SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 The Super Bowl lasted all of 13 minutes for many Puerto Ricans in San Juan and beyond.<\/p>\n
People turned their backs to TV screens as food, music and chatter filled the first half of the game until a hush fell across the island. The halftime show<\/a> was starting.<\/p>\n This was Puerto Rico\u2019s moment, a spotlight on a collective son who quit bagging groceries<\/a> a decade ago and became the world\u2019s most streamed artist on Spotify last year. Since then, Bad Bunny has used his platform to applaud immigrants, sing about Puerto Rico\u2019s identity and turmoil<\/a> and denounce U.S. immigration policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe appeared at the right moment in the history of Latin America,\u201d said Marielys Rojas, 39, who is originally from Venezuela but has lived the last 22 years in Puerto Rico<\/a>.<\/p>\n She was among the hundreds who gathered by a grassy knoll near a beach in Puerto Rico\u2019s capital to watch the halftime show on a huge screen as waves crashed behind them and the sounds of coqu\u00eds, an endemic frog, filled the salty air.<\/p>\n Amarilys Reyes, 55, arrived at the seaside watch party with her 22-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n She had never watched a Super Bowl and didn\u2019t know who was playing, but it didn\u2019t matter. Like many others, she was only there for Bad Bunny.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the biggest show of his life,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n Energy, nerves and excitement had been building across Puerto Rico ever since the NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced that Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio would headline the Super Bowl XL Halftime Show.<\/p>\n Watch parties were quickly organized across the U.S. mainland and the island. Some dubbed it \u201cSuper Bori Sunday,\u201d a shortened nod to \u201cBoricua,\u201d which refers to someone with Puerto Rican ancestry, while others referred to it \u201cThe Benito Bowl: Morcilla, Sancocho, Mofongo, Reggaet\u00f3n and a little bit of Football.\u201d<\/p>\n One woman wrote on social media that she would watch the halftime show with her 87-year-old mother in Puerto Rico so they could dance together, while another person posted that they had prepared a PowerPoint presentation for their American friends dubbed \u201cBad Bunny 101.\u201d<\/p>\n Creativity flowed as Feb. 8 approached: One bar in Puerto Rico posted a promo featuring the quarterbacks from the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots sitting on the iconic white plastic lawn chairs that grace the cover of Bad Bunny\u2019s newest album.<\/p>\n Even the Teletubbies got in on the excitement, shaking their colorful rumps to Bad Bunny<\/a> \u2019s \u201cBaile Inolvidable\u201d a day before the show.<\/p>\n Wonder Woman also lent her support, with Lynda Carter noting on social media that she was a \u201chuge fan\u201d of Bad Bunny, whom she noted was an American citizen: \u201cMake no mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n But criticism of the first all-Spanish NFL halftime show spiked as the first half ended.<\/p>\n Jake Paul, a YouTuber-turned-boxer who has property in Puerto Rico and has posted about life on the island, wrote on X: \u201cTurn off this halftime. A fake American citizen performing who publicly hates America. I cannot support that.\u201d<\/p>\n Puerto Ricans quickly responded.<\/p>\n