Congressman Robert Garcia Calls for Action Following the Grammy’s Failure to Properly Caption Musical Phenomenon Bad Bunny’s Spanish Language Performance and Speech

Washington D.C.- Today, Congressman Robert Garcia (CA-42) sent a letter to CBS CEO George Cheeks following the network’s failure to properly caption musical phenomenon Bad Bunny’s Spanish language performance at the 2023 Grammy Awards. The network’s East Coast broadcast featured closed captioning that read “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH]” and “[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH]”. The letter can be found here, excerpt below: 

“As a proud Latino immigrant and a Member of Congress, I write to echo the concerns, voiced by many within my community, regarding the failure of your network to appropriately caption the live coverage of the 2023 Grammy Awards. 

“As you are aware, although the artist Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known professionally as Bad Bunny, was scheduled to perform, producers failed to anticipate the need for Spanish language closed captioning for his live performances.

“Millions of Spanish - speaking Americans watched the Grammy’s open with Bad Bunny’s performance on the East Coast, seeing closed captioning as “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH]” and “[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH]” 

“Furthermore, as Bad Bunny gave his acceptance speech in Spanish for best Música Urbana album, the captions again read “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH].”

“This is deeply regrettable and displays a lack of sensitivity and foresight. For too many Spanish-Speaking Americans, it felt disrespectful of our place in our shared society, and of our contributions to our shared culture. For the hearing-impaired community, this failure was hurtful."

 Congressman Garcia immigrated to the United States as a young child and was raised in Southern California, becoming a proud U.S. citizen in his 20's. He holds an M.A. from the University of Southern California and an Ed.D. in Higher Education from Cal State Long Beach, where he also earned his B.A. in Communications. Congressman Garcia believes in defending our democracy, leveling the playing field with progressive education policy, addressing the climate crisis, supporting working families with increasing wages, and fighting to expand and protect essential rights for women, immigrants, and the LGBTQI+ community. 

###