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When, in 1961, West Side Story hit the screens after conquering Broadway, it was the entire Puerto Rican community of New York, ostracized and deprived of the American dream, that feverishly gained visibility. From Spanish Harlem to the Bronx, where poverty, drugs and gangs are rampant, Latino music and dance will then carry the identity revolution, the barrio setting itself on fire and undulating to Afro-Caribbean rhythms, led by "the king of timbales" Tito Puente. Soon mixed with soul, jazz and blues of the black neighbors, who share suffering and stigma of racism, the genres multiply: mambo, rumba, cha-cha-cha, merengue, boogaloo. All the Hispanics of Central and South America joined the movement.

The designers finally get the chance to show off their own aesthic but teamwork is still involved when they must rely on their sewing assistants to help them create editorial worthy looks to be worn by actress and guest judge Jordana Brewster.