The context of Puerto Rican immigration and their relationship with New York City is crucial for students to understand before critically viewing West Side Story. This historical context ensures their understanding of the movie's depictions and themes. Students can better appreciate the film's storyline and cultural representations by understanding the real-life narrative first. Studying the history of Puerto Rican immigration gives students a broader understanding of the Puerto Rican people and their communities in the United States. Students can develop a more empathetic view through a nuanced look at their difficulties, experiences, and significant contributions. This detailed exploration helps dispel any preconceived myths surrounding Puerto Rican immigration.
Teaching students about the real-life experiences of immigrants can deepen their cultural awareness. The journey of immigrants is filled with numerous challenges, and understanding these hardships promotes empathy. Through this lens, students will also gain insight into the resilience and strength that define the immigrant experience. Furthermore, equipping students with an accurate historical understanding allows them to evaluate media representations critically. West Side Story, like any film, contains its misrepresentations and biases. Students can distinguish between accurate portrayals and dramatic exaggerations by comparing these depictions with historical facts.
Finally, fostering a precise understanding of Puerto Rican immigration promotes a more comprehensive grasp of this critical period in American history. By knowing the events and lived experiences, students can appreciate the stories overlooked in media narratives.
Concepts Educators Can Explore:
Significant opposition to immigrant arrivals has been a feature of American history since its beginning. These tensions have manifested strongly in New York City, which serves as the gateway to the country. Two significant waves of immigration from the island have shaped the history of Puerto Ricans in New York City within this larger narrative. Due to laws that prohibited European immigration during the turmoil of World War I, the first wave of Puerto Rican Immigration occurred in the 1920s. Puerto Rican immigrants faced prejudice and discrimination despite their citizen status, particularly when moving into predominantly white city blocks. Their inaccurately perceived 'alien' quality and presumed inability to assimilate impacted their challenging experiences in the city.
In 1947, there was a second sizable wave of Puerto Rican immigration due to increased demand for agricultural labor on the mainland. As a result, many Puerto Ricans opted to settle in New York City in the early 1950s, making the city home to 83% of the country's Puerto Rican population. Most newcomers were drawn to the existing social networks and cultural spaces established by earlier immigrants. However, as the Puerto Rican population in urban areas grew, anxieties and fears about “the other” began to increase. Misguided concerns emerged that a large influx of Puerto Ricans would soon overwhelm the city's welfare and housing services. During the 1947 New York City mayoral election, the term the “Puerto Rican Problem” was coined by Congressman Marcantonio, sparking a media frenzy. The Puerto Rican population was painted as refugees fleeing an economic crisis, further expanding the public's fears of mass migration and an impending burden on the city's welfare system. The image of Puerto Ricans being content with substandard living conditions because life on the island was even worse was also widely published, stoking fears of overcrowding as diverse cultural groups vied for living spaces in the city.
In response to these troubling narratives, the island dispatched its journalists to challenge the “Puerto Rican Problem” propagated by mainland media. The El Mundo newspaper series focused on the Puerto Rican community that had settled in Harlem in the 1940s. They reported a community with a strong focus on middle- and working-class values, with many members contributing to the local economy as shopkeepers or hospitality staff. The series painted a picture of Puerto Ricans as a group that looked out for their own, particularly those struggling with English or considered unskilled. The reporting emphasized the adaptability of Puerto Ricans due to their exposure to American culture and ideas, contrary to the mainstream media narrative. Instead of being the cause of the housing shortage crisis, they were, more accurately, its victims. Despite these findings, the narratives around the “Puerto Rican Problem” continued appearing in the news. As these stories gained national traction, they inevitably influenced the history of West Side Story, contributing to the film's depiction of Puerto Ricans in New York City.
Lesson Plan 3:
For the second lesson in this unit, students will explore cultural exploration by focusing on the connection between artistic expression and cultural identity. This lesson examines how art forms such as music and poetry can communicate cultural experiences. Students will specifically focus on narratives associated with Puerto Rican cultural identity. Students began this lesson by listening to the song "America" from West Side Story. The lyrics will be projected onto the classroom screen, allowing students to engage with the music actively. After listening, students will explore literature with Pedro Pietri's poem, "Puerto Rican Obituary." Each student will be given a copy of the poem, and the whole class will participate in an out-loud reading session. Upon completing the reading, the teacher will facilitate a discussion allowing students to recognize the poem's core themes.
After the reading, students will be instructed to form small discussion groups. Students will work together to complete a set of reflective questions that will challenge them to participate in a comparative analysis of the narratives within these two narratives. After the discussions, each group will contribute to the classroom conversation by sharing a significant insight or discussion point.
For the creative component of the lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of blackout poetry. This art form will challenge students to repurpose the existing text of ‘America’ or "Puerto Rican Obituary" into new narratives while using the notes from their discussion groups. During this activity, students will identify phrases or lines from "America" or "Puerto Rican Obituary" that resonate with them and then transform these selections into unique art pieces. Students must incorporate visual elements like drawings or symbols to enhance their poems. Throughout this lesson, students will be evaluated on several key aspects. First, students will be assessed on their ability to identify, interpret, and discuss themes in the song and poem. Additionally, their skill in comparing these two art forms and synthesizing their understanding into blackout poetry will be evaluated. Lastly, active participation in small groups and more extensive class discussions will also contribute to their evaluation. However, it should be noted that while the creation of blackout poetry is part of the learning process, students will not be assessed on their artistic creativity. Instead, the focus is on their ability to apply their understanding of the themes and narratives from the original works to their blackout poems.