Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture

Text and Form:

Percussion enters behind dialogue

Introduction:

Puerto Rico, My heart's devotion

Let it sink back in the ocean

Always the hurricanes blowing

Always the population growing

And the money owing

And the sunlight streaming

And the natives steaming

I like the island Manhattan

Smoke on your pipe

And put that in

Anita

Chorus:

Chorus: I like to be in America

Okay by me in America

Everything free in America

Bernardo: For a small fee in America

Chorus and Bernardo

Verse:

Anita: Buying on credit is so nice

Bernardo: One look at us and they charge twice

Rosalia: I'll have my own washing machine

Indio: What will you have though to keep clean?

Exchange of lines between various characters

Chorus

Anita: Skyscrapers bloom in America

Rosalia: Cadillacs zoom in America

Teresita: Industry boom in America

Boys: Twelve in a room in America

Exchange of lines between various characters

Verse

Anita: Lots of new housing with more space

Bernardo: Lots of doors slamming in our face

Anita: I'll get a terrace apartment

Bernardo: Better get rid of your accent

Exchange of lines between choruses of boys and girls

Dance Break

Boys: La, la, la, la, la, America

America La, la, la, la, la, America

America

Exchange of lines

Verse

Girls: Here you are free and you have pride

Boys: Long as you stay on your own side

Girls: Free to be anything you choose

Boys: Free to wait tables and shine shoes

Bernardo and Anita

Chorus

Bernardo: Everywhere grime in America

Organized crime in America

Terrible time in America

Anita: You forget I'm in America

Orchestra

Dance Break

Bernardo and Anita

Verse:

Bernardo: I think I'll go back to San Juan

Anita: I know what boat you can get on

Bernardo: Everyone there will give big cheers

Anita: Everyone there will have moved here