As Watch Cut continues to churn out 100 Years of Beauty videos, one of the biggest criticisms is that the beauty choices highlighted seem to be dictated by trends in the United States. But for its latest video on Puerto Ricans – which looks at both those living on the island and Nuyoricans – there’s a clear distinction between women living in the continental US and in the Caribbean. The video starts off in the 1910s – the decade when Jones-Shafroth Act granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, which facilitated migration from PR to NY, giving way to a boom in the 50s and 60s.
Related: 100 Years of Beauty in the Dominican Republic Recognizes the Natural Hair Movement
For Nuyoricans, women like Isabel González, Victoria Hernández, Míriam Colón, and Myrta Silva served as inspiration. For the 1960s, Watch Cut chose Rita Moreno in West Side Story – though we have to point out that the story takes place in the summer of 1957. Closing out the Nuyorican beauty trends is Jennifer Lopez’s 2014 “Same Girl” lewk, which is presented as a 2010s style, but could comfortably exist in the early aughts. For those on the island, Luisa Capetillo, Julia de Burgos, Marisol Malaret, and Iris Chacón led the way.
While some people quibbled with the fact that Alex Fernandez modeled both looks, the video does a good job at recognizing that these two groups of people have a connection, but they each did their own thing. Check out the full video above, and then visit Pinterest for an explanation on each of the looks.