The connectivity that Bad Bunny celebrated in his Super Bowl halftime show overlaps with Monterey County.

Sara Rubin here admitting that I lost the bets I made on the Super Bowl this year, except one: that Bad Bunny would put on an epic halftime show.

If you haven’t watched it yet, you should. It was a tour through styles ranging from reggaeton to salsa, and featured hundreds of dancers and other performers. The set and costumes told a story unto themselves, making it easy to comprehend his message—one of celebration, love and joy among working people (there was even a wedding, IRL!)—whether or not you understood the Spanish-language lyrics. It was a sensory delight and a rebuke to the hostility from the Trump administration that began immediately after the NFL announced the pop star would be the headliner. 

I’m not here to write more about the joyous set, but to illuminate another bit of joyful magic that shows how interconnected we all are through music and art. 

Over New Year’s week, Juan Sánchez, the executive director of Seaside nonprofit Palenke Arts, was vacationing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On Three Kings Day, Jan. 6, the streets came especially alive with live music and dancing and festivities. “I saw all types of groups, amazing musicians,” he says.

Among many great shows, Sánchez came upon a plena band, a percussion-driven Puerto Rican genre. He got to talking to the band members. He mentioned he runs an arts nonprofit in Seaside; they mentioned they were traveling on Feb. 8 to nearby Santa Clara. While they couldn’t say what their gig was (NDAs), Sánchez says, “I put 1 and 1 together, although they couldn’t say a thing.” 

But they started texting and the day before the Super Bowl—at that time, still unconfirmed as the reason Plenazo Tribe was in the area—members of the band hailing from Puerto Rico, Los Angeles, Cuba, Argentina and Texas told Sánchez they could make an appearance. With just three hours’ notice, they rolled up with their instruments to MLK Jr. School of the Arts in Seaside (home to Palenke Arts) and became the kicker to a volunteer appreciation party and legal observer training hosted by the Solidarity Network of Monterey County. 

They played a joyful hour-plus-long set, then Sánchez took them for a sunset walk on the beach. He and a friend made dinner and they ate with the band and jammed, his guitar music along with their vigorous percussion.

The next day, during the Super Bowl, Sánchez tuned in closely to Bad Bunny’s set, looking for his new friends, and at the very end, flanking Bad Bunny as he prepared to spike a football in triumph, they stood around him. 

“For me, as an immigrant in this country and working with a community that’s under attack, the we-all-belong-here theme is incredibly powerful,” Sánchez says. 

But he also offers a word of caution in this wave of uplift: “It was heartwarming, but the work is every day,” Sánchez says. Making music, dance and art classes available for everyone who wants to experience creativity—no matter where they come from—is a joyful project, but can also be a grind. 

“We must show up for our communities every day,” Sánchez says. “I hope all these drops of water will trickle down into the soil of intolerance and bigotry.” 

A mega-star from Puerto Rico taking the world’s biggest stage sure seems to be more than a trickle.