As a former Spanish teacher, my ears are always tuned to the frequency of the language…not just the grammar, but the soul of the syntax. As a civil rights right and environmental justice activist, my eyes are trained to look for the “sacrifice zones” hidden behind the glitz of American spectacle. When Benito (AKA Bad Bunny) took the global stage at the Super Bowl LX, most saw a pop star; I saw a masterclass in intersectional rebellion.

For those of us from African descent navigating the cross-currents of the African Diaspora, Benito’s performance wasn’t just entertainment. It was a pedagogical intervention. He used one of the most viewed event in the country to deliver a lecture on colonial extraction, environmental racism, and the enduring power of the Afro-Latino spirit.

The Geography of the Cane: A Shared History

In my classroom, I used to tell my students that Spanish is not just a European language, it is the forced language of the conquistadors, the colonizers that engaged in physical and cultural genocide taking away indigenous languages. Both English and Spanish are languages representing domestic and global oppression. In the Black American Church, we always talk about “speaking things into existence”…but there is trauma in the very words that both Black & Latino speak as our tribal and native languages were savagely robbed from us.

When Benito centers his performance on the rhythm of the islands, he is invoking the history of the land itself, a land that remembers the sting of the sugar cane. We must be clear: the sugar industry in Puerto Rico, much like the cotton industry in the American South, was an engine of global wealth fueled by the systematic enslavement of African people. The “sweetness” of the Caribbean was built on a foundation of Black & Latino suffering.

By refusing to sanitize his performance or “Anglicize” his set, Benito honors that history. He stands on that soil not as a guest, but as a descendant of those who survived the plantation complex. He reminds us that the struggle for civil rights didn’t stop at the shoreline; it is a continuous, oceanic movement for the dignity of Black and Brown bodies.

The Poste as a Monument to Neglect

As an environmental justice activist, I was moved by the visual subtext of Bad Bunny’s aesthetic choices, specifically the symbolism of the poste de luz (the electricity pole). In the United States, climate disaster after climate disaster, we watch our power grid grow weaker, but in Puerto Rico, the pole is a symbol of a broken promise.

The unstable power grid, currently managed by private entities like LUMA, is a textbook example of disaster capitalism. It is a system that prioritizes profit over the literal breath of the people who rely on ventilators and the safety of those living in the dark. When we see the imagery of the crumbling infrastructure in his art, we are seeing a demand for Energy Sovereignty.

We are witnessing a cry for clean energy investments as both a civil and human right. The transition to solar and wind power in Puerto Rico is a de-colonial act. It is about decoupling the island from a fossil fuel industry that pollutes Black and Brown neighborhoods while failing to provide the basic necessity of light. Bad Bunny used his massive platform to amplify the reality that there can be no social justice without environmental justice.

The Teachable Moment: A Call for Radical Unity

Fascism relies on the compartmentalization of our struggles. It wants the Black American activist to feel disconnected from the Latino struggle. It wants the Latino to ignore their African roots. But as I watched that performance, I saw the bridge. The same forces of white supremacy that seek to erase Black history from Florida textbooks are the same forces that seek to privatize the beaches of Puerto Rico and displace its people. We are fighting the same monster; it simply wears different masks.

The Call to Action

The time for siloed advocacy is over. We must forge a strong yet joyful unity between Black and Latino communities to dismantle the rising tide of fascism.

We must demand:

1. Energy Justice: Immediate federal investment in decentralized, renewable energy for Puerto Rico and other Black, Latino and Indigenous communities to ensure the grid belongs to the people.
2. Historical Truth: A commitment to teaching the Afro-Latino history of the sugar trade and the resistance movements that followed.
3. Political Solidarity: A unified front against the privatization of public goods, from our schools to our shorelines.

Benito…Bad Bunny showed us that the stage is a site of power, but the real work happens when the music stops and we realize that the “light” we are seeking isn’t coming from the grid, it’s coming from us.

¡La lucha continúa y la unión es nuestra fuerza! (The struggle continues, and unity is our strength!)

About the Author

LaTricea D. Adams, MAT, EdS is the founder CEO & President of Young, Gifted & Green and the youngest African American Woman appointed to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) under the leadership of President Biden and Vice-President Harris. She also is a former public K-12 educator and district administrator of 16 years.