This weekend my friends and I decided to engage in a 39-year-old American tradition.

On Sunday night we sat in front of a TV to watch the Super Bowl.

Plates with pizza, glasses full of rum and coke, and two bags of Tostitos rested on the coffee table while six of us sat around it. We made fun of each other and the guys called one another names while they yelled at the TV and the players. We also tried to analyze this year’s broadcast.

It is obvious that after the “Oh-my-god” incident seen during last year’s halftime show on CBS, Fox attempted to close a generation gap and calm down the U.S. audience with its pregame and halftime shows. Most people probably remember this country’s reaction after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunctioned.

After years of halftime shows aimed to the pop-culture generation with boybands and pop queens lip-synching on stage, this year’s halftime show perhaps was unexpected by many.

Sir Paul McCartney performed four songs that are probably older than the average college population, but are definitely timeless. I think that even my 10-year-old sister can sing along to parts of “Hey Jude.”

However, I had a hard time making a connection with “Naaaaa,na,na … Hey Jude,” red, white and blue placards held by the audience that spelled out “na,na,na” and the Statue of Liberty reflected by the video boards on stage. The Fox network wished to be patriotic. Ironically, it not only placed a British man on stage and not a “patriotic” U.S. citizen, but a former member of the Beatles — the British band that “invaded” the U.S. rock scene during the 1960s with Beatlemania.

This year’s Super Bowl was definitely successful in bridging the generation gap. Even though I arrived at my friends’ apartment half an hour after the game had started, I heard the Black Eyed Peas had played with Earth Wind and Fire during the pregame show. If I would have been at my parent’s home watching the Super Bowl with my father — like I used to — we might have sung some of the songs together.

I don’t usually watch TV, except for an Iowa Public Television documentary once in a blue moon, so watching the Super Bowl reminded me of how much time I used to spend watching commercials rather than scheduled programs. My friends talked mostly during the game — commenting on the teams’ various moves. One of them joked that the MVP for the Patriots should be Donovan McNabb, the Eagles’ quarterback.

But when commercials started we would quietly munch on our chips and drink our beverages. Grunts or laughs explained our thoughts about them. One of the commercials in particular created much discussion among our group of six Latin-Americans.

The talking cockatoo on a Budweiser commercial spoke with an obvious Latino accent, adding words like “papi” at the end of the sentences. The jealous and machista cockatoo was definitely letting everyone know that the lady belonged to him, a very stereotypical role of Latin-American men.

Our thoughts on this could be a column on its own.

I had fun watching the Super Bowl and all the advertising. I find it as a way of engaging in part of this country’s culture. By the entertainment presented during this year’s Super Bowl, it is obvious that Fox network attempted to present an image of a pure, family-oriented society.

This country may be trying to take some positive steps toward family values and unity. However, our TV commercials still present the materialist and consumerist side of this society — they also prove that racial and ethnic stereotypes still prevail. Latin-Americans might no longer be Chihuahuas, but we are still represented as animals. The difference is that now they have given Latinos wings to fly.