America (West Side Story song)

The irony of this supposedly pro-American number, however, is its vibrantly Hispanic musical style, with Latin percussion, complex cross-rhythm and Spanish guitar.

The 2021 film version of the song, sung by Ariana DeBose as Anita, David Alvarez as Bernardo, Ana Isabelle as Rosalia and Ilda Mason as Luz, is a hybrid of both the stage and 1961 film versions, except now taking place the morning after the dance at the gym, and in the streets of the Puerto Rican community's area of the city.

Stephen Sondheim claims that Bernstein returned from a holiday in Puerto Rico and told him he had come across a wonderful dance rhythm called Huapango which gave him the idea for the song.

Many years later, a friend of Sondheim's found, in a box of Bernstein's papers, an unproduced ballet called Conch Town which contained the tune.

Sondheim concludes that Bernstein had invented the story of finding the rhythm on holiday simply so he could reuse an old tune.