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Hollywood has always had a problem with the way it portrays marginalized communities. This is especially prevalent in the way that people of color are often underrepresented or misrepresented. According to a study by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative conducted at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, ‘Latinos are among the least represented speaking roles in film and TV, even though they make up about 17.4 percent of the U.S. population. Out of more than 11,000 speaking characters surveyed in film and TV, 5.8 percent were Hispanic or Latino.’ The few times when Latinos are then represented, they are often very stereotypical characters with Latin women being overly sexualized and Latin men being overly macho and violent. The 1961 film adaptation of the hit musical ‘West Side Story’ adopts some of these stereotypes and is criticized for its representation however because it is such a cultural landmark in the film and theatre world that eventually opened doors in Hollywood for Latin performers, there is value in the story, and it can be depicted correctly. By using the qualitative research method of case study, in this report, I will examine the film in order to understand the experiences of the Latinx community within the film industry.
I have chosen to take a qualitative approach when doing research for this report as this method is helpful when discussing broad ideas, and the experiences of certain groups and communities which otherwise can’t be described numerically. Qualitative research is flexible as it allows for change as your knowledge develops. There are many types of qualitative research methods such as focus groups, one-on-one interviews, ethnographic research, and case study. In this report, I will specifically be using a case study to research my chosen topic as a case study allows for a deeper understanding of a particular community as it can be used to apply a real-life event or example to a broad question that can be hard to answer but with an in-depth case study, a hypothetical can be put into a real-life situation which can be more relatable to the reader especially if they aren’t apart of said community.
The representations of the Latinx community within the film have been explored by many within the industry and community itself. Academics such as Manuel H. Ayala Palomino and Ma del Roble focus on the Hispanic image in movies and argue that ‘The negative representation of Latinos in American cinema has taken since the beginning of it, and rather than being an invention of the film itself, was the projection of the image that Americans perceived a minority of Mexicans, who at the time was their immediate neighbors.’ (Ayala and Mendiola, 2004). Their ideas support the argument that the Hollywood film industry doesn’t represent the Latin community well and suggest that the experiences of the community haven’t been positive since the beginning and ‘representations of Latinos in American cinema have evolved over time’ (Ayala and Mendiola, 2004), but only in recent years has a more positive change begun. Latinx representations in US film became a burgeoning topic when studying film in the 1980s and early 90s. The studies analyzed and documented the evolution of the pre-existing representation of the Latin community in film, the studies of Pettit 1980 and Berumen 1995 are some of the earliest works covering this topic and are regarded as important and pioneered other documentation of how Latino and Latina characters had been portrayed and how they feature narratively in terms of plot and how they served the other characters around them. They also discuss the importance of the Chicano film movement of the 1950s and 60s which reflected the resistance Mexican-Americans had to the cultural subjugation they were facing. The Chicano film is classified as films that are made by and for ChicanosChicanas (the chosen identity for many Mexican-Americans in the US). Such films portrayed the Chicanismo ideology and the experiences the community had in America at the time, ‘We can not overlook that in the sixties the movement claimed begins social and civil rights on the part of the Chicanos who saw the importance to be heard in the media and has its own expression in the motion picture.’ (Pena-Acuna, 2010).
Thus, by examining the film ‘West Side Story’ that premiered in 1961 we are able to gather an understanding of the feelings the Latinx community had at the time as the representations of the community were still filled with stereotypes, but they were also at forefront of a major motion picture that arguably led to positive outcomes and changes for the community.
