By Michael Hooper
Vieques, Puerto Rico -- Days before the Super Bowl, there was a lot of excitement for the Bad Bunny halftime show.
On the day of the big event, my wife and I walked down to Lazy Jack's bar, where big screen TVs were carrying the Super Bowl. The place, located along the ocean in Esperanza, Vieques, was so crowded, people were watching from the street.
The halftime show was incredible. Bad Bunny showed us the strength of his people, from the struggles making sugarcane to the power outages, and the people playing dominoes. Bad Bunny did good. He made me proud to be a Puerto Rican (mi Madre es de Guayama, PR). There are so many cultural icons in this video, including sugar cane fields, coco frio, bananas, Jibaros (PR hillbillies), Ford F150 pick up, boxing, the electric poles, the little casita. Bad Bunny named off multiple countries like Venezuela, Cuba and Columbia, near the end of his performance, celebrating Latin culture everywhere. People from those countries went wild with excitement when they heard their country's name.
Puerto Ricans are proud that one of their own celebrated their culture on the biggest stage in the world. Hundreds of people worked on his show. There were some people like President Trump who disapproved of the NFL's choice, but a record 135 million viewers watched Bad Bunny's halftime performance.
I see a lot of pride in Puerto Rico, a pride in its history, its music, food, culture and its exemplary Caribbean lifestyle, with some of the finest beaches in the world. The Puerto Rican islands, Vieques and nearby Culebra, are well known for their great beaches, good for swimming and snorkeling.
Last summer, Bad Bunny's 30 concerts in San Juan generated about $300 million in economic activity. People from all over the world descended on PR to attend the concerts.
Now I see continued resurgence in Puerto Rican culture. I've met several people with Puerto Rican blood who grew up in the states but found their way back here, like me. One Puerto Rican author of children's books told me Puerto Ricans sold their soul for money, they left the island to pursue higher paying jobs in the United States. But some of these Puerto Ricans are coming back here, and they are buying houses and fixing them up. That is why we can relate to Bad Bunny's lyrics, "No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí" (I don't want to go from here).
There is also a large expat community of Americans who fell in love with the island and purchased property here. The number of Airbnbs have exploded in Vieques and mainland PR. I recently picked up a hitchhiker, a native of Puerto Rico, who said Airbnb people are taking away valuable housing opportunities on the island. Rents have gone up, housing prices have gone up, squeezing out low-income and middle-income earners.
One of reasons the cost of living is relatively high here is The Jones Act; a law from 1920 that requires international goods to be unloaded at a US Port and then reloaded onto a US boat with a US crew to Puerto Rico. Congress should abandoned the Jones Act so goods could move here freely without a stop in a US port.
Some critics of Bad Bunny didn't like the fact that he sang in Spanish. I'm glad he did sing in Spanish because that is part of his culture. Puerto Rico is a US territory. People born here are US citizens. Several countries get along fine with more than one language, in Switzerland, they speak German, French and Italian; and they haven't had a civil war since 1847.
Bad Bunny captured the heart of Latinos everywhere. I praise the NFL for having the courage to make him the halftime show of the Super Bowl. The Who was once the halftime show and they are not even US citizens, they are from the United Kingdom. Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican American. One of our own. Let's be grateful we are a country with diversity.
That is why I'm against President Trump's crackdown on immigrants, using ICE as a bully, yanking people off the streets and killing at least two innocent American protestors in Minnesota. Congress should stand up against this unconstitutional fascism. Those who remain silent or favor this unconstitutional behavior are complicit in Trump's crimes against humanity.
Trump is a hateful man who is trying to starve out Cuba with an oil blockade. What did Cuba ever do to him? The island nation has a different political government, but so what? If Trump is the face of Democracy, I want nothing to do with it. I favor the kind of Democracy that was championed by the founders of the United States, followed by many presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.
Bad Bunny didn't go into the politics of immigration, he kept his message simple, "The only thing more powerful than hate is love."
