A toast to an iconic Brooklyn social club in the middle of Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the album says, \u2018Un shot de ca\u00f1ita en casa de To\u00f1ita,\u2019 so I gave him a shot of rum,\u201d said Maria Antonia Cay, better known as To\u00f1ita.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Maria Antonia Cay, better known as To\u00f1ita, opened the Caribbean Social Club more than 50 years ago, and it\u2019s served as a home base for the Latino community ever since
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She said Bad Bunny invited her to his Super Bowl halftime show a few months prior and said he wanted to include her in the performance
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To\u00f1ita\u2019s is one of the last Puerto Rican social clubs in the city and faces intense pressure to close, but she refuses, even rejecting multi-million dollar offers to buy the space
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According to CUNY\u2019s Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, the Puerto Rican population in the city peaked in 1970 at close to 900,000. Now, 585,000 Puerto Ricans still live in the five boroughs<\/p>\n
She handed Bad Bunny a shot while performing his song \u201cNUEVAYoL\u201d \u2014 a love letter to the city\u2019s rich Latin history.<\/p>\n
On the field, To\u00f1ita was standing inside a replica of her Caribbean Social Club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to the Super Bowl because he invited me to watch it, saying he would be there and wanted to share a little bit with me too,\u201d To\u00f1ita said.<\/p>\n
She opened the Caribbean Social Club more than 50 years ago, and it\u2019s served as a home base for the Latino community ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just saw the Super Bowl halftime show, and we are obsessed. So good. Bad Bunny did such a good job. We love the representation. And we decided to come say hi to Miss To\u00f1ita and pay our respects,\u201d said Janette, a Colorado resident who said the social club was at the top of her list of places to visit while in New York City.<\/p>\n
Many Puerto Rican New Yorkers said they felt immense pride while watching Bad Bunny\u2019s halftime performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an incredible experience. I cried at halftime because, honestly, that kid is so humble. Representing Puerto Rico gives me goosebumps. It\u2019s truly otherworldly,\u201d Frank, a loyal social club patron, said.<\/p>\n
To\u00f1ita said Bad Bunny first came to the social club years ago, and a friendship was born. He even held a listening party there in 2022 for his album \u201cUn Verano Sin Ti.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, he came here, and we started a friendship. And he kept coming here many times, and that\u2019s how we continued our friendship,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
To\u00f1ita\u2019s is one of the last Puerto Rican social clubs in the city.<\/p>\n
According to CUNY\u2019s Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, the Puerto Rican population in the city peaked in 1970 at close to 900,000. Now, 585,000 Puerto Ricans still live in the five boroughs.<\/p>\n
The club faces intense pressure to close, but To\u00f1ita refuses, even rejecting multi-million dollar offers to buy the space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis space makes people feel at home. When people arrive, they feel happy. It doesn\u2019t matter if they don\u2019t know you. They make friends and feel very welcome,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At 85 years old, To\u00f1ita said she has no plans to go anywhere and she will keep serving $3 beers and ca\u00f1itas to her loyal customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese doors are open to the public, and everyone who comes here is welcome. It\u2019s very important to share with our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In June, the community will hold its annual \u201cTo\u00f1ita Fest\u201d \u2014 a block party that will coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the Caribbean Social Club and the woman at the heart of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A toast to an iconic Brooklyn social club in the middle of Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2296,25,98,100,99,231,9,24,12,63,332,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-135742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","12":"tag-brooklyn-news","13":"tag-human-interest","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-rebecca-greenberg","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135742","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=135742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}