This year’s Super Bowl took place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on Feb. 8. The New England Patriots lost to the Seattle Seahawks with a final score of 29-13.
In the middle of the Super Bowl, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny performed what is now considered to be a historical halftime show. This year’s halftime show the very first show performed entirely in Spanish. The performance received numerous critics, with a major critic being that the halftime show was significantly representative of Puerto Rico and its culture. Throughout the halftime show, there were numerous symbols that represented the island. Some of those symbols included people, places, things, and performances done by other Puerto Rican artists. Each symbol has a different representation of Puerto Rican culture. Together, all these symbols create a unified meaning of what it’s like to be Puerto Rican.
Sugar Canes
Bad Bunny’s show begins with a replica of a sugar cane field, which is a historical and cultural feature of Puerto Rico. Sugar cane fields resemble colonialism and slavery, a time in which enslaved Africans toiled in the fields until slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico in 1873. Sugar cane fields are also a massive economic symbol in Puerto Rico. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s, sugar cane was a source of economic fuel for numerous Caribbean countries, including Puerto Rico. Besides economics and colonialism, sugar cane fields are representative of rural Puerto Rican life.
Pava Hat
There were many backup singers and dancers throughout the performance. A good chunk of them wore pava hats, which are a symbol of agriculture in Puerto Rico. The hats are made from leaves that come from the Puerto Rican hat palm, and they are typically worn by jibaros, self-subsistence farmers who live in rural Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican Cuisine
While Bad Bunny was singing his song “Titi Me Preguntó,” the scene shifted from sugar cane fields to a coco frio cart. Coco frio is fresh coconut water commonly sold in Puerto Rico by street vendors. After passing the coco frio cart, Bad Bunny stops by a piraguas cart and grabs a piragua, the Puerto Rican version of a snow cone. On the same cart were bottles of piragua syrup. Each bottle had a flag that represented a Latin American country, including Colombia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
Bad Bunny’s Football Jersey
At the halftime show, Bad Bunny wore an all-white outfit. For much of the performance, his top was a football jersey with the number 64 on the front. There have been many rumors as to what the number could mean. One rumor is that the number represents Bad Bunny’s mother’s birth year, since the her last name is etched on the back of the jersey. Another rumor is that the number is a reference to Bad Bunny’s 2020 album El Último Tour del Mundo, which was the first Spanish album to top the all-genre Billboard 200 chart in 64 years. Some believe that the number is a reference to Bad Bunny’s uncle’s football jersey number. Others assume that the number is a symbol of the initial number of Puerto Ricans who died in Hurricane Maria. The meaning of Bad Bunny’s football jersey number may not be clear, but every rumor that’s been made has some sort of cultural resonance with Bad Bunny and Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican Flag
In the middle of the halftime show, Bad Bunny performed the song “El Apagón,” which means “Blackout” in Spanish. In the beginning of the song, Bad Bunny was seen carrying a Puerto Rico flag over his shoulder. The flag wasn’t the modern one, though. It was the flag from the time in which Puerto Rico wasn’t a territory of the United States. On the flag, the shade of the triangle was light blue instead of the dark blue shade of today. Carrying the original Puerto Rican flag is significant since it represents Bad Bunny’s desire for Puerto Rican independence and anti-colonialist views against the United States, which at one point prohibited Puerto Ricans from challenging colonialism and having a Puerto Rican flag with them.
Electric Poles
In the middle of the halftime show, backup dancers climbed electric poles, which are a huge symbol of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The electric poles serve as a reminder of Puerto Rico’s longest and deadliest blackout, which occurred as a result of Hurricane Maria. Tons of Puerto Ricans were without power, with some not having power for a year. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the United States was unresponsive to the catastrophic damage Puerto Ricans were facing. As a result, Puerto Ricans had to repair the damage themselves, including restoring electricity. This was a deadly task since some of them had little to no experience in working with electricity.
La Casita
One location Bad Bunny performed numerous songs at was the rooftop of a casita, a symbolic part of Puerto Rican life. In Puerto Rico, casitas are traditional homes with vibrant colors, shuttered windows, and a carved-out wooden door. Not only are casitas ubiquitous in Puerto Rico, but they serve as symbols of social tradition, where people come together and form community, heal, and exchange ideas and conversations within one another.
Ricky Martin’s Performance of ‘Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii’
Bad Bunny was the star of the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, but there were other artists who had the spotlight. One of them was Ricky Martin. In the halftime show, Martin performed “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii,” a reference to the annexation of Hawaii. In the song, Martin declares that he doesn’t want Puerto Rico to become Hawaii. In other words, he doesn’t want Puerto Rico to become a state, and he wants Puerto Ricans to fight for independence.
El Morro
Two notable moments that occurred in the halftime show were a wedding and Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga singing “Baile Inolvidable” and a salsa version of “Die With A Smile,” respectively. Both these moments took place on a partial replica of El Morro, a nickname for Castillo San Felipe del Morro. El Morro is a stone fort that’s located on the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital. The fort was built in the 16th century, and it is a national icon of Puerto Rico. El Murro is on tons of Puerto Rican items such as license plates. Furthermore, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a national park of the United States.
‘God Bless America’
At the end of the halftime show, Bad Bunny shouted, “God bless America,” one of the only times he speaks in English. When he said this, he wasn’t just talking about the United States. He’s talking about all the countries that form North America and South America. Upon making the declaration, a parade of flags from every single country in the Americas filled the stadium. Additionally, tons of Latin American artists such as Ruben Blades and Los Tigres del Norte appeared in the stadium. The ending of the halftime show was a powerful moment for Latin America since it represented a unity of all the countries.
For over a century, Puerto Ricans have been discriminated. And while Puerto Rico is a place that’s currently facing racial and cultural oppression, people from the island such as Bad Bunny make an effort to defend it. By portraying these 10 symbols, Bad Bunny’s halftime show was not just a music performance; it was a way for Puerto Ricans to embrace their culture and advocate for it.