a resident of Caguas south of San Juan, wore a traditional pava hat and clothing in the colors of the Puerto Rican flag as she watched.
鈥淭his is an achievement,鈥� she said. 鈥淢usic has no borders. Language has no borders. … You don鈥檛 have to speak our language to enjoy our culture. This is global.鈥�
She drew a careful distinction between Bad Bunny and earlier Latin pop stars who reached U.S. audiences by adapting their sound or language.
鈥淲hen Ricky Martin did it, that was a breakthrough, crossing over,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ad Bunny didn鈥檛 have to cross over. … He took what already existed and brought it there. He didn鈥檛 have to change anything.鈥�
Celebration alongside unease
In the U.S., the celebration unfolded against a backdrop of and protests over raids and deportations, a context that shaped how many Latinos received the show.
Carlos Ben铆tez, a 29-year-old risk analyst in New York City who was born in Cali, Colombia, and raised in Miami, described the performance as both a milestone and a reminder of its limits.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 an achievement,鈥� he said, recalling that artists once felt pressure to sing in English to reach the highest levels. 鈥淏ad Bunny is saying, 鈥業鈥檓 going to do my music in Spanish, and whoever understands it, understands it.鈥欌��
At the same time, Ben铆tez said, visibility does not automatically translate into immediate change. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 going to be direct,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not like an ICE agent watching the Super Bowl suddenly changes their views.鈥�
That tension sits at the heart of how many Latinos interpreted the night.
Vanessa D铆az, an associate professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of 鈥淧 FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance,鈥� said the performance reflects a broader shift in what 鈥渕ainstream鈥� means in the United States.
Bad Bunny is not an alternative act but a mainstream one, even if that mainstream no longer looks centered on English-language music or white audiences, D铆az said.
She added that what has surprised many observers is not just that a Spanish-language artist reached the Super Bowl stage, but that Bad Bunny has done so after years of repeated global hits, including among listeners who do not speak Spanish. Art, she said, has always crossed language barriers, but the scale and consistency of his success challenge older assumptions about who mainstream audiences are.
said Monday that a phrase shown during Bad Bunny鈥檚 performance 鈥� 鈥渢he only thing more powerful than hate is love鈥� 鈥� underscored her view of the message of unity he sent by singing in Spanish at the Super Bowl.
Back in the Mexico City bar, as the game resumed and fans turned their attention back to the field, the excitement lingered.
For Mej铆a, the schoolteacher, the night did not resolve the contradictions she sees between cultural celebration and discrimination. But it mattered that the moment happened, and that it happened in Spanish.
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AP journalist Alejandro Granadillo in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed to this report.
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