Notes from the Dramaturg - "Boleros for the Disenchanted"

Puerto Rico/The Enchanted Island
Puerto Rico in 1953 was no easy place. The Estado Libre Asociado had been established only the year before, making the island a commonwealth of the United States, but no one completely understood what this really meant. Politicians in both Puerto Rico and The United States would change their opinions and positions depending on who they were talking to. It wasn't until late in 1953 that the U.S. Congress, under heavy pressure from the United Nations, would officially pledge not to invoke its plenary powers, effectively relinquishing its total veto power over any law enacted by the Governor of Puerto Rico. Only then, some argued, did Puerto Rico cease to be a colony in all but name. Even then, far from everyone was happy about the ELA. There were still very vocal elements on the island that were opposed to anything but complete independence for Puerto Rico.

The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico, under the leadership of Harvard graduate Pedro Albizu Campos undertook several violent actions against the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments in the 1950s. In October 1950, nationalist elements attacked several police stations and attempted to kill the Governor in Puerto Rico. A month later in the United States, two other revolutionaries attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. Later in 1954, four more revolutionaries opened fire in the U.S. House of Congress, wounding five Congressmen. And it wasn't just political dissidents that were unhappy with the conditions in Puerto Rico, especially after the enactment of the ELA. By 1946 only some 70,000 Puerto Ricans had ever migrated to the U.S. But as Puerto Rico's already chronic unemployment rose and political and economic exigencies demanded, between 1950 and 1965 approximately 530,000 people, almost 25% of the population would leave the island for the mainland in search of work. 1953 was the peak year for this exodus, with approximately 75,000 people immigrating to the mainland. While there were several dense Puerto Rican population centers in the United States, Chicago, New Jersey, and Connecticut among them, by far the most common destination for emigres was New York City. In fact, in East Harlem, in Manhattan, a community had slowly been developing since the late 19th century that by the 1950s was known as El Barrio and had developed its own distinct culture of “Nuyoricans.” Life on the mainland was not much easier than the lives they hoped to leave behind. There were jobs, but they were underpaid, and often poorly treated. The America that many emigres found when the came to the mainland was described by poet Pedro Pietri: They worked/They were always on time/They were never late/They never spoke back/when they were insulted/They worked/They never took days off/that weren't on the calendar/ They never went on strike/without permission/They worked ten days a week/and were only paid for five/They worked/They worked/They worked/and they died/They died broke/They died owing.

Boleros

The bolero is the result of the blending of Spanish, African, and Indian cultural elements as they came (were forced) into contact with each other in the Caribbean beginning in the 16th century. Some scholars suggest that the first example of the Latin American bolero is the 1865 Cuban composition Tristezas (Sadness). But credit for the creation of the bolero is a hotly debated issue, (and not one that I have any intention of waying in on). Scholar Rafael Castillo Zapata has described the lyrics of the bolero as “invariably about love, [they] form part of the symbolic baggage through which every Latin American, and particularly the inhabitants of the Caribbean, has learned to express his or her own feelings of love.”

Daleville
The city of Daleville Alabama is a town of about 5000 people and is known as “The Gateway to Fort Rucker Army Base.” Fort Rucker, and its associated airfield Cairns Army Airfield to the south are the home of the U.S. Army's Aviation Center of Excellence.

Coqui
The coqui is a small frog that is endemic to Puerto Rico. It gets its name from its distinctive call that it only makes in darkness. The coqui is a distinctive part of Puerto Rican culture mentioned in numerous songs poems and in literature.

—Ian Goodrich