Reflection Post- WEST SIDE STORY- America

I love this movie. There is beautiful artistry in the way that it was written and conceived by Jerome Robbins and brought to life onstage by Leonard Bernstein and ArthurLaurents. The show is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Romero and Juliet brought to NYC in the 1950's. The original Broadway production opened on Broadway on September 26, 1957 and featured Larry Kert as Tony, Carol Lawrence as Maria and the arguably most celebrated Lain theatre actress Chita Rivera as Anita. After three trasfers to other Broadway theatres and over 700 performances, the show closed on June 27, 1959. The movie version was released worldwide in 1961 featuring Natalie Wood as Maria, Richard Beymer as Tony and Rita Moreno (who won an Oscar for her performance). The world centers on two rival gangs: The Sharks(Puerto Ricans) and The Jets (the Caucasians). "America" (changed from the original Broadway staging) focused on the struggles, hardships, dreams and gender stereotypes of Puerto Ricans by Caucassians.
In my opinion "America" is stereotypical, but at the same time rooted in truth about the harsdhips that Puerto ricans were facing all over the united States. This was the time when the commercial airplane was introduced to the world and it made it much easier to travel to the United States from Puerto Rico. More than 50,000 people a year were coming to the US from Puerto Rico. People were coming to get away from the harships and the terrible economy that faced Puerto Rico in the 50's in search of better wages and other means of bettering themselves. I think "America" is a stereotype because of the way that many of the actors in the movie portrayed their characters, not the lyrics or the music. The music while it is flamenco and from Spain has a had a deep influence in the Puerto rican bomba y plena, salsa and merengue. The lyrics are very poignant in the way that is shows the dichotomy of how Puerto Ricans in America felt about the economy, the jobs they held and the roles of men and women. I think Arthur Laurents' lyrics embody the two types of ideologies that Puerto rican were faced with everyday. Tha nationalist and the assimilationist ideals, the same issues that still is a huge issue in Puerto Rico and Puerto rican communites in the US til this day..