Source: The Hill
by Javier A Hernández
“Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, a status unilaterally imposed by Congress in 1917, so that Puerto Ricans could be drafted during World War I. Yet the angry reactions to Bad Bunny’s halftime show reveal how many Americans still see Puerto Ricans as foreigners. The social-media vitriol — mocking his Spanish lyrics or dismissing Puerto Rican culture as ‘un-American’ — serves as a reminder that U.S. citizenship has never quite changed the perception of Puerto Ricans as foreign. U.S. citizenship cannot erase our Puerto Rican nation’s 500-year-old history, culture, and identity. If Americans cannot accept a globally admired artist singing in Spanish on the country’s most-watched broadcast, how can we expect them to treat Puerto Rico as a future state? Puerto Ricans are not considered Americans — not only by mainland Americans but also by Puerto Ricans themselves.” (10/16/25)