Bad Bunny’s Valentine Card To All Americans.

Posted on | February 10, 2026 | 1 Comment

Mike Magee

Bad Bunny came to the rescue, and 135 million citizens worldwide were ready and waiting for relief. A 13 minute oasis, and WOW – the power of culture in the hands of a gifted artist. The human sugar cane set, ravaged electric grid but heads held high, joyful music and dance, choice to go all in on Spanish and multigenerational love, and “God Bless Our Americas” with a multi-flag flying exit – all memorable and directional (Good hearts everywhere, follow us!)

That was Sunday. And what a lead-in to this Saturday’s Valentines Day. As Bad Bunny’s (AKA Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) flag-waving brown, black, and white band redefined the boundaries of America The Beautiful, the electronic billboard challenged ICE and beyond in full caps – “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE.”

Bad Bunny carried the football that read “TOGETHER WE ARE AMERICA”. But who threw the pass? One obvious candidate would be Sonia Maria Sotomayor, the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court Justice. She is the child of Puerto Rican immigrants. Two years after she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, her father, who spoke only Spanish and had a 3rd grade education, died. Her mother was an orphan from a rural area on Puerto Rico’s southwest coast. She emigrated to New York City during WW II and served as a practical nurse in the Women’s Army Corp. Working long hours to raise her daughter, much of Sonia’s support came from her grandmother who she said provided “protection and purpose,” and from their large extended family they would visit in Puerto Rico each summer.”

At her swearing in on May 26, 2009, President Obama referenced her knowledge of the law and vast experience, but then added, “We need something more… Experience being tested by obstacles and barriers, by hardship and misfortune, experience insisting, persisting, and ultimately, overcoming those barriers. It is experience that can give a person a common touch and a sense of compassion, an understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live.”

That common touch was on full display with Benito and his joyful troop this past weekend. It was present as well on June 30, 2022, when another woman of color was tracing the same steps as Justice Sotomayor. Her name means “lovely one”, and when she was appointed to her current role, she said, “I have dedicated my career to public service because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free.”

The “lovely one” was born in Washington, D.C. on September 14, 1970. To honor their ancestry, her parents, whose ancestors were slaves, reached out to a relative who was serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa at the time, requesting a list of African names for their daughter

Ketanji Onyika was their choice. It is Tshiluba, a Bantu language from a southern portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to experts, “The language is rich in proverbs, such as ‘Bilengele mbiasa munkelende’ (Good things are found among thorns), reflecting deep cultural wisdom.” One word in the language speaks volumes. For example: Ilunga – a very complicated word to translate and useful in our current circumstances. “It means ‘a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time’.”

As with Benito last Sunday, human goodness and endurance, love and joy, were on full display on June 30, 2022. Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson, the new Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, had endured nearly 24 hours of rigorous, and at times deeply offensive questioning, under the glare of TV lights, to make history. Her then 11-year old daughter, Leila Jackson, recommended her in 2016, to President Obama, for a vacant position on the Supreme Court left by the death of Justice Scalia. Leila wrote of her mother, “She is determined, honest, and never breaks a promise to anyone, even if there are other things she’d rather do. She can demonstrate commitment, and is loyal and never brags.”

So we will brag for her, and Justice Sotomayer, for Benito and Puerto Rico and for all our Americas in all their splendid diversity.

As for the football that Bad Bunny spiked in the end zone, according to chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, it was a vintage Wilson ball from the late ’60s. And Benito’s #64 white jersey? It was a tribute to his uncle. He played football and that was his number. McCarthy spoke for us all when he said, “It was a great gesture. Family is everything, and it’s nice to see that even the world’s biggest stars remain cognizant of who and where they came from.”

Happy Valentines Day to Americans of good will everywhere!