Inauguration of Biden in 2021: What Jennifer Lopez said in Spanish

At Wednesday’s inauguration, at the location where the rebels attacked Capitol police and raided the headquarters of the representative government two weeks ago, superstar Jennifer Lopez at one point in her musical performance lifted a finger and proclaimed: “A nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for everyone!”

That was the final sentence of the Personal Pledge of Fidelity: “One nation, under God, indivisible, with freedom and justice for all.” (In the distance of the shot behind Lopez, a masked opening guest can be seen leaning over to the person next to her with a questioning expression.)

Viewers on social media have reserved a slice of their reactions for the moment. Some said they were imagining Trump supporters spontaneously burning with anger over the use of anything other than American English.

“Wow, some people are about to be mad that J Lo puts that Spaniard there,” tweeted journalist and podcast host Jemele Hill, along with some emojis crying and laughing. “And personally, you know what I mean.”

But it was a familiar kind of indulgence for Lopez, who last year co-headed the Super Bowl halftime show with Shakira, in which she dressed in the Puerto Rico flag and sang on stage with her daughter Emme.

Lopez opened his presentation at the inauguration with a part of “This Land Is Your Land”, the 1940 folk song by Woodie Guthrie, who was – by the way – an active socialist and ally of the workers.

She followed the patriotic flourish with another very J. Lo touch, a ravishing delivery of her 1999 hit, “Let’s Get Loud”. And Lopez’s irony of bringing his audience-pleasing stadium anthem in a relatively small and socially distant ceremony a year after the pandemic was not lost on Twitter.

“Trump swore. ‘How bad could it be?’ ”Tweeted writer and illustrator John Paul Brammer. “Cut to JLo doing Let’s Get Loud amid the ashes of an insurrection attempt in DC. hundreds of thousands are dead. Bernie [Sanders] is wearing his lil gloves. “

“I need to know if Biden’s team knew that JLo would work on ‘let’s talk loudly’ …”, tweeted writer Yashar Ali.

See more reactions to Lopez’s inaugural medley below.

Christi Carras, editor of the Times team, contributed to this report.