San Juan Pop Culture

Puerto Rico has a rich artistic legacy, particularly in music and in literature. Poets like Julia de Burgos and Pedro Pietri (who lived in New York but was Puerto Rican) rose to national prominence, and of course native son Jose Feliciano is a world-renowned singer and guitarist. Salsa great Tito Puente is from Puerto Rico, as are Marc Antony and Jennifer Lopez, both of whom starred recently in a movie shot on location in PR, 'El Cantante,' about another famous island singer, Hector Lavoe. Many American films that are set in Cuba are actually filmed in Puerto Rico, such as Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and Bad Boys II.  Just on the outskirts of San Juan sits a major satellite dish that appears in Jodie Foster's film 'Contact' and in the James Bond thriller 'GoldenEye.' Perhaps the best known films shot in San Juan include 'Amistad,' and 'Assassins.' American writers who have set novels in San Juan include Hunter S. Thompson, whose acclaimed Rum Diary features a New York newspaper reporter sent to Puerto Rico as a correspondent.