Destabilizing the Nuyorican: <i>Rivera’s Women</i> and Nuyorican Cinema

<p><em>Rivera’s Women, </em>the Capstone, is a TV segment I produced for the CUNY-TV show <em>Latinas</em> that first aired June 27, 2023 (Pride). It grew out of an hour-long interview I conducted with playwright and screenwriter José Rivera as part of my research on Nuyorican Cinema, the films of the Puerto Rican Diaspora.</p> <p>An unknown part of U.S. independent cinema, these diasporic films destabilize the way independent films continue to be categorized through gender, race, ethnicity, and language. Using the Capstone as a guide, I examine two of Rivera’s recent screen works that situate him within Nuyorican Cinema because of his practice of centering women interacting with diverse characters.</p> <p>Regional, collegiate, and community theaters afford Rivera the artistic freedom he thrives on, making his practice of writing leading roles for women possible, unlike the commercial film and television productions that have been primarily work-for-hire, limiting his creative control. Nonetheless, Rivera’s focus on women is finding its way into his film and television work. As stated in the Capstone, he recently adapted<em> One Hundred </em><em>Years of Solitude </em>by Gabriel García Márquez into a television series for Netflix and found it necessary to “give the women some agency” (Rivera’s Women). In <em>Takeover,</em> his latest screenplay based on the documentary of the same title by Emma Francis-Snyder, he invents a young female character and her family that frame a 1970 historical event, the Young Lords’ occupation of Lincoln Hospital.</p> <p>This accompanying white paper is divided into four sections: Information about Nuyorican Cinema, including a definition of the term “Nuyorican,” followed by a summary of Rivera’s major theater, film, and television work in which elements of Nuyorican Cinema can be traced. A comparison between the <em>Takeover </em>screenplay and documentary explores how they blur distinctions between fiction and nonfiction. Lastly, I examine the process of adapting <em>One Hundred Years of Solitude</em> into a television series by contrasting the first episode of the series with the opening chapters of the novel. Season One of the Netflix series is scheduled for release at the end of this year.<em> Takeover</em> is scheduled to go into production next year.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Master

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Liberal Studies

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Escalona, Judith R

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Paul Julian Smith

• Film and Media Studies
• Nuyorican Cinema
• Puerto Rican Cinema
• Puerto Rican diasporic films
• Latino films
• Independent films
• Diasporic films

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6076

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-7189