Bad Bunny and the Meaning of "America"

The administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has promoted a very specific view of the United States of America. In the MAGA version of the U.S., the people are White, the language is English, and the country is exceptional. To the extent that this does not reflect reality, Trump and his top officials are endeavoring to change reality. White House Deputy Chief of Staff and world-class hater Stephen Miller is doing his best to deport as many non-citizens as possible, especially targeting those who are not White. Executive orders have emphasized the role of English and ordered the removal from public areas of any suggestion that the United States is flawed in any manner. This has resulted, for instance, in the elimination from National Parks of signs recognizing slavery and led to a veritable whitewashing of history. In contrast to the MAGA ideal of a White, English-speaking, exceptional nation, another view of the country exists. Evident in places such as Minneapolis where thousands of citizens have risen to protect their neighbors, regardless of their race or language, this version of the United States sees the country as a multicultural melting pot that has flaws and room for improvement, but in which the American dream exists for everyone, even those who are not White and may not speak English. The MAGA view of America received a sledgehammer to the head last night from an rather unexpected source: the halftime show of the National Football League's Super Bowl. The halftime performer, Bad Bunny, led a celebration of Spanish-speaking Puerto Rican culture that was joyful, unifying, and uplifting. Ending with a message on the jumbotron saying, "The only thing more powerful than hate is love," Bad Bunny challenged the foundations of Trump's MAGA ideology.

It is probably worth noting that I don't speak Spanish and, therefore, could not make out more than the occasional word of last night's performance. Still, the visuals of the set were compelling, and I could easily comprehend the images of Puerto Rican culture being displayed. Similarly, the joy of the performers was unmistakable. I came away feeling that Bad Bunny had two goals for the performance: 1) highlighting Puerto Rico, an United States territory that is often overlooked by most in the U.S., and 2) reminding U.S. citizens that we don't exist in a vacuum but, rather, are part of a larger community of "America" that includes many other countries and is mostly Spanish-speaking.

It was disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, that when Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer, many in the U.S. reacted as if he were foreign. In his excellent book "How to Hide an Empire," Daniel Immerwahr points out that most Americans understand the geography of the United States as being the 48 continental states, the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii. The overseas territories of the United States are rarely shown on U.S. maps, and most Americans may not even be aware of them. In fact, there are five inhabited U.S. territories: American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There are an additional nine so-called uninhabited territories, which I won't list, but include such places as Midway Atoll and Wake Island. Those born in U.S. territories are U.S. citizens. However, the residents are not allowed to vote in U.S. federal elections and have only non-voting representation in Congress. These are, in effect, U.S. colonies, though most U.S. citizens would reject the notion that the United States is a colonial nation.

Another point that Immerwahr makes is that as the United States expanded first westward and then internationally, there was a great appetite for land, but no interest in people. In the view of U.S. leaders, land represented desirable resources, but the people were unwanted. This first became an issue as the United States expanded into so-called "Indian Country" and was an unabashedly racist viewpoint. Immerwahr quotes a representative from Virginia as saying that if Congress were to "add to our Union men of blood and color alien to the people of the United States, where was that right to stop? Why not introduce our brethren of Cuba and Hayti?." New territories acquired by the United States on the continent were granted statehood, though often with a scheme to disenfranchise any native inhabitants. However, when in 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the United States invaded and gained possession of Puerto Rico, it was classified only as an "acquired country" and later as a territory. In 1917, Puerto Ricans were made U.S. citizens. Since then, Puerto Rico has existed mostly out of sight and out of mind for most in the United States. As noted above, Puerto Rico almost never appears on U.S. maps, and many in the U.S. mistakenly view Puerto Ricans as foreigners. Bad Bunny pulled Puerto Rico from the shadows and made it front and center of his performance. Giving most in the U.S. a view of Puerto Rico that they likely had never previously experienced.

The fact that Bad Bunny performed in Spanish was controversial. The result was that the majority of the audience likely shared my inability to understand what the performers were singing. Nevertheless, I see this as sending an important corrective to Trump's emphasis on English exclusivity. Despite what Trump and his MAGA supporters may claim, the United States does not have an official language. MAGAs may consider Spanish to be the language of recent immigrants, especially those who are undocumented. But just as Puerto Rico is often ignored in other contexts, this prejudicial conception of Spanish speakers ignores the 3 million predominantly Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens who inhabit the territory. Moreover, English exclusivity also ignores our country's history. It was the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León who was the first European to reach the present-day United States mainland. St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in today's United States, was founded by Spanish explorers. One only need consider the names of American cities such as Santa Fe, El Paso, Albuquerque, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, or Los Angeles to know the language of the first European settlers of those areas. Far from being a recent introduction by foreigners, Spanish is entwined in the fabric of the United States.

There is nothing unusual about a country having more than one common language. Canada, our neighbor to the north, has two official languages. Switzerland, with a population of just 9 million, has four official languages. Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish, but constitutionally recognizes Sami, Romani, and Finnish Sign Language. Belgium has three official languages, and tiny Luxembourg also has three official languages. Instead of English-first or English-only policies, the United States might be better off embracing Spanish as a second language.

This brings me to the second theme of Bad Bunny's show. While those of us in the United States often use "America" as a synonym for the "United States," this is not the case throughout the hemisphere. The continents, after all, are North America and South America. The inhabitants of both are "Americans." There is some irony that from the time of our fifth President, James Monroe, the United States has insisted that the Western Hemisphere is our sphere of influence and should be free of outside influence, yet the country has generally maintained a fairly hostile attitude towards the people that inhabit most of that sphere. As was the case with earlier territorial acquisitions, the land was seen as a valuable source of resources, but the people were of little interest. This attitude continues today with Trump announcing the replacement of the Monroe Doctrine with the Donroe Doctrine, which he used to justify the capture of Venezuela's president and the takeover of its petroleum resources. Trump steals Venezuela's oil while detaining and deporting Venezuelans in the United States. Nothing could encapsulate Trump's priorities more. He wants the oil but not the people.

Bad Bunny suggested another possibility in which America is a united community, bound by love over hate. He ended the ceremony by saying "God Bless America" and then listing the names of every country in the Americas. Meanwhile, performers carried the flags of those nations. Bad Bunny took this phrase that has become an almost required ending to speeches by U.S. politicians to signal U.S. exceptionalism and appropriated it to refer to the entire hemisphere. Holding a football on which "Together, We are America," Bad Bunny challenged the United States to view itself differently and to reconsider the meanings of "America" and "Americans."

Many, like me, were probably unable to understand the words that were sung yesterday. However, the messages were inescapable. The United States is American, with a shared history and deep ties with the rest of the Americas. Spanish has long been part of both America in the larger sense and the United States. Bad Bunny demonstrated his journey from the sugarcane fields of Puerto Rico to perhaps the largest stage in the United States, if not the world. This is the American dream personified. He celebrated rural agricultural communities and small towns. He promoted marriage — the wedding in the show was real, involving an actual couple. These are fundamental values of the United States. He showed that Puerto Rico, far from being foreign, is deeply American in both senses of the word. Trump's reaction could not have been more predictable. Writing on Truth Social, he said, "The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence." Trump could not be more wrong. The show made complete sense and, contrary to what Trump claimed, it perfectly demonstrated the greatness of America, just not the America that Trump wishes was the reality.