Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl, and the price of U.S Colonialism on Puerto Rico

Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl, and the price of U.S Colonialism on Puerto Rico

When the NFL announced that Bad Bunny would headline the Super Bowl halftime show, the backlash was loud, predictable, and revealing. In 2026, millions of Americans still don’t know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens—and even fewer understand what that citizenship actually costs. In this episode of Latido Latino, host Anytza Delgado uses Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl moment as a starting point to examine the long history of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico. From military occupation and political repression to surveillance, displacement, and economic extraction, this is a story about visibility without power—and what it means to be American without autonomy. This isn’t just about a halftime show. It’s about a colony placed on the world’s biggest stage, and the price Puerto Rico has paid for more than a century.