The Song America From West Side Story
The song “América” which is going to be analysed in this essay belongs to West Side Story, an American musical drama film (1961) directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. This film is a Broadway musical adaptation which is inspired by Romeo and Juliet’s play by William Shakespeare along with depicting gang wars on the west side of New York City in the 1950s.
By looking at the context of this song, it is vital to be aware of the immigrant flows from Latin American, in particular from Central America, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic since 1960. This upcoming immigration is mainly focused on the authorized permanent residence in the United States which involves some political shifts in America. However, we may observe that those changes are proposed in order to equal and enforce the U.S. Immigration policy. This conflict starts with the power struggle between Spain and England, which carried over to America. Although most of the Spanish colonies had achieved independence by the middle of the 19th century, the newly independent republics were quite weak politically and vulnerable to external aggression.
The contemporary migration from Latin America is rooted in the change of policies which are bound for regulating permanent and temporary admissions as the Immigration Act of 1924. It would be convenient not to forget two key aspects related to the new visa preference system which are important to understand the Latin American immigration as the priority accorded to family unification associated to labor qualifications and the exemptions of spouses, parents, and children of U.S. from the country limitations.
By applying to the song “America”, it will be analysed with the purpose of showing the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer for everyone, the American Dream, in the musical film West Side Story (1961). The musical adaptation West Side Story takes place in the streets of New York City and it moves around gang violence between the all-white gang, the Jets, and the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks. This production mainly existed to warn of the dangers of racial prejudice in society as the exoticized stereotypes of “white” people and Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans constituted over 80 per cent of New York’s Latino population which was dominantly young.
Dealing with the song, we could realise from the beginning of the film two opposite gangs, Jets and Sharks, which are involved in troubles during the film, according to the spectator. Inside Latin Americans, there were two opposing viewpoints of the American Dream, the positive conveyed by women, and the negative one conveyed by men. Then, it could be also introduced as a metaphorical battle of emotions between men and women’s dream.
Related to the positive viewpoint, Maria, Anita, and the other girls are represented as the freedom, the beginning of a new life and the negative one relates to Bernardo and the boys who represent disillusion, failure, and pessimism associated with the American dream. Therefore, we can see the representation of Latin Americans in two different ways. In terms of representation, it reflects imposed connotations from the outside (rather than constructed by the individuals) in the representations of different cultural identities. This raises the notion that formations of cultural identity produce and reinforce hierarchies within particular societies.
On the one hand, Maria’s viewpoint is quite optimistic since she is a Puerto Rican just arrived in Manhattan and she is strongly convinced by new opportunities American will offer to her as we can notice in “Cadillacs zoom in America”, where she dreaming of luxury cars and life. In addition to it, we have to mention that she is also naïve as many girls who are in the same situation as we can observe in the lyrics: “Tonight is the real beginning of my life as a young lady of America” and this personality characteristic helps her to dream about America as well as her enthusiasm for its goals. In opposition to that, she is not free to decide about her future because her destiny is to be married to a man, Chino, by the will of her family. She is culturally influenced by Latin traditions because of the fact that she should be compromised with a man, who belongs to a well economically positioned family. In addition, women have a very important role which is, in fact, what saves the community from falling into fatalism. In this sense, Bernardo, a male figure, protects Maria before getting married. Parents try to choose a man who could ensure a family creation with his daughter as we can observe in “Always the population growing” referring to Latin American traditions.
By applying traditions, there is a relevant aspect to mention as cultural identity. Cultural identity could vary relying upon how we understand culture itself. Although there is no “personal” culture, there is personal identity which is influenced by the cultural environment in which individuals have been brought up. In cultural studies, “culture” refers to all the symbolic activity of those who might identify themselves as belonging to a particular group. In this song, we could highlight some sentences relates to cultural identity as “Always the hurricanes blowing”, “Always the population growing”, “And the sunlight streaming” and “And the natives steaming” which describe typically climate conditions in Puerto Rico as well as “Better get rid of your accent” which refers to Spanish language, their first language.
