Go online right now and chances are you'll see some news piece or another about immigration. It's been a hot button topic pretty much since the day the Puritans pulled up on Plymouth Rock and said, "nice place you got here."

We're a nation of immigrants to a large extent, and no matter who they are or where they come from, they always face an uphill climb. These days, we talk about immigrants from Latin America and Syria. In West Side Story, it's Puerto Rican immigrants. Before that it was the Jews, Italians, and then the Irish, and then, and then. Each new wave of immigrants wants to shut the door behind them.

ANITA (Imitating Bernardo): You're father's a Pole,
Your mother's a Swede,
But you were born here,
So that's all you need!

The new kids on the block have to take the worst jobs and they're often poor, which leads to crime, which in turn leads to more stereotyping, more hatred, and more racism.

West Side Story steps directly into that argument. As Puerto Ricans, the Sharks are outcast almost from the beginning: living in a crummy neighborhood, hassled by the white kids and turning to crime just as a way of getting even. It drives Bernardo from the first frame—he's an angry, bitter man—and both the Jets and the police take their share of racist digs at them. The very first song features the Jets slamming their rivals in a less than ideal fashion:

JETS: The Jets are in gear,
Our cylinders are clickin'!
The Sharks'll steer clear
'Cause every Puerto Rican's
A lousy chicken! 

Stay classy, boys.

The Puerto Ricans are stuck between two cultures. They're not in Puerto Rico anymore, and there's a need for them to hold onto their culture and identity as a way of keeping the old country alive. At the same time, they want to integrate in American and lend their voices to this new culture.

You can see this most obviously in the song "America." The gals hate Puerto Rico and love America. The guys hate America and love Puerto Rico. Neither side is completely wrong.

ANITA: Skyscrapers bloom in America

ROSALIA: Cadillacs zoom in America

CHORUS GIRL: Industry boom in America

BOYS: Twelve in a room in America! 

The Sharks are grappling with that as much as they're dealing with the Jets, and if you think about it, it's a good source for all the hate and the heart of their rivalry with the Jets. That makes this a uniquely American story, since immigration has always been a part of us, and helps demonstrate how that mindless urge to "just kill the other guy" that Shakespeare wrote about is still something to look out for today.