an offhand reference to "you PRs [Puerto Ricans]," which is to be seen as a racial slur and which does not acknowledge the historical fact that Puerto Ricans have U.S. citizenship. On the other hand, Bernardo distinguishes himself from the "Americans," deliberately asserting a Puerto Rican identity. The most rousingly direct social commentary occurs in the dancing-and-singing number "America," in which the Sharks square off against their girls, the boys recalling Puerto Rico as a lovely island with tropical breezes, pineapples, and coffee, but the girls referring to it as a ugly island of tropical diseases:
Always the population growing . . .
Reference to negative features of Puerto Rico is confirmed by certain facts. Lemann cites efforts by Luis Munoz Marin, an ambitious governor of Puerto Rico and proponent of its commonwealth status, to build Puerto Rico's economy through massive U.S. manufacturing investment and mass emigration, which would relieve
...