{"id":128553,"date":"2026-02-10T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128553\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T09:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T09:00:10","slug":"bad-bunny-surprises-fans-with-cameo-from-brooklyns-beloved-tonita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128553\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny surprises fans with cameo from Brooklyn\u2019s beloved To\u00f1ita"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">NEW YORK (PIX11) \u2014 With much of the buzz after Sunday night\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show focused on Bad Bunny, Puerto Ricans in New York zeroed in on a different moment \u2014 an unexpected cameo by an 85-year-old Brooklyn woman known simply as To\u00f1ita.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bad Bunny, whose given name is Benito Mart\u00ednez Ocasio, shared the stage with To\u00f1ita during the performance in San Francisco, pairing the global superstar with a beloved Williamsburg fixture in front of a worldwide audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/news\/local-news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:More Local News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> More Local News <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI\u2019m in my 40s, and I actually cried,\u201d said Jime Moreno, who watched the show from New York. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was happening in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">During his song NUEVAYoL,\u00a0To\u00f1ita, born Mar\u00eda Antonia Cay, appeared in a vignette serving\u00a0ca\u00f1ita\u00a0to Bad Bunny, a nod to her longtime role as matriarch of the community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">To\u00f1ita later thanked the artist in an Instagram video, saying, \u201cThank you, Benito, for inviting us. We had a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For more than 50 years, To\u00f1ita has run one of New York City\u2019s last remaining Puerto Rican social clubs, the Caribbean Social Club on Grand Street in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cShe\u2019s the abuelita of the South Side of Williamsburg,\u201d said Clem\u2019s bar manager, Rob Tebow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/pix11-preferred-source-google-184248152.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Make PIX11 your preferred news source on Google: Here\u2019s how;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Make PIX11 your preferred news source on Google: Here\u2019s how <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Crowds inside neighborhood bars erupted when To\u00f1ita appeared on screen, her cameo broadcast to an estimated 135 million viewers. While she kept her involvement quiet, many locals suspected something was coming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bad Bunny has become a regular visitor to her club, according to neighbors and bartenders in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe had this feeling,\u201d said bartender Michele Luger. \u201cHe loves her and is sharing her with the world now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Frankie Rivera, who moved to New York from Puerto Rico 60 years ago, said he\u2019s been her neighbor for over a decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI feel happy for her and for all of us,\u201d Rivera said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The club, where To\u00f1ita regularly cooks for neighbors, remains a cultural fixture amid a rapidly changing block. She once turned down a reported $9 million offer to sell the property, choosing instead to preserve the space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Each summer, the block celebrates Puerto Rican traditions she has passed down to the next generation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201c[Bad Bunny] showed the unification that we have despite everything,\u201d said Aby Moran. \u201cIt made me feel proud to be Latina.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (PIX11) \u2014 With much of the buzz after Sunday night\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show focused on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[6014,98,100,99,9,24,63,27215,55441,55148],"class_list":["post-128553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-bad-bunny","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-puerto-rican","tag-super-bowl-halftime-show","tag-tonita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}