Boston Red Sox
“He respects everything. And I’m glad that he represented America the way he did. “
Red Sox manager Alex Cora might have been disheartened by the Patriots’ loss in Super Bowl LX on Sunday.
But the Puerto Rican native was also proud to see Bad Bunny take the stage in the first-ever Super Bowl Halftime Show performed entirely in Spanish.
During Cora’s first address with the media on Monday, the Red Sox skipper offered up a detailed and emotional response when asked what seeing Bad Bunny up on stage in front of millions meant to him.
Here is Cora’s full response, as captured by MassLive’s Lauren Campbell:
“I know the language barrier is the language barrier, but it was an outstanding show. And there’s a lot of stuff — like this morning I watched it again just to see the details. The cool thing about him, and I’ll give him credit because he’s developed into this icon, and he’s true to his roots. I’m a proud Puerto Rican.
“I defend my island whenever I have a chance and I talk about my island whenever I have a chance. But to do it on that stage, and what he did with every detail with everything. Even in the wedding, the wedding there was a kid that was sleeping during the party, and that’s what we do at parties, right? Kids sleeping, he woke him up. I was like, ‘Oh that’s cool.’
“And towards the end the whole electric grid, all that stuff that’s real for us, and he wasn’t afraid of showing people how we’re living right now. But the guy’s a stud and, when you got people tweeting about you, good or bad, people watch, which was the main point. So kudos to him.
“When they had the coconut stand, back home they sell it on the corners and I saw it I was like, ‘Oh shoot, this is gonna be great.’ Then the piraguas, that’s the (shaved) ice, the beauty parlor in the corner, yeah, [Cora’s fiancée] Angelica makes reservations every week when she does her nails. Everybody does.
“But, we got the boxing, we have, this kid, he just won another title, (Xander) Zayas. He was the guy there. And then we start looking at the feedback from people and all that. When you have those people on stage, I mean like this guy, man, he’s, he’s great, he’s great.
“And everything in Spanish. You gotta have big cojones to do that, I gotta be honest. The one thing, the other one — and hopefully people don’t take it wrong — and this is something that I always tell people: It’s the United States of America, America is North America, Central America, South America, and when he said, ‘God bless America,’ people went nuts. And he went country by country, boom boom boom boom. And then he mentioned United States. This guy, he knows that this country had done a lot for him.
“To be this guy, and he might have his views, political views, but at the same time you saw it, man. He respects everything. And I’m glad that he represented America the way he did.
“And then he said, ‘My homeland: Puerto Rico,’ that was great. And I can talk about it, and I put it on Instagram that that unique feeling I saw at the end when he finished and he was singing and then he took the mic and was is like, ‘Holy shoot we just pulled this off.’ And it’s kind of like in ’18, kind of, like we [won the World Series], you know? Let’s go home and celebrate.
Shoot, it’s cool. We let the kids watch it too. “He’s everywhere. He’s selling, he’s doing an outstanding job and he represented us well.”
Bad Bunny — who took home Album of the Year at the Grammys with “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” last week — has drawn some controversy given his outspoken comments regarding ICE and immigration.
Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the choice of Bad Bunny as Halftime Show performer on numerous occasions, while Bad Bunny declared “ICE out” while up on stage accepting his Grammy last week.
Despite backlash from Trump, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell offered up his support for Bad Bunny last week — praising him as a unifying performer.
“Listen, Bad Bunny is — and I think that was demonstrated last night — one of the great artists in the world, and that’s one of the reasons we chose him,” Goodell said. “But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is used to unite people, and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talents, and to be able to use this moment to do that.
“And I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he’ll have a great performance.”
Bad Bunny closed out his performance on Sunday holding a football that read, “Together, we are America” — as the video board behind him at Levi’s Stadium read: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
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