Here’s what Jennifer Lopez said in Spanish at Biden’s inauguration

At Wednesday’s inauguration, on the spot where insurrectionists barreled over Capitol Police officers and broke into the seat of representative government two weeks ago, superstar Jennifer Lopez at one point in her musical performance lifted a finger and proclaimed: “Una nación, bajo Dios, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos!”

That was the final phrase of the Pledge of Allegiance, folks: “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” (In the distance of the shot behind Lopez, a masked guest of the inauguration can be seen leaning into the person next to her with a questioning expression.)

Viewers on social media reserved a slice of their reactions to the moment. Some said they were picturing Trump supporters spontaneously combusting in anger over the use of anything other than American English.

“Whooooo some folks about to be big mad about J Lo dropping that Spanish in there,” tweeted journalist and podcast host Jemele Hill, along with some crying-laughing emojis. “And by folks, y’all know who I mean.”

But it was a familiar kind of indulgence for Lopez, who last year co-headlined the Super Bowl halftime show with Shakira, in which she draped herself in the Puerto Rican flag and sang onstage with her daughter Emme.

Lopez opened her performance at the inauguration with a portion of “This Land Is Your Land,” the 1940 folk song by Woody Guthrie, who, incidentally, identified as a socialist and ally of working people.

She followed the patriotic flourish with another very J. Lo touch, a sweeping delivery of her 1999 hit, “Let’s Get Loud.” The irony of Lopez bringing her crowd-pleasing stadium anthem to a relatively small, socially distanced ceremony a year into the pandemic was not lost on Twitter.

Music

Jennifer Lopez performs patriotic medley with showbiz flourish at Biden inaugural: Watch

Lopez performed an abridged “This Land Is Your Land” and “America the Beautiful” and added a Spanish-language section from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Jan. 20, 2021

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

“I need to know if the Biden team was aware JLo would work in ‘let’s get loud’...,” tweeted writer Yashar Ali.

See more reactions to Lopez’s inauguration medley below.

Times staff writer Christi Carras contributed to this report.