What did it feel like to be making history? It was an incredible honor. Anita was a role model for me. She had intelligence, dignity and strength, and I love that she is inspiring a whole new generation of Hispanic performers all these years later.
They kept offering me gang movies. It broke my heart. It was a very emotional experience. It was emotional meeting the new Anita, Ariana DeBose, who is marvelous in the movie. It was great fun and very uplifting. I tell them the most important thing they can do is complete their education. Be a well-rounded person. I finally understood that it had everything to do with my nationality, which was horribly depressing. So, I would say perseverance is extremely important.
If you could write a love letter to Rita Moreno, what would it say? You achieved much of what you needed and wanted. Top Image: Rita Moreno getting ready for award ceremony with shirt "Just a girl who decided to go for it. Sweetening the deal is a 40 percent rebate on payments made to Puerto Rican residents for below-the-line services.
Case in point: Puerto Rico uses the U. Puerto Rico consists of a main island surrounded by a cluster of smaller ones. As one might expect, Puerto Rico appeals to tourists thanks to a number of stunning locations, but what it offers filmmakers is diversity: from lush mountains and white-sand beaches to colonial-era architecture and modern, urban settings.
Puerto Rico also benefits from its proximity to the U. The only drawback, Benson notes, was that the location has become so popular that two other productions were filming at the same time as The Big C , making it a challenge to round up a crew.
What Puerto Rico lacks in soundstages and full-service facilities, it makes up for in safety. Tony and the Puerto Rican women are the only characters that hold a job. Once again reality, be it from the Anglo or Puerto Rican side, is not shown. On the other hand, the film succeeds in explicitly showing the quest of all the main characters.
They are all looking for a place to live, even if it creates conflicts. To a certain extent, the mids movies reflected the political reality of the country and the economic and social changes that were underway with the War on Poverty program created by. President Johnson. Up the Down Staircase was one of them. Released in it showed New York City's empty and decaying buildings, alleys full of garbage and students going to school, the toughest being a Puerto Rican. The problem was not what was happening to all the youngsters, Blacks or Puerto Ricans, but how the white teacher battling with inner city problems could survive in such an environment.
The liberal social context of the moment implied that problems had only to be identified and exposed to be corrected by government action. This proved to be wrong but it was the final message of the film. The other films made between and became more brutal than ever before. Badge , released at the beginning of , used the Puerto Rican independent movement as one of the main themes of the film, linking it to drug dealers and hard core criminals who spent most of the time shouting « viva Puerto Rico libre ».
This was the year the United Nations Committee on passed a resolution stating the « right to for the island of Puerto Rico ». This film was the first to be boycotted by the Puerto Rican community that demanded its immediate withdrawal.
The Paramount company, producers of the film, refused, but after a few demonstrations by The Puerto Rican Action Coalition, the film was taken out of the circuit 4.
All the dealers and peddlers are Puerto Ricans responsible for the death of white youngsters. At the time of release, all the magazines owned by the group were busy publishing articles on « American Renewal »! According to them, the American nation was suffering from a lack of self-confidence and sense of purpose. Americans were becoming overwhelmed by the problems facing the nation at home and abroad.
The series was to dispel the notion that nothing could be done about the crisis and to show that Americans united could solve any problem. The publicity for the film was based on the assumption that America had to be cleansed from all undesirables. It also put the blame on the social policies and programs of the s. The time was ripe for a change in the political structure of the nation and the election of Ronald Reagan only confirmed the advent of a conservative policy. The new generation of Puerto Ricans, those born on the were part of the Civil Rights Movement and began to act up.
Their cultural and political identity became stronger while the cultural organizations that had existed in the s but had disappeared through the years. Their fight was one of survival but also aimed at showing the other side, the hidden side of the community that was never shown in mainstream movies. To many Puerto Rican and Latino filmmakers, the social situation of the s brought an awareness of the dangers and possibilities they had with their cameras.
The act of filming their « own » people became a political as well as a social statement. The series became the main creative center for Puerto Rican and Latino artists. Writers, video makers, poets, set all were present to make the experiment work.
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