One of the highlights of Oscars night last night was the first trailer for West Side Story being dropped. A remake of the 1961 classic, it tells a Romeo and Juliet-inspired story about a pair of star-crossed lovers from two gangs and different ethnic backgrounds, the Jets and the Sharks. It was originally a Broadway musical by Arthur Laurents, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
The Sharks, whose members are from Puerto Rico, are taunted by the Jets, a white gang. And things get really complicated when Tony, a former member of the Jets, falls in the love with Maria, the sister of the leader of the Sharks. In the 2021 remake, Tony is set to be played by Ansel Elgort and Maria by Rachel Zegler, the latter being an actual Latinx actor (unlike the 1961 version’s Maria, Natalie Wood).
Watching the trailer for West Side Story, you can see that it still has the essentials of the 1961 movie. It’s got the gangs, the clothes, and the clear-as-day social commentary about being Latinx in a mixed community in the spray-painted words “This is our place” over a Puerto Rican flag. But the one thing that really got to me and what made me tear up was Rita Moreno.
Moreno, known to many as Abuelita from One Day at a Time, played Anita in the 1961 version of West Side Story, and her performance garnered her an Academy Award for Supporting Actress. She was also the first Latina to win an Oscar, and it seems like perfect timing to drop a trailer that also includes Moreno, except she plays a different role in that of Valentina.
She made the trailer even more special by singing “Somewhere,” sometimes referred to as “There’s a Place for Us.” The lyrics of “There’s a place for us, somewhere a place for us” had me, a Puerto Rican plucked from the island, tearing up like she’s been doing every time that Latinx content pops up on my screen because representation is severely lacking when it comes to our community.
Here’s hoping that West Side Story, set to be released on December 10th, 2021, speaks to audiences and shows them that we need more when it comes to Latinx stories. We have the cast, we have the drive, and we have the actors and creators who are ready and willing to take on the Hollywood machine. Now we need someone to nudge open the door to opportunity and allow to come right in.
Because stories like West Side Story or In the Heights can’t be it. We need more.
(image: Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios)
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