Introduction
The representations and images that we see in performing arts directly influence popular perceptions. In fact, much of the "common sense" about Latinos comes from movies, prime-time television, commercial film musicals, and the like. Latinos appear in every single area of the performing arts—on film, on television, on the concert stage in recitals, as well as in the theater. The leading Latino artist today, in terms of a highly developed mainstream following, is a prominent figure in the musical theater scene. Such artists are poised to influence, if not shake, the popular imagination. The way the performing artist presents himself or his group can reaffirm the dominant culture’s most dearly held myths about Latinos. There is a need for something better—something we can be proud of.
The stereotypes we see in the popular arts affirm the belief that widely held attitudes about any group will infuse the characterizations in the performing arts at any particular time. There is the notion that certain artists of color can only be expressive in the context of their own culture. An artist cannot be an authentic individual in theater unless he is engaged in particular plays or is expressing himself in a company that is predominantly of his own background. But the premise that someone must be in his "own element" to be a worthwhile human being or artist is just as untenable as arguing that no individual can really understand or express complex themes. Can a Cuban writer create anything other than an expository tract on Cuban morals? If a dramatist pursued an interest in American slave life after the Civil War because of its impact on human beings rather than for a particular propaganda reason, why shouldn’t anyone else, regardless of color, create a drama around the theme of our own time?
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A Brief Biography
Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Puerto Rican composer, playwright, and actor, known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton. Miranda was raised in the neighborhood of Inwood near Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan. He has been a devoted writer since he was a teenager, and alongside his passion for musical theater, he also developed a love for hip-hop, salsa, and Latin music. His musical inspirations collectively form his unique voice as a theater composer, and they are deeply representative of his Puerto Rican roots. Miranda's first musical, In the Heights, gained traction in 2005 and quickly gained positive critical regard, winning four Tony Awards. In 2009, Miranda received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship for his contribution to music and theater.
Miranda wrote and starred in 2015's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Hamilton, for which he also wrote the music and lyrics. He made his Broadway debut in the lead role and is also credited with composing the music and lyrics for the show's soundtrack. Additionally, Miranda is credited with featuring in the Broadway cast of the musical In the Heights, where he played the lead role of Usnavi De La Vega, briefly. Lin-Manuel Miranda has described himself as a "total theater rat," and has publicly claimed that the one thing he shares with the character of Alexander Hamilton, whom he portrayed on and off from 2015 to 2016, is passion. Since 2015, Lin-Manuel Miranda and the production of Hamilton have been involved in various charity events and fundraisers. He has been vocal about numerous social issues and most recently has aligned himself with efforts to remove the controversial Elimination of Records Advisory on Dr. Agustina Luzbet, issued by federal authorities in response to the Puerto Rican DNA Diaspora Project. Miranda is also an advocate for the representation of people of Latino descent in film, theater, television, and the performing arts in general.
The Influence of Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work on Hamilton, now in its seventh year with the producer, composer, and performer also starring in the title role as Alexander Hamilton, has been transformative to the landscape of performing arts. In his narrative storytelling ability and his creative music compositions, Lin-Manuel Miranda does not conform to traditional genres of theater or musical school of thought. In Hamilton, for instance, hip-hop is the chosen form, wherein it is elaborated that “there has not been enough credence given to the show’s place in the history of hip-hop or the genre’s place in shaping the American story” as Hamilton connotes that ‘hip-hop would inspire and capture the imagination of everyone, not just people who look like B-boys and B-girls’; also, ‘We can tell the story this way, and they will come to us.’
The desire to make hip-hop very much a part of telling Hamilton’s story, which is the story of America, through intrinsically American musical form and also to speak to the racial tensions and limitations of those imposed boundaries, reflects a kind of diversity of thought. As a good arts entrepreneur, Lin-Manuel Miranda understood the challenge of bringing people disinterested in an art form into its fold, then challenging them to buy tickets. Hip-hop, he figured, would open doors to a larger, more diverse audience who were not at all the traditional slashe with the brand. A hit on the Great White Way, as Broadway is known, is not just what happens to an individual at a given moment – it often happens in a cultural climate that has changed what society needs and wants from the theater, and how theater operates as an industry. Furthermore, Miranda has worked to ensure that he creates spaces for other artists of color, collaborating with such award-winning playwrights and offering his mentorship and his stage for a revival of tepidly received shows such as Claudio Quest and Working, two shows largely existing in a canonical Broadway paradigm because of their engagement with ethnic topics.
