Bad Bunny Super Bowl Performance Sparks Cultural Dialogue at SUNY Oneonta
By ESTEPHANIE GOMEZSUNY Institute for Local NewsONEONTA
Following Bad Bunny’s much talked about performance at the Super Bowl LX halftime show on February 8, Puerto Rican culture has taken center stage globally. For local SUNY Oneonta faculty and student leaders, the “Benito phenomenon” is more than a musical trend; it is a catalyst for visibility and a tool for education.
The Hispanic and Latino population in Otsego County sits at only 4.7 percent, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In a predominantly white area of New York State, the impact of the spotlight on Puerto Rican culture is felt most strongly on the SUNY Oneonta campus, where data from the Office of Institutional Research shows that 18.2 percent of the currently enrolled 5,300 students identify as Hispanic or Latino.
“The reaction around the world has been spectacular,” said Dr. Raúl Feliciano Ortiz about the 13-minute set at the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. A lecturer of media studies at SUNY Oneonta, he described Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—the musician better known as Bad Bunny—as a “transformative phenomenon” who refuses to make his music more palatable for English-speaking audiences.
