In what felt like a family gathering of 500 people crammed into a living room Sunday, Cleveland's Puerto Rican community and others celebrated Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance, or, as some affectionately nicknamed it, the "Benito Bowl", at CentroVilla25, Cleveland's Latin market and Hispanic business hub.
"To be able to watch the halftime show as a community and experience that the energy, the pride that filled the building was pretty, pretty incredible," said Jenice Contreras, who heads the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, delivered a entirely in Spanish, shortly after .
Chevalier DeJesus said that performance meant a lot to Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-speaking Clevelanders watching.
"His performance was everything," said DeJesus, a local DJ who is half-Black and half-Puerto Rican. "The different aspects of the island, the music, the food; everything was put center stage. And not only that, but just the representation of humanity and how music brings us all together."
As a performer who has unapologetically advocated for the U.S. territory he hails from, Bad Bunny . In a condemnation of federal immigration crackdowns, the singer said he would no longer perform on the United States mainland, aside from his Super Bowl performance.
His set tied together cultural elements of Puerto Rico and political messaging. He began the performance in sugar cane fields; the crop was a major export from former Caribbean colonies to European countries, often produced by labor from enslaved people. He wove through nail salons, past piragua carts and climbed electric poles, referring to the island's failing power grid problem.
Contreras said as much as the show was a love letter to Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory, it also delivered powerful political messages to millions of Americans who may not know much about the island.
"He was able to highlight some issues that politicians that represent the island have not been able to do, and he did it on one of the largest platforms and largest stages you could possibly have," Contreras said.
As a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and his immigration policies, Bad Bunny's Super Bowl slot provoked some conservative outrage, even prompting a competing halftime show produced by Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that advocates for conservative politics, headlined by Kid Rock.
Contreras said much of the outrage against Bad Bunny for his background and language was "harmful" and "scary" for Latino communities.
"This was a big moment that was very symbolic of where we're at as a country, but it also does reflect the ugly side of people; the ignorance, the lack of understanding, of language, of artistry," Contreras said. "Bad Bunny may not be everybody's genre... but nobody could deny the platform that he has created and his level of advocacy for such a little place like Puerto Rico that is so underrepresented."
Contreras said that despite those fears, that feeling of love and togetherness was alive and well at CentroVilla.
"Having a place where people could come and culture could be celebrated and we could be different and be okay was pretty incredible," she said. "Old friends, new friends, Latinos, non-Latinos who probably don't know anything about Spanish, singing or dancing to Bad Bunny songs. That is just very telling and gives me hope for this period of time that we're living."
In addition to community-building events like these, Contreras said CentroVilla is working on safety protocols for staff and residents in Clark-Fulton in the event of ICE raids. Clark-Fulton's population is nearly half-Hispanic and holds the largest concentration of Latinos in Cleveland.
