More Than a Halftime Show: A Moment of Latino Pride

Photo courtesy of Vanity Fair: Bad Bunny performs onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at on February 08, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation) Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

I had drafted a few thoughts last week about my excitement for the Super Bowl halftime show after Bad Bunny won Album of the Year at the Grammys. I’m so glad I didn’t post them.

Because what I, and so many in the Latino community, experienced during this year’s Super Bowl changed something in me.

What Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio did on that stage shifted everything.

I woke up buzzing the next morning, and at the same time emotionally hung over from the journey we had just been taken on.

I woke up feeling proud to be Latina.

And I think a lot of us felt something we don’t always get to feel in moments like this, not just seen, but recognized as Americans:

🇨🇱 Chile, 🇦🇷 Argentina, 🇺🇾 Uruguay, 🇵🇾 Paraguay, 🇧🇴 Bolivia, 🇵🇪 Peru, 🇪🇨 Ecuador, 🇧🇷 Brazil, 🇨🇴 Colombia, 🇻🇪 Venezuela, 🇬🇾 Guyana, 🇵🇦 Panama, 🇨🇷 Costa Rica, 🇳🇮 Nicaragua, 🇭🇳 Honduras, 🇸🇻 El Salvador, 🇬🇹 Guatemala, 🇲🇽 Mexico, 🇨🇺 Cuba, 🇩🇴 The Dominican Republic, 🇯🇲 Jamaica, 🇭🇹 Haiti, 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇺🇸 The United States, and 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico.

Together, we are America.

I grew up in East Los Angeles, raised by a resilient Latina woman who worked relentlessly to give us a life she never had. Those of you who grew up around the same time I did can probably relate to this:

All I wanted was to be like them.

Look like them.

Sound like them.

Dress like them.

So I hid parts of who I really was.

It was survival.

We were constantly reminded that we had to work twice as hard. Like many kids of immigrants, I learned early how to assimilate.

How to cover.

How to soften my edges.

As Latinos, we’ve been conditioned to dim our light.

What Bad Bunny did on that stage was make history. He reminded me, and an entire community, that we are enough just as we are. That we are worth more than we’ve been led to believe. That dreams really do come true.

“Y si hoy estoy aquí, en el Super Bowl sesenta, es porque nunca, nunca dejé de creer en mí. Tú también deberías creer en ti. Tú vales más de lo que piensas.” - Bad Bunny

(Translation: “If I’m here today at Super Bowl LX, it’s because I never, never stopped believing in myself. You should believe in yourself too. You are worth more than you think.”)

He stepped onto a global stage carrying the weight of all Latinos with him.

His music speaks openly about class, culture, displacement, pride, and community – with a deep understanding that success doesn’t require abandonment. You don’t have to erase where you come from to belong.

It’s hard to explain this feeling, because I’ve never experienced anything like it before. And not everyone will understand – or want to understand. 

But I believe his performance tapped into generational trauma. It honored our ancestors. And at the same time, it spoke directly to our children.

As someone who experienced this moment live, I now feel a responsibility to pass that pride on to my own child, to make sure he knows exactly who he is and where he comes from.

Benito gave us one of the greatest cultural moments of our lifetime – at a time when we needed it most.

Let’s not miss what this moment represents.

Together, we are America.