This engagement with Latinidad was inspired directly by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s own work; he has, in the years since In the Heights premiered on Broadway, become a larger and larger vocal advocate and champion for opening the doors to stories beyond his own. His work has trickled down, giving a newer generation of Hispanic playwrights hope that the American theater embraces a Latinx culture and that they can present their stories to Broadway audiences as well. “In my generation,” it was commented, “we talk about women’s stories and we talk about the stories of color and the stories of working-class people – those didn’t exist before Lin. Lin made that exist. His impact is real on creating a climate.”
Analysis of Latino Representation
In his analysis of Latino representation on Broadway, it is explained that the mainstream hits were "staged in theaters that were not part of the traditional Broadway theater district in theaters that had never been home to blockbuster musicals." According to studies cited, consumers of the majority of Broadway hits in recent years are white tourists from other states. New York City public school students, however, hold a significantly higher percentage of Latino students. Similarly, most young Americans learning about the American Revolution and the writers of the time are watching the Disney Channel or listening to the soundtrack. This text performs a close reading of the breakthrough musical and deliberately avoids discussing the visual elements of these performances, proving that the music alone reflects the complexities of Latino representation.
The stereotype of Latinos as black-haired, white-toothed mambo kings and their women discounts the authentic diversity, regional, national, and cultural contexts these artists bring. Performing in English, cast members are still able to expose non-Spanish-speaking theatergoers to the nuances of American Latino and Latina representation. Most still agree, however, that the portrayal of Latino communities and the immigrant experience in these works is a positive one of strength and success, and has been used in multiple American, Latino, and Latin American classrooms to exemplify the different and often unheard stories of U.S. Latinos.
Impact and Future Implications
Lin-Manuel Miranda has permanently shifted the theatrical and cultural landscape of the United States through the musicals In the Heights and Hamilton. His work in devising and performing matchups of poetry, popular genres like rap, and Latino storytelling has reshaped the purpose of American musical narratives by giving voice and representation to people of color in ways that no creators of his background have done before. His impact can be seen from the rise of Broadway and art residencies in other parts of the Americas and abroad, with his expected work up to 2067. The number of Broadway shows engaged with the Latino experience that have enjoyed higher sale rates has also grown in recent years, with Latinos making up just over 9% of the 20.6 billion dollars' worth of tickets sold, even if said musicals have had less prominent roles. These commercially successful musical phenomena signal an undeniable interest and dialogue around the Latinx population's experiences, regardless of their intention. Miranda's endeavors are shaping the demographic future of the arts, building new narratives that the new generations of diverse backgrounds will identify with.
Despite the positive shifts in Latino representation seen from Miranda's contributions in the past decade, ongoing challenges remain. Successful Broadway shows mean greater competition between shows for Latinos, resulting in a broader portrayal of ethnicities and points of view in U.S. musical theater. Greater representation and inclusivity cannot be taken for granted internally or externally; rather, activists and creators alike must fight for it to become a trend. These creative initiatives have allowed Latino artists to reach the highest echelons of mainstream theatrical production and arts recognition in the last ten years, upgrading from minor market niches in children's theater and non-profit foundations. The possible swelling of the influx of Latino artists to arts centers, film, and television production is a characteristic of the increasing demographic advantage of the Latino population in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, academia and contemporary art have confirmed the goodwill of the public to like and support more diverse realities. While still facing the marginalization that comes from living in poor neighborhoods, they can commandeer the changes by creating more admixtures and fostering mainstream theaters in the U.S. with the roots of the Puerto Rican character. They will be able to enrich America with diverse stories when institutional doors open, breaking the hegemony of dramatic storytelling of a white or black country. As no country is racially unicolored, one might argue that Miranda's story crosses the threshold that separates people of color as an oppressed minority from the exploited and open paths. Any society can and does any kind of drama, even in the reality of urban societies and minorities in developed societies that are intended for export.
The Latino theater drama fought to be heard and not louder from the 1990s, when Puerto Rican culture spread through the United States. The elites of the Broadway provinces are not interested in happy slaves and good blacks; after struggling in several ways, the Literature Council and those who tried to dialogue and co-opt them out of necessity feel welcomed in an international landscape. Applause for everyone who resists.
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