I screamed when I saw the owner of one of the last Latino social clubs in New York City hand a shot to Bad Bunny in the middle of his Super Bowl halftime show.
Maria Antonia Cay, better known as Toñita, is a legend in the Latino community in New York City.
I first met her in 2018, about a year after moving to the city from Miami, when one of my friends invited me to visit her bar.
The Caribbean Social Club, which most people call just Toñita’s, is small, but it was always packed on late weekend nights, and always seemed to have room for every Latino in Brooklyn looking for a place to dance freely, play dominoes, or share stories.
Once, Toñita told me her favorite thing about owning the bar was “seeing that people felt good there.”
And that couldn’t be truer. It immediately felt like home. I grew up in Brazil, and in my early 20s, I moved to Miami, where the reggaeton beat and Latin culture are constant, nearly everywhere you go.
Toñita’s bar was one of the few places in the city where my friends and I knew we’d be listening to Latin songs all night long. At the time, Bad Bunny had just released his first album. His music wasn’t everywhere yet, but the song of the summer was Cardi B’s “I Like It,” featuring him and J Balvin.
Guests picked the music themselves through a jukebox. I still remember the thrill of finally hearing the song you picked start playing and watching the whole room dance and sing along.
I often saw Toñita behind the bar, wearing large rings bedazzled in rhinestones on nearly every finger, and handing out Coronas that at the time cost just $3, a rarity even then. She always had a smile on her face.
“It’s fun for me. At home, I get tired, I get bored,” Toñita told me when I interviewed her in 2020. “But not here. Here I’m agile all the time, going this way and that. ‘What do you want? What do you want? What do you want?'”
Toñita opened her place in 1973 as a baseball clubhouse. Places like this used to be common in Southside Williamsburg, a Puerto Rican neighborhood known as “Los Sures,” which roughly translates to “The Souths.”
Most bars have closed as rents have spiked over the past few decades, and Williamsburg has become one of the most expensive neighborhoods in New York City.
Toñita managed to keep her place open because she owns the building. She’s been living above the club since the mid-’60s and has refused to sell it. Her income comes from rent, not the actual club.
Over the years, the place evolved into a bar that often acts as a game room and sometimes a charity kitchen. Her walls are filled with framed memories and knickknacks left behind by visitors from all over.
“Everybody comes here with the intention of seeing her, seeing her rings, and talking to her. People just love to hug her,” said Hector Torres, who was working security at the social club, when I interviewed him back in 2020. “Everyone adores the lady.”
Maluma, Madonna, J Balvin, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have stopped by.
But it’s hard to find a bigger supporter than Bad Bunny, who has visited the bar several times. He celebrated his album “Un Verano Sin Ti” there, and he mentioned the club in his recent hit “NuevaYol,” saying getting a shot at Toñita’s makes Puerto Rico feel close.
Now he’s brought her to the biggest stage in the world, and I couldn’t be prouder.
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