The West Side Story, Missrepresents Puerto Ricans

One of the adolescences is a unassimilated “cholo”, a Chicano gang-banger, and the other is a leather-jacketed “rockero:, a Chicano heavy metal fan. The older Chicano man interchanges between being a pachuco and a Jaime Escalante “type” while attempting to educate the men how make pizzas. The emergence of the pachuco symbolizes a reflective suggestion to the presumed wonder days of the Chicano Movimiento and proposes an fictional and idealistic mediator of revolution and opposition. Culture Clash ties with the 1988 Ramon Menéndez film Stand and Deliver, also starring Olmos the true-life story of Garfield High School math teacher Jaime Escalante as this pachuco-Jamie Escalante “type” wants the young men to comprehend that they are faces of the similar identity and aspires them to turn out to be progressive examples of Mexican machismo. Culture Clash describes the alteration of Chicano biases in the mass media from a idealized person of opposition that obtains its rule from its rejection to participate with the ordinary to the character of the inspiring math teacher.

The Film "West Side Story" illustrates how the Puerto Ricans of New York faced discrimination and were used as scapegoats by the American people during the cold war time period to escape their anxieties. Due to the fear of communism and possible nuclear war the 1950-1960s time period was a very fragile time for the American people which produced an air of xenophobia throughout the country. The air of xenophobia is present throughout the play due of the repeated mention of stereotypes about Puerto Ricans and the constant feeling that the Puerto Ricans do not belong. The people of American often dealt with these anxieties in one of two ways, through escapism or through and through the scapegoating. This is made very clear through the comparison of West Side Story to the play The Music Man in the document “West Side Story and The Music Man: Whiteness, Immigration, and Race in the US during the late 1950s”. Like many waves of immigrants, the Puerto Ricans faced discrimination when they arrived and for some time after. This came in the form of people being discriminatory directly to them, housing discrimination and job discrimination. Therefore, the play “West Side Story” expresses the discrimination that Puerto Ricans faced due to the xenophobic nature of the time period.

Immigration is a complex and multifaceted issue that faces the US. In his film, Sin Nombre (2009), director Cary Fukunaga aims to juxtaposition the issue of immigration with the issue of gang violence in Mexico, and show the difficulties immigrants face by giving his audience an insider’s perspective into the experience of immigrating to the United States from Honduras. He does this through a variety of characters; most notably Willie and Sayra. Fukunaga did extensive research on life in the Mara Salvatrucha gang and the process of immigrating to America, in order to make his film realistic and authentic. The result is a movie that not only shows immigration in a way that evokes empathy and enforces the humanity of immigrants in the viewer’s mind, but also gives the viewer a look into the realities of being in a gang. Through the use of strong characters, powerful dialogue and vivid imagery, Fukunaga uses pathos to put a human face to the issue of immigration, logos to inform and give his audience context about the issues the film addresses, and ethos to establish his credibility and make the film believable.

Another big part of racism in West Side Story is how Lt. Schrank treats the Sharks and how he treats the Jets. Throughout the movie, Lt. Schrank tries to get the Jets to tell him where the Sharks are or what they are doing. He never believes that the Jets

In "A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood," Judith Cofer accomplishes three powerful achievements: she gives details on the stories of her family experiences, shows her family stories in a strong imaginative language, and points out how family stories can take over a person's life. This essay seems to be very tricky because she goes from one story to another. Cofer's claim would be very difficult to understand if she started with one story; instead, she should finish explaining the initial story before moving on to the next one. Instead, Cofer shows how a woman can potentially go crazy if her man mistreats her.

Another large component of Puerto Ricanness is Race. All of the different cultures that have throughout history combined to form Puerto Rico effect their nationality, history, lifestyles, traditions, music, and foods.

