Bad Bunny Brought Toñita to the Super Bowl, but Williamsburg Already Knows Her as the Matriarch Who Fought Gentrification
For those familiar with the history of Latinos in New York, Toñita’s appearance in Bad Bunny’s halftime show at last Sunday’s Super Bowl filled them with tenderness and pride.
Minutes into his performance, Benito walked through a group of dancers reminiscent of a New York City street. The singer then stopped at a bar to accept a shot from an older woman. That woman’s name is María Antonia Cay, but everyone knows her as Toñita.
At 85, Toñita is a treasure of Puerto Rican and Latino culture in New York. She owns the Caribbean Social Club in Brooklyn, known as “Toñita’s” or “Toñitas,” and has built a “temple,” as she calls it, for those who love a cold beer, good rice with pigeon peas, and listening to salsa.
The Matriarch of Williamsburg
Latinos in Brooklyn often call Toñita “La Matriarca,” or “the Matriarch,” and for good reason. The gesture of serving a shot of cañita (sugarcane liquor) is symbolic of what Mrs. Cay has been doing for fifty years in the neighborhood: welcoming those who have left home and making them feel at home.
Her club is a vestige of a New York of another era. It is located in a modest building on Grand Street owned by Toñita, which helped anchor Los Sures, a predominantly Latino neighborhood since the 1950s, but now in danger of extinction. In fact, Toñita’s is the last Puerto Rican social club in Brooklyn.
Señora Cay’s bar opened in the 1970s, just as Cuban son, mambo, and the musical traditions of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic were mixing with funk to give rise to the salsa we know today, which plays through the speakers of her bar while people play dominoes, pool, and speak Spanish.
Toñita and the resistance to gentrification
During the 1990s and 2000s, Williamsburg was a melting pot of cultures, where immigrant communities, artists, workers, and even luxury coexisted. It was what they called at the time the “double landscape.” A decade later, in search of a different type of clientele and tenants, prices changed and, with them, the facades. The pressure of gentrification closed iconic businesses one by one.
Toñita’s club has survived, with great difficulty, thanks to the support of its community. “They’ve offered me up to nine million dollars,” Toñita said in a video on social media. “I’m never going to sell. We’re staying here until God decides otherwise.”
In June 2023, Toñita had to appear in court for a hearing to determine the future of her premises. According to reports in the Brooklyn Paper and Univision, on paper, the reasons were payments due on a 2016 workers’ compensation insurance policy. However, the real argument was an “excuse to push her out of the neighborhood.”
Customers, friends, and family gathered outside the courthouse to show their support. And Toñita’s is still standing.
Toñita lands in California
At some point, Mrs. Cay’s club caught the attention of Bad Bunny, who celebrated the release of his album “Un Verano Sin Ti” at the bar in 2022. Three years later, he mentions the place in his single “NUEVAYol.” “A shot of cañita at Toñita’s house and PR feels close by,” he says on the track.
Last year, Benito also brought Toñita to Jimmy Fallon’s show. On December 14, Toñita received a special invitation to participate in the Super Bowl halftime show. Although those close to her said it was “a process” to convince her to get on the plane, as she had never been to California and for personal reasons, Toñita finally landed at the Super Bowl with her bar manager, her daughter, and her best friend.
“I was emotional, but I was not nervous,” Mrs. Cay told The New York Times in Spanish. “The show was marvelous and exceptional. We are proud of having participated in such a huge moment.”
