West Side Story and Reproducing Empire

In class we watched a movie from 1962 called “West Side Story.” It started on the streets of New York where a gang of white guys called the Jets were hanging around the park. Then a gang of Puerto rican guys, called the Sharks, came in and we immediately see tensions between these two gangs. The tension could be caused by each gang not liking each other because of their race or just a territorial issue. A white guy named Tony falls in love with a Puerto rican girl and she feels the same way. She is cautious of the relationship because she is scared that her family will disapprove of him because he is white and because he is affiliated with their rival gang. In the reading “Reproducing Empire” by Laura Briggs discusses American imperialism in Puerto Rico and how it views Puerto Ricans at the time. It tells of a common idea that Americans had of Puerto Ricans, “One held that Puerto Ricans were, definition, sick and needed to be kept at arm’s length from our soldiers and sailors, who could be infected by them and thus endanger wives and children on the mainland.” (Briggs 17). This quote from the reading explains a thought that people had of Puerto Ricans, that you have to avoid them or you might contract an illness or disease. This relates to the movie because the Jets probably think of Puerto Ricans as lower than them and are racist towards them.