“Queer for Uncle Sam”: Anita’s Latina diva citizenship in West Side Story

“La La La America”: A Multimodal Analysis of Select Song in the Hollywood Musical West Side Story (1961)

“…West Side Story is hence one of the earliest attempts at undercutting the idyllic and unreal settings of a conventional Depression-era Film Musical and emphasising the realistic worldly conditions of injustices, by evoking the collective memories of the spectators and even threatening the stylistic nature of the Musical per se. In Paredez (2014) view this film exemplifies the Golden Age Musicals that are characterised by Wagnerian attempts to "integrate and unify their various structural elements [score, lyrics, book, and choreography] into one cohesive and total work" (p.340). West Side Story, that earned critical recognition, the second highest box office collection that year, and ten Oscars including the Best Picture award, set a new paradigm in the history of Film Musicals.…”

“…He dismisses her emotional rhetoric in support of the new country and jests "She's given up Puerto Rico and she is queer for Uncle Sam!" This leads to a stichomythic rendering of the song "America" by Anita, Bernardo, and their friends in groups and in solos, which Paredez (2014) terms the "playful call-and-undercutting response pattern" (p.344). In the intro of the song, Anita mockingly mentions Peurto Rico as her "heart's devotion," but immediately curses it saying "let it sink back in the ocean" with a harsh timbre in her voice that symbolises an intense feeling of rejection.…”

“…The men execute a graceful mix of Balletic steps to tease the women while the more intense, native Puerto Rican dances like Bomba and Plena, and the Spanish Flamenco are employed by Anita and her team to subvert their impoverished native experience and praise the new land of promises and dreams. As cited by Paredez (2014), "Anita sings of assimilation while dancing its undoing" (p.334). Nature supersedes culture here and she has no escape from the folkloric styles of dance ingrained within her through generations, however much she tries.…”

“…It alternates between a compound 6/8 beat and a simple 3/4 beat, and the dancers move around in high tempo spreading excitement even among the audience. Anita's colourful dress with multiple layers of cloth that rise and fall in tune with her thrusts and turns makes her stand out among the group of Shark women on the rooftop and makes Paredez (2014) remark that she is "the character in the best dress executing the best dance moves" in the Musical (p.341). It is also striking that women who were mute workers in the tailoring shop muster courage and experience total liberty to sing at the top of their voices, dance to their heart's content, and express their innermost La La La America": A Multimodal Analysis of Select Song in the Hollywood Musical West Side Story (1961) feelings uninhibitedly in the 'Techo,' the rooftop, in the presence of the male counterparts.…”

The Hollywood Dance-In: Abstract and Material Relations of Corporeal Reproduction

“…See (Kelly 1958) and, among others, (Clover 1995;Gerstner 2002;Cohan 2005;Krayenbuhl 2017). 10 See, for example, (Doty 1993;Miller 1998;Wolf 2006;Paredez 2014). 11 For example, (Doty 1993;Cohan 2005;Wolf 2006).…”