Media and Race

West Side Story is a musical released in 1961 based in New York City. It won 10 oscars for highlighting race relations within that time period. The musical is a romantic tragedy set in the 1950’s in New York City between Puerto Ricans and Italians that lived in the neighborhoods. It mirrored the story line of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with the lead characters being a Puerto Rican girl named Maria that falls in love with an Italian boy named Tony.

The entire movie was based on race relations and the two major races were Italians and Puerto Ricans, which were immigrant races. Notably the Italians had immigrated to New York City a few decades before the Puerto Ricans so this movie highlights the recent hardships for the Puerto Ricans to be accepted by the Italians living in those neighborhoods. The stereotypical roles that were played were Maria, a Puerto Rican girl recently immigrated to New York City who is being told who she can and cannot associate with. Her brother and friends discourage her from getting to know and be romantically involved with Tony, an Italian boy who was part of a gang called the Jets. Ironically, in real life Maria was played by Natalie Wood, an Italian actress, instead of a Puerto Rican woman and the role of Anita, her best friend was played by Rita Moreno, a Puerto Rican actress. This was the sign of the times in the 1960’s where a Puerto Rican actress was allowed to play in the movie but not in the lead role, even though the lead character was Puerto Rican. Maria worked in a bridal shop as a seamstress, which was stereotypical for recent immigrants at the time whereas Tony worked in a drug store.

There were three victims in the story line, Maria, Anita and Tony. As mentioned before, Maria is a victim because she is being told by her brother and friends that she should not associate with Tony, a former Italian gang member. Tony was a victim because he gets killed in the end for loving Maria, a recent Puerto Rican...