West Side Story directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise is the film adaptation of the Broadway musical by Arthur Laurents first performed in 1957. Based on Shakespeare’s classic tale of Romeo and Juliet, the story centers around an Anglo-American man, Tony, and a Puerto Rican woman, Maria, who fall in love but cannot be together as a battle for supremacy between two rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, wages in the background. Everything comes to a head in the dramatic final act resulting in death on both sides and the eventual death of Tony creating a heart-breaking ending for Maria as she has lost her one true love. The original idea was for the show to be a love story between a Jewish man and a Catholic woman, and it would be called ‘East Side Story’. However, the shows composer Leonard Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim thought the conflict should be between Anglo-Americans and another race. They discussed African-Americans and Chicanos before settling on Puerto Ricans. This choice reflected the real-life influx of Puerto Ricans moving to America around this time. Puerto Rican migration was facilitated after 1917 by the granting of US citizenship to all the residents of the Island, which had been acquired from Spain in the War of 1898. However, the change of legal status which took place in 1917 did not immediately produce a wave of migration from Puerto Rico to the United States. The large migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States took place after 1945 as a result of economic changes having to do with the transformation of the Island’s economy from a monocultural plantation economy into a platform for export production in factories. In the film the gang ‘The Jets’ are second-generation white males who come from working-class families. They have racist attitudes towards the Puerto Ricans and believe themselves to be superior to the Sharks and that they are the rightful owners of the West side of New York. The Sharks are a Puerto Rican gang who immigrated to America and are now creating their own community within this part of New York. They are portrayed as being violent and are often the ones who instigate the fighting. The conflict between the two fictional gangs echoes the real-life attitudes of the time as more Latin people migrated to the US with dreams of a better life in the 50s and 60s, and the anti-Latino sentiment only grew within America. Latinos were barred from entry into Anglo establishments and segregated into urban barrios in poor areas. Though Latinos were critical to the U.S. economy and often were American citizens, everything from their language to the color of their skin to their countries of origin could be used as a pretext for discrimination. Anglo-Americans treated them as a foreign underclass and perpetuated stereotypes that those who spoke Spanish were lazy, stupid, and undeserving. In some cases, that prejudice turned fatal all of which is reflected in the film. In this way the film does well in shining a light on the discrimination Latin Americans were facing at the time. The love story between Tony and Maria urges the audience to put aside their differences and makes them sympathize with this couple who only want to be able to love each other in the open without fear or prejudice. This message, however, can get overshadowed by some of the big mistakes the film makes mainly with its casting choices. The character of Maria is played by white actress Natalie Wood who takes on a fake Latin accent and her skin color is made to look darker. The use of ‘brownface’ is an insult to the Latin community as this story is supposed to show the hardships and racial discrimination they face yet, one of the main Latin characters is played by a white woman doing a crude imitation. This casting choice is then contrasted by the character of Anita another Latin woman who is played by Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno. Anita is strong-willed and arguably steals the show with her incredible dancing and deeply moving acting ability. Rita Moreno went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and was the first Latina to do so. Moreno has said that she was proud to play the character of Anita and that she had never played a Latina like her before the character of Anita is regarded as a positive representation of the Latinx community however Moreno also spoke out against the use of brownface on actors in the film, but she wasn’t listened to by the producers. This is another way in which an otherwise positive experience for the Latinx community is tarnished by the film industry being more interested in appealing to a white audience by casting a woman whose features would be more fitting for that of a leading lady suggesting that Latin people can only play the side characters and villains. Overall, what the film West Side Story tells us about the experiences of the Latinx community within the film is that while films that have Latinx representation that explore the communities’ experiences in America have and are being made, if these films aren’t made by listening to Latinx people or with them behind the camera then the efforts trying to be made come off as shallow and at the end only benefit the those in the film industry who are already in power.
When researching this topic and attempting to answer this question I have found the case study method helpful in getting to the deeper parts of the topic and as stated previously, a case study allows for a real-life example to be attached to a broad idea which ultimately makes it easier to understand and grasp. By conducting this case study, I was able to delve deeper into a piece of media I was already familiar with but only knew at face value and by researching something I was already aware of and a fan of I was able to gain a greater understanding of it and form new opinions. When finding relevant sources, I was able to choose from a wide range as the topic of representation in film is an issue that has been discussed and argued about frequently. Finding sources that were written by people within the Latinx community was especially helpful and enlightening when doing research on a topic like this it is important to include the opinions of the community being discussed so that the report is genuine and doesn’t exclude the ideas of those who actually experience the things said. A case study does however allow for researcher bias which is a limitation I faced when doing my report as it is hard not to infuse it with my own subjective feelings it can also be difficult to come to one conclusion and classify what has been found with the research in a case study.
In conclusion, if I were to do other research reports in the future, I would want to investigate by using other qualitative research methods that include gathering the opinions of other people such as interviews in order to make sure that the findings don’t have a bias toward them interview also allows for more specific insights into a topic and by embracing the qualitative research method in this way, it becomes possible to encourage respondent creativity, allowing people to express themselves with authenticity.
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