SALINAS, CA — As a Mexican American in Central California, I grew up speaking Spanish. But I wouldn’t realize until many years later just how lucky I was.
My parents only spoke Spanish, and that was the language they used to address me. When I was young, I’d respond in Spanish — and always with respeto. Later, after many years of formal education, I still understood my parents when they spoke to me in Spanish but I would sometimes answer in English. Still, I never left my Spanish behind. And gracias a dios, it never left me.
Working as I do with patients who very often come from immigrant backgrounds, there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t have to dust off my Spanish. As I feel the words leave my lips, I remember my parents — and I’m grateful that they made sure to pass on their language.
Now there is a controversy over — of all things — Bad Bunny headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl LX. Some Americans are furious that the National Football League invited the Grammy winner — who was born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — to perform almost entirely in Spanish for 13 minutes.
On social media, conservative commentators describe the performance as something between a betrayal of the NFL’s fan base and a capitulation for the NFL itself. Others called a public humiliation, and a cruel insult to loyal fans.
Calm down, people. It was none of those things. Rather, the performance was a love letter to Puerto Rico, and also un abrazo to all of the Americas — not just the United States. Most of all, it was a delivery mechanism for a powerful message about how only love can conquer hate.
That’s exactly what America needs to hear at difficult moments such as this one, in whatever language. Maximiliano Cuevas, MD is the CEO of Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, a collective of non-profit community health care centers that serve patients in Monterey County.