That's what I know. By the time the very concept of "West Side Story" really got off the ground, however, the conflict between Jews and Catholics was not nearly as fresh, overt, or prominent. At around the time that "West Side Story" came out as a musical, on the whole, there was a huge influx of Puerto Ricans into New York City, and into the Continental United States, generally. Subsequently the conflict between European Ethnic Americans and Puerto Ricans was much fresher, and more overt and prevalent, as well. It only seemed fitting that West Side Story be about conflict between the Puerto Ricans and the White Ethnic European Americans, which it was.
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