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It is always interesting to review old (and not so old) classics after a lapse of a few years to see if I notice anything different, or if I find a new message.
This happened recently after watching Westside Story. I still think the choreography is great, and I never tire of it, especially since there is nothing really comparable in contemporary musicals - the most recent I watched was a 2007 remake of Hairspray, and it doesn't compare.
There is that scene on the roof where the Puerto Rican youth are dancing and arguing (the men vs. the women). At one point, they talk about assimilating, and how they can never feel at home in Ame-ri-ca. But if they go back to Puerto Rico, they will find that everyone has come here, so they may as well stay on.
The part I never picked up on earlier is when Bernardo says that all the Irish and Polish, however awkward they may appear at the beginning, always end up fitting in (with the whites, he meant to say), and which the Puerto Ricans can never expect to do.
This was in 1961 - just about the cut-off date when I think movies started to deteriorate toward debilitating political correctness. Although Westside Story does show signs of these weaknesses, it was sufficiently early on for such statements made by Bernardo to make the cut, and to not cause mayhem.
On a related, but slightly tangential topic, Jennifer Lopez, the quintessential Hispanic star, knows this very well. All her moves, from her marriage to Latin pop star Marc Anthony (she broke off in a spectacularly nutty way an engagement to Ben Affleck before marrying Anthony in very short notice) to her albums which she records both in English and in Spanish, and her clear ties with Puerto Rico, show that she understands that she's dealing with two different cultures, if not races. She will benefit from the one (the white culture) but she will be loyal to the second - the Hispanic and more particularly the Puerto Rican one.
So, Bernardo's observation, almost fifty years ago, is playing out in reality. Jennifer Lopez is his prime example.
