No rage. Just love.

I'm fascinated by this question that has come up in response to Bad Bunny and his half-time show. "What is American?" and "Who is American?"

I watched the show the next day. I didn't understand a word of what was said, but obvious the music had great beats, and it was very entertaining. One can argue about "the appropriateness for public television" of the language or dancing, but that's irrelevant for this post.

I actually got pretty emotional watching the story that Benito was telling, about his experience of America, his Latino culture, and his life in Puerto Rico.

Because when I was a kid, I spent a year growing up in Miami Beach, where I was totally submerged in Latino culture. From the music to fashion to the language- it was all around us.

A culture of refugees (just like us Jews were refugees) who were making new lives in America.

When I was a young married woman and lived in Washington Heights and went to social work school in Harlem, I was surrounded once again by a rich Latino culture. Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and many more shaped these neighborhoods with the sounds of their music, traditions, the smells of their foods, their shops, and communities.

The old men playing chess near the playgrounds. The stoops with kids congregating, radios piping sick beats through the windows. The churches and their church bells, the hydrants open in the summers.

I would take my daughter to the doctor, to the park, to the bodega, and these were my neighbors, doctors, shopkeepers, banktellers, part of my community.

When I was in school, so many of my classmates were Latino- the commitment to their communities was so strong. I learned from them about their histories, what their neighborhoods were struggling with, what kind of help they needed. What strengths they brought to the work.

As an Ashkenazi Jew, my experience of America is so woven into Latino culture. I recognized so much of what Benito was sharing about what makes Latino-Americans great. The real moments of what it means to live in America as someone who comes from this rich culture.

Personally, I associate America with the world that the half-time show brought to life.

Today when there is so much fear in America, and when culture wars are at an all time high, when Latino communities are afraid for their lives, it brought me so much joy to see this story told so vividly on a national stage.

With no rage. Just love.

And now, I can't get his song out of my head and I have no idea what it means.