By Ezequiel Peressini, leader of the Socialist Left and the IWU-FI
On Sunday afternoon, 8 February, the Super Bowl took place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots 29-13 and became champions of the most popular sport in the United States, American football. But it’s not just about the sport. The opening and halftime show feature spectacular musical performances, transforming the Super Bowl into the most-watched spectacle annually in the United States.
The punk rock band Green Day performed the opening act, playing the main songs from their album “American Idiot” again, 22 years after its release. The album artwork, featuring a hand holding a grenade shaped like a bleeding heart, is a powerful denunciation of U.S. imperialism. Bad Bunny and his guests performed the halftime show on a stage set that transformed Levi’s Stadium in Puerto Rico. There, he performed some songs from his latest album, “Debí tirar más fotos” (I Should Have Taken More Pics), which won him a Grammy just a week prior. The presence of the two musical groups angered Donald Trump, who withdrew from the event, labeling the musicians “leftists” critical of his policies.
Bad Bunny’s presence, his songs, and the stage design transformed the halftime show into a major international political event. It also served as a slap on Donald Trump’s face, as it defiantly highlighted the lives, territories, and customs of millions of Latinos in the United States whom ICE persecutes and whom Donald Trump faces with deportation.
A vindication of Latino life in the heart of imperialism
From the very beginning, the show was impactful. In a sugarcane-strewn playing field where sugar workers go about their tasks, Bad Bunny walks along, singing his songs. Along his route, he passes by classic street food stalls where the Latin American working class eats lunch, a table where four men play dominoes, and at another, two women sculpt their nails in a street manicure session while chatting. Nearby, a group of women construction workers is building a wall. Before arriving at the pink house where a party is underway—attended by the renowned Chilean actor Pedro Pascal—Puerto Rican boxer Xander Zayas and Mexican-American Emiliano Vargas are seen sparring. Reggaeton plays for about 15 minutes, and Bad Bunny introduces it as the music “of the barrios and housing projects” of Puerto Rico. The “Sapo Concho,” a graphic representation of the Puerto Rican toad, appeared as a flag on the stadium’s giant screens, and a real wedding took place in the same spot where Lady Gaga had taken centre stage, showcasing her collaboration with Benito and her struggles after denouncing ICE and Trump at her last concert in Japan. After the wedding, which was so Latin that even a child woke from sleeping in chairs while people danced, Bad Bunny said “New York” and began a set change. The NYC neighbourhood and La Marqueta, the most renowned Latin market in East Harlem, Manhattan, took centre stage. Bad Bunny didn’t perform alone; He was also joined by Ricky Martin, who performed the iconic song “Lo que pasó en Hawaii” and sang: “They want to take away my river and my beach / They want my neighbourhood and for Grandma to leave / No, you don’t let go of the flag or forget the lelolai [traditional Puerto Rican dance] / Because I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii.” After simulating a power outage and singing about damaged lampposts and transformers, people paraded through the sugarcane fields carrying the flags of the 36 countries of the Americas. Bad Bunny named them one by one, from south to north, ending his performance by throwing an American football and shouting: “We’re still here.”
Bad Bunny’s performance and stage presence moved nearly 70 million Latin Americans living in the United States, blending the ongoing protests with the same message he delivered weeks earlier when he won the 2026 Grammy Award and declared “ICE out,” alongside many other artists who reject ICE raids, detentions, kidnappings, and killings. Bad Bunny also powerfully represented this sentiment at the Super Bowl. He gifted his Grammy to a young Latino boy, remembering 5-year-old Liam “Conejo” Ramos, whom ICE had detained.
The renowned ESPN sports journalist John Sutcliffe, who has broadcast the Super Bowl for 34 years, couldn’t contain his emotion and stated: “As a Mexican-American…” “It’s okay for an American to have a tear in their eye, no matter which Latin American country you’re from, to feel proud that Benito sang in Spanish at the most important American celebration,” before declaring: “Long live Bad Bunny!”
Trump’s anger
While more than 130 million people enthusiastically watched the show, Donald Trump writhed in the White House and didn’t wait for the event to end before spewing venom on his social media: “Nobody understands a word, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for children… It was the worst show in history, a slap in the face to America.” His anger reveals his contempt for Latino life and shows that the blow he received is not an isolated incident. This is part of a massive response from the mass movement and the poor people of the United States. These people, far from seeing their social problems resolved, lead increasingly worse lives and face persecution from a fascist government’s repression and authoritarianism. This government attacks all democratic and social freedoms. The path taken by the United States has prevented Donald Trump from fully implementing his policies. Recently, he had to withdraw 700 ICE agents and the Border Czar, his reactionary friend Tom Homan, from Minneapolis. The political crisis is taking alternative forms, and amidst the scandalous Epstein videos where Trump appears to be an accomplice, he suffered another electoral defeat in Tarrant County, Texas. In the historically Republican county, his candidate lost to union leader and Democratic candidate Taylor Rehmet by 14%, in a county where Trump had won by 17 points in the 2024 presidential election. The performance by Green Day and Bad Bunny was a slap in the face to Trump and his entire anti-immigration policy, to his fascist and MAGA allies who advocate racial supremacy, to his repressive officials, and to Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defence, who is preparing military attacks like the one carried out against Venezuela and supports Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Palestine. Bad Bunny’s performance expresses the struggles and anger of the exploited and oppressed of the world, and remember that every knockout begins with a slap.
