Division Street

ACT I, SCENE I

EXTERIOR: Paseo Boricua - Daytime

Division Street in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, the symbolic center of the city's Puerto Rican community, marked on either end by giant sculptures of the Puerto Rican flag.

Known as "Paseo Boricua," or in English: "Gateway to Puerto Rico."

INTERIOR: Lily's Records - Daytime

LILY MARTINEZ stands inside her store, Lily's Records, where CDs with music by Puerto Rican artists line the walls from floor to ceiling, and "Jibaro" musical kits, maracas, tambourines and other instruments wait for hands to shake them into song.

Her husband, TITO MEDINA, is nearby. He has the look of a gentle giant, and is quick to flash a generous smile at visitors entering the store. The two met 13 years ago at a little stone table that is built into the sidewalk in front of the store.

MARTINEZ

Everybody's waiting for that movie.

(She is referring to the movie "Humboldt Park," being filmed in the area.)

Sometimes they call me over and over, asking about it.

MEDINA

(Proudly)

They filmed the outside of the store as we turned on the "open" sign in the morning. And they bought music and instruments. And Alfred Molina [one of the actors] spent some time with me to work on his character's Puerto Rican accent.

There's a lot of difference. Mexicans, they talk in a singing way. Puerto Ricans talk faster.

Such is the scene of excitement surrounding the filming of the movie over the last few weeks.

Unlike the buzz that is usually astir when film crews and trailers with stars on their doors pop up in an area, though, the Humboldt hubbub has little to do with celebrity craze. It is instead a matter of cultural pride, and the hope that a neighborhood long portrayed as gang-ridden and dangerous will finally get to show off its assets.

Enrique Salgado, director of the Division Street Business Development Association, said, "For the first time, we have cameras here and they're not here because somebody got shot."

Just as the film could bring positive attention to the neighborhood, Salgado said, it could also rehabilitate the image of Puerto Ricans that is usually found in films.

"It's the first time that you will see a Puerto Rican in a positive description in a major motion picture," Salgado said, noting that usually they are typecast as gangsters, or as loud and obnoxious characters.

It's rare to see any Latinos in positive film roles, said Hector Villagrana, chief of staff for Ald. Billy Ocasio, who has helped facilitate the filming in his ward, the 26th.

"They're usually boxers, housekeepers or drug dealers," Villagrana said. "Here you've got business owners and people who've gone on to higher education and come back to the neighborhood."

ACT II, SCENE I

EXTERIOR: A Puerto Rican Bodega - Twilight

SECURITY GUARDS gesture impatiently at cars, trying to speed the flow of traffic intermittently stalled by curious drivers' gaping.

Their furious hands have the hard feat of competing with the unusual sight of giant lights and screens outside a bodega on Chicago Avenue.

Sometimes they must also tell passersby in the line of the camera to move along.

Gesticulating to emphasize the point, they YELL: "You can't stand there!"

Inside, a scene in the story of the make-believe Puerto Rican family that owns the make-believe bodega is being filmed, again and again. Molina plays the father.

John Leguizamo and Freddy Rodriguez, who is Puerto Rican and grew up nearby, star as the sons.

"Freddy Rodriguez - I went to grammar school with the guy," Salgado said.

One of the film's producers, Robert Teitel, is also of Puerto Rican descent and from Chicago.

"It shows that we do have famous people that have come out of Humboldt Park," Salgado said. "There have been people who have come out and who have come back."

In the film, which is being directed by Alfredo de Villa, three siblings return to their home in Humboldt Park to celebrate the holidays with their parents. One of them, Rodriguez's character, has just come back wounded from Iraq.

The focus on a Puerto Rican family has stoked the film's warm reception in the actual Humboldt Park community.

"Humboldt Park has a really, really high instance of single mothers, so I think it's showing a slightly different aspect of the community," Villagrana said.

It's an aspect that won the filmmakers the support of Jose Lopez, director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

"We're not in a position to necessarily say how they write it," Lopez said. "I think, however, whenever you do things in a community there are generic things to incorporate that are important about that community."

Tight-knit families are central to the strength of Puerto Rican culture, Salgado said.

"In America family is deteriorating, family values are deteriorating," he said. "When you're talking about [the creation of] Paseo Boricua, a lot of what's behind that is this family culture."

ACT III, SCENE I

EXTERIOR: The Field House in Humboldt Park - Twilight

As the set crew replenishes the fake melting snow on the steps leading into Humboldt Park's Field House, more than 100 extras prepare to simulate a traditional Puerto Rican "parranda," yet another time.

ERNIE MALIK (publicist for the film)

It was a little tricky. The crew had filmed the same location a few days before, but when they arrived Sunday, much of the natural snow had left the set.

MEDINA

Parrandas usually take place around Christmas.

For a parranda, a group of musicians travel from house to house, serenading the occupants with Puerto Rican music. At each stop, the listeners join the journey, forming an ever-larger chorus.

MALIK

It's a lot like Christmas caroling.

MEDINA

The last house is where the party is at.

On Sunday the last house was the Chicago Park District's Field House. Because the movie is set at Christmastime, the field house is done up with holiday decorations inside and out.

"It's not like we are a character," Salgado said. "We are the story."

It will be the first time many people in America are given a glimpse of how Puerto Rican communities in the United States have kept their traditions alive, Salgado said.

"It will be our 'Barbershop.' It will be our 'Soul Food,'" he said, referring to two other movies made by the film's producers, Robert Teitel and George Tillman Jr. "Now this place that was no place is now a place on the map," he said.

Community members are hoping the film will generate interest in the neighborhood that goes beyond the theater screen by bringing visitors and business to the area, Villagrana said.

"Certainly there is evidence that shows that film projects that showcase a city or a state boost tourism," said Rich Moskal, director of the city's film office.

As an example, he pointed to the movie "The Last of the Mohicans." After that came out, he said, there was a jump in tourism to the Adirondack Mountains, where it was set.

Malik also is hopeful.

"It's a unique film in that it references a neighborhood that hasn't been portrayed on the screen ever before," Malik said. "These are homegrown filmmakers who have a lot of pride in the city."

And they have tapped into a fiercely proud Chicago community.

"There is no other place that has two monuments to the Puerto Rican flag," Salgado said. "No other place that has made such an effort."