COLUMN | Bad Bunny Said 'ICE Out' — and Made the Super Bowl Matter to Me

I am not a football fan. In fact, I don't really like professional football culture at all: The game feels like it stops every yard, and they blackballed Colin Kaepernick for his activism.

But the love I have for Bad Bunny outweighs the contempt I have for the NFL any day.

I don't feel this way about a lot of musicians. Bad Bunny is authentic in a way only a Latino can be: sin miedo al éxito y con amor.

From the beginning of his career, he's stayed true to his identity, never compromising his culture to appeal to mainstream American audiences. As a result, he's made Latinos cool in a way we've never been before. Gone are the days of assimilation, and yet Latino xenophobia is as rampant as ever. I don't need to tell anyone how bad things are, all you have to do is check the news or scroll through your IG feed.

But for me it's not just about headlines. I panic when I hear a knock on my door, I keep my blinds closed, and I avoid ICE-affiliated businesses. I constantly worry where my daughter, who is a citizen, may end up if, God forbid, I (a DACA recipient) happen to have an unlucky day. Will I wake up in this country tomorrow? It feels like the early 2000s again, when I was just a kid, hiding behind the couch and staying quiet when the doorbell rang. It's a hard time to feel safe and to be strong.

So, Bad Bunny on a national stage, accepting his sixth Grammy and using his platform to proclaim "ICE out"? There's no better way to show ICE and the bigots empowering them that we aren't going anywhere.

In many ways, Bad Bunny represents everything the right hates about the Latinos the modern-day gestapo is hunting. He's completely self-made, not beholden to any record label, and his very existence as a native of occupied Puerto Rico challenges the notion of what it means to be "American." His speech reminded me that I am not alone.

Como dice Bad Bunny, "de aquí ya no me sacan."

They say revenge is sweet, but I think revenge has sazón.

If last year's Super Bowl performance by Kendrick Lamar was a nationally televised diss at Drake, then I feel like this year's Drake is ICE itself.

I get giddy thinking about racists letting their hate keep them from enjoying the freedom of the mixed sounds of boleros, salsa, and dembao heard on "Debí Tirar Más Fotos." It's really their loss.

Call me petty, but I will take vindication in any shape or form I can, even if it's just loosening my hips to bellakear on the living room floor when I hear the beat drop. Sometimes it feels like that's all I have.

El Conejo Malo, where do I begin? If he had the power to inspire and bring out all the young Latinos in the Pacific Northwest to create community, ushering in a renaissance era of Latino markets, creative events, and businesses, post-pandemic, I like to imagine maybe he can do more for us, for the culture. This is not conjecture, by the way. In 2021, I went to Mexico for half a year and when I came back from connecting to my roots, Seattle Latinos and Latino spaces were not the same. In Mexico, I heard Bad Bunny and our music everywhere. I did not expect to see that coming back, but here we are.

No more was that evident than the 2022 Bad Bunny concert. (Yes, I did go into debt for a floor seat to that concert, but that's not the point!) We were everywhere, we were the majority. Despite having assigned seats, we moved our bodies, we sang the songs, and we were free. Twenty minutes in, Bad Bunny addressed us, The Latinos, in our mother tongue:

"¿Dónde 'tán lo' Latino de Seattle? ¿Dónde 'tán?"

The stadium roared, and he continued in Spanish (but I'll translate for y'all): "Precisely at this point, I like to dedicate this part to all the people who work day and night to reach their dreams … to all the people who work for a better future for their families and themselves … you have my respect and my admiration, from the heart … don't stop fighting."

He was speaking directly to me, to us.

Unexplainably, it's that sentiment, that shared struggle, and that strength, that shakes the right-wing to the core.

But, to quote Bad Bunny: "We're not savages, we're not animals, we're not aliens, we are humans, and we are Americans."

Agueda Pacheco Flores is the social media editor and advertisement coordinator. Her writing has appeared in The Seattle Times, Tasteful Rude, Remezcla, Rails to Trails Conservancy, and more.