Beloved LA taco shop makes surprise cameo in Bad Bunny’s half-time show

A beloved Los Angeles taqueria made its primetime debut during Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX half-time show, delighting and surprising its legion of faithful patrons.

Bad Bunny’s 13-minute performance was a love letter to the culture, history and legacy of Puerto Rico, with sets depicting sugarcane fields, a house party and even a wedding ceremony, complete with Lady Gaga performing a salsa rendition of her hit “Die With a Smile.”

But in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, Highland Park-based taqueria Villa’s Tacos made a surprise appearance. The Grammy-award winning rapper stopped at various vendors, including a coco frio stand, a nail tech and a piragua stand before making his way to a Villa’s Tacos stand.

Victor Villas, the store’s owner, is a first-generation Mexican-American immigrant who first started selling tacos from his grandmother’s front yard eight years ago. Today, the store has three locations in the city, including one in Los Angeles’s historic Grand Central Market.

In an Instagram post, Villas thanked Bad Bunny, whose full name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, for “hand selecting me and giving me an opportunity to represent my people, my culture, my family, and my business”.

He also acknowledged the significance of Bad Bunny’s historic performance during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns: “I couldn’t have sold that first taco if my parents didn’t make the difficult decision to leave their homeland for a better life and immigrate to the U.S.,” he wrote. “This one is for all the immigrants who paved the way before us to make this moment possible.”

As for how the performance came to be, Villas told a local ABC affiliate that Bad Bunny was just a fan of the restaurant, loves their tacos and asked the business to join him for the Super Bowl.

Karen Bass, LA’s mayor, also took to Instagram to applaud Bad Bunny’s performance and the inclusion of Villa’s Tacos. “We are a city of immigrants. Seeing @villastacoslosangeles on the Super Bowl stage was a proud moment for our city.”

Bad Bunny, who made history as the first Spanish-language Latin solo artist to headline the Super Bowl, exalted the role of diversity and multiculturalism in the US, shouting “Good bless America,” before shouting a list of countries and territories in the Americas. As red, white and blue fireworks lit up the sky at Levi’s Stadium, a message filled the screen: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

In a follow-up post on Instagram, Villas again thanked his “dear friend Benito” again under footage of the rapper exiting the stage after finishing the performance. In all capitals, he wrote: “This one was for all the Mexicans. This one was for all the Latinos. This one was for all the immigrants. It’s crazy where a taco can take you.”