Bad Bunny's América

Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny used one of the largest media platforms in the United States, the Super Bowl Halftime Show, to spread a message of Pan-American unity. His performance was filled with symbols of Latin American heritage and pride. The event took place amid a backdrop of rising tensions between the U.S. and Latin America: in recent months, the U.S. government has sent ICE on a surge of arrests, staged an assault on Venezuela, and threatened to invade Cuba. Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show represents broader Latin-American community efforts that challenge the current administration’s ideas about what it means to be American.

Expert in Latine Politics Anne Martinez will be contextualizing the Super Bowl Halftime Show within the history of U.S.-Latin American relations. What has caused the disorderly relationship between the U.S. and Latin America? And how can a celebration of community and culture unite nations?

Anne M. Martínez is senior lecturer of American political and cultural theory at the University of Groningen. She is the author of Catholic Borderlands: Mapping Catholicism onto American Empire. Her current focus examines decolonial practices of Catholicism among Indigenous, Black and Mexican Catholics in the United States. 

In collaboration with the Master's program American Studies and the Faculty of Arts.