“West Side Story” is beloved for its music, dance and romanticism but has long been dogged by criticism of its stereotyping of Puerto Rican characters and the casting of white actors to play them in the 1961 movie. When Steven Spielberg set out to make a reimagined version, he and screenwriter Tony Kushner tapped Brooklyn College professor emerita Virginia Sánchez Korrol to help them portray New York’s Puerto Rican community of the 1950s with more authenticity and nuance. As a leading scholar of the history of Puerto Ricans in New York – and a Nuyorican who came of age in the time and place of “West Side Story” herself – Korrol was a natural to serve as the film’s historical consultant. First, though, she had to get past her skepticism that Spielberg and Kushner could pull it off.
Virginia Sánchez Korrol graduated from Brooklyn College a year before “West Side Story” was released and went on to become the long-time chair of the college’s groundbreaking Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies and a foundational figure of that field. Among her books is From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City.
As part of her involvement with “West Side Story,” Korrol worked with María Pérez y González, deputy chair of the Puerto Rican and Latino Studies department, to create “West Side Story: The Brooklyn Connection,” an online lecture series featuring appearances by Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner and experts with perspectives on the history, culture and music of “West Side Story.” Click here to see videos of those conversations.
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More About How CUNY Helped Tell a More Nuanced “West Side Story”
West Side Story: The Brooklyn Connection lecture series