On the other hand, Anita is presented as a braver woman than Maria because she fights for freedom in opposition to Maria, who accepts the will of her family, her marriage with an imposed man. Anita regards herself as an American girl because of the arriving in America before Maria did. She also believes in that American dream “Free to be anything you choose” but Bernardo continues the song with real situations for Latin American immigrants as in “Free to wait tables and shine shoes”. In that case, Americans unawareness denigrates the Puerto Rican characters by using stereotypes depicting Puerto Ricans. In many ways, “America” suggests that Puerto Ricans are made of dark powder, black and dark colours, accents … and male are depicted as a criminal. In order to be assimilated as an American and make her American Dream come true, Anita rejects her Spanish name, Anita Josefina Teresita Beatriz del Carmen Margarita …From women perspective, we could observe different representations of the Latin American immigrant woman as we have previously developed.
In contrast to women’s ideas, males have deceived the dream they had idealized. At the beginning of the film, men are called “the Sharks” associating the Puerto Ricans gang to be conflictive people as we could observe in those lines “Organised crime in America”. Here, we can see how Latins are represented by previous stereotypes. For Stuart Hall, who is one of the most influential theorists of representation, social representations are informed by power relations. Rather than being “reflections” of reality, representations are interpretations informed by existing ideologies as we can see in the representations of identity groups. This is the reason why Latins are involved in racist fights with Jets, whose parents were also immigrants. However, Jets could enjoy some privileges Puerto Ricans do not. In these lines, they do not feel like Americans because they do not have the same opportunities, although Puerto Rico belongs to the United States as we could also see in this part of the song; “For small fee in America”, or “If you’re white in America”. In fact, Puerto Ricans are American citizens who cannot vote for president or representatives in Congress, therefore they are bound by law but have no rights under the United States’ law.
Men protest against the inequality between South and North Americans and the way they are rejected or treated. For instance, Anita stated that “buying on credits is so nice” but Bernardo affirms “One look at us and they charge twice”. The latest quote said by Bernardo takes reality into the America dream.
In relation to the continued influx of immigrants into the urban core, the need for housing increased the demands and racial tensions arose in crowded spaces as we can see in this line “Twelve in a room in America”. In contrast to those lines, Anita defended the opportunity America has given her saying: “I’ll get a terrace apartment” because she created a portrayal of the city as fluid and vital. Here, Bernardo describes the real situation of Latin Americans far from the American Dream as in those lines “Lots of doors slamming in our face” or specifying that everything in America is not free in “For a small fee in America” where he uses an ironic tone.
Bernardo usually stated the discrimination Puerco Ricans felt since they are not white and they should not to disturb Americans as in this line “Long as you stay on your own side”. In the song, we can see how Anita supported how “Life can be bright in America” against Bernardo who stated that this life will bright if you fight against this current inequality between Americans and Latin Americans “If you can fight in America” and “If you’re white in America” added by Bernardo. Another important fact to bear in mind is the Puerto Ricans’ first language, Spanish. Jets used the difference in speech to demonstrate to them that they do not belong to America and should return to Puerto Rico.
This song basically highlights the economic and socio-cultural differences between the two countries. Women ridicule Puerto Rico, a poor country with a high birth rate, no basic services and no amenities and dream of American comforts: big cars, electrical appliances, good jobs. Nevertheless, men ridicule the United States by saying that all these comforts are for whites and that, after all, all of Puerto Rico is already in America, so it is like living there.
By placing the story, the audience faces to the real west side kids and finds out about the gangs and their problems. Gangs combined segregation and inequality real problems with the new trends of changing migration. West Side Story changes the perception of young people recognizing that they were not isolated troubles but the consequence of continued discrimination and social problems. This film also depicted the aspirations of young people along with the idea of the American dream of self-reliance and open opportunity.
At the end of the song, Bernardo claimed his willing to come back to Puerto Rico “I think I’ll go back to San Juan” and Anita who represent the feeling of being American mocked him by the fact of cheer him to return to his country land in this line “I know a boat you can get on, Bye Bye! This last section reflects on the implications of Latin American immigration for the future of the nation, highlighting the growing importance of the children of immigrants for the future integration prospects of recent and future immigrants in localities where anti-immigrant hostility is on the rise.
By providing this analysis, “America” is a symbol of the contradiction that people can suffer when they want to reinvent themselves and get ahead, free, facing new challenges, and, when they realize how difficult it is to be a stranger, poor and dealing with racist situations.
To conclude this analysis, “America” from West Side Story is a morality song about everyday problems, dealing with racism, poverty, and destructiveness of violence in the Latinization of New York. It would not be convenient to forget that spectators could notice two different perspectives of the American dream which involve the strong support of the undermined immigrants’ contribution in a new political era that will be characterised by larger social problems.
Bibliography:
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