On the west side of Manhattan two groups compete for turf, the Jets, a group of white juveniles, and the Sharks, a group of young Puerto Rican men. The conflicts that arise from racial and cultural differences are what lead to West Side Story’s message. The Jets do not like the Sharks because they came from a different part of the world. They don’t want them in their neighborhood because they are worried that they will change things, take their jobs, and make the neighborhood dirty. People have always and still have this fear for immigrants because they can’t accept change. When Tony and Maria fall in love, it makes the two gangs’ rivalry even more complicated.

From there on movies shifted from their portrayals of Latino males as "Latin lovers" to "urban banditos". Films changed from problems involving women, sex, and love to delinquency, drugs, and gang fights. Movies such as West Side Story, Scarface, and Fort Apache, the Bronx, all use Latinos as "scapegoats" to focus the problems of society to the immigration of Puerto Ricans to the U.S.

Street gangs in the northeast of the United States came about in three phases. The first phase took place after the American Revolution and consisted of youth fighting over turf. The second phase of street gangs started to emerge in 1820, which coincided with a rise of immigration. This is when serious ganging began taking place. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Latino and Black populations grew, and eventually, over two-thirds of the gangs in New York were Puerto Rican or Black. This third phase of gang activity is the subject for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, which features the Puerto Rican Sharks and the Polish-American Jets and the romantic relationship between two people, one from each gang, which suffers to exist amidst the violence between the two gangs.

“The Republic of East L.A. Stories” captures the heartbreaking experiences Mexican-American’s were forced to endure. Escaping poverty, alcohol abuse, drug use, and gang violence was an everyday struggle for many families during this time. African American and Latino gangs were initially created as a response to white racism. They were restricted as to what areas they could live in and where constantly harassed. As their populations increased, so did white gangs, in order to take control of their “territory”. African Americans and Latinos had no choice but to protect their families by fighting back. As time went on, the violence only continued. The Civil Rights Movement led many gang members to join organizations like the Black Panther Party, but the government quickly responded by breaking them up and soon enough, street gangs quickly returned. The violence escalated, alcohol,

In the reading West side story by Alberto Sandoval he explains how the film perpetuates the image of racial problems explaining that the film has its profound structure expressing segregation and racial preferences towards Latinos. The film makers presented the immigrants as stereotypical Puerto Ricans making their skin tones darker, black haired, skinny. The jets are blond, strong, and healthy. The clarity

There are age related conflicts, cultural conflicts, religious conflicts and value based conflicts.  This movie is a film highlighting many cultural conflicts.  These conflicts continuously erupt in a working class Michigan neighborhood.  We will first examine a scene with religious cultural conflict. In the same scene we will see age based cultural conflict as well.  Next, we will examine a racial cultural conflict between the Hmong people and an American. After examining cultural conflicts, we will show two examples of popular culture in the film.  Then, we will provide the conflict management styles we would have employed to bring the same result as the current ending without the bloodshed and a general opinion of the film.

RACISM AS A CAUSE FOR CRIME AND VIOLENCE: CINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF “BOYZ N’ THE HOOD”

The weather is sizzling hot and tensions are slowly coming to a boil in this Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn neighborhood. Slowly but surely we see the heat melt away the barriers that were keeping anger from rising to the surface. The Blacks and the Hispanics own the streets the Koreans own the corner store and of course the Italians own the pizzeria, the Cops who happen to be all Caucasian, prowl the streets inside out, looking for anyone to harass. Toes are then stepped on and apologies are not made. Spike Lee creates the perfect set-up for a modern day in Bed-Stuyvesant. Without fail Spike Lee is transformed into an anthropologist. Spike Lee’s goal is to allow viewers to glimpse into the lives of real people and into a neighborhood they

It is important to note the most powerful and universal bond between two groups is language. In the case of the Puerto Rican and the Mexican American experience within the US, their bond goes even further than just the language of Spanish. The land mass that is now known as Mexico and Puerto Rico were once Indian lands confiscated by Spain. In the quest for a decent life, parallels can be drawn of migration causation due to US foreign policy in both the Puerto Rican and Mexican histories.