SOL’s Noche con Benito
Image courtesy of Rolling Stone.
By Brian Rodas, Aurora Sanchez, and Gabriela Pereira-Ruano
“Una Noche con Benito” was SOL’s way of celebrating a huge accomplishment for not only the Latinx/Hispanic community, but especially our Puerto Rican community. As a collective, we were all anxiously waiting to witness an artist perform with everything that we love about our culture, and who is not afraid to be loud about it.
As the Student Organization of Latinos, we knew we had to take this opportunity to showcase our pride in our Hispanic and Latinx heritage under our current administration. Our mission is to ensure all students have a space where they can express pride in their roots as well as educate studentsabout Latinx cultures, values, and traditions. Bad Bunny portrays our mission well throughout his entire performance. To stand together, in unity, we stand stronger. We wanted to give students a chance to see someone doing exactly what we stand for. We anticipated that our members and their friends would feel that pride and see others celebrate along with them.
At our event, we decorated the entire Nest space with Puerto Rican flags and Bad Bunny decorations. We also decided to get help from Caraleena Hodosky, a Puerto Rican student, with making Arroz con Gandules. This is a typical Puerto Rican dish consisting of rice and peas. Additionally, we had Coco Flan as dessert, which is one of Bad Bunny’s favorite desserts.
We all sat anxiously as we waited for the moment that Bad Bunny appeared on the screen, dancing and singing our favorite songs. The atmosphere in the room once the performance started was one of unity and celebration. You could feel that the second Bad Bunny stepped on stage and showed us why he was chosen to be the Super Bowl Halftime performer. Everything Bad Bunny stands for and represents makes the Latinx and Hispanic communities feel more connected and supported by each other. Our community not only shows what unity can be made out of, but also what we are constructing as we build generations.
