eNewMexican

Meet the MIRANDAS

In our exclusive Father’s Day interview, Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father, Luis, recall the New York City memories that sparked the Hamilton creator’s latest—and most personal—project, the joyous movie musical In the Heights.

BY MARA REINSTEIN

This story starts in 1981, when married New York University grad students Luis A. Miranda Jr. and Luz Townes-Miranda were looking to move from their downtown college housing unit. With a 7-year-old daughter and a baby boy, the pair longed to relocate to a warm and welcoming community akin to Luis’ childhood hometown of Vega Alta in Puerto Rico.

In the Sunday real-estate section of the New York Times,

Luis saw a listing for a townhouse in the Washington Heights area in upper Manhattan. “We showed up and loved what we saw,” he says. “And we sensed that it was changing to become a Latin neighborhood.”

That decision ultimately inspired a joyous, Tony Award– winning Broadway musical and movie adaptation, courtesy of Luis and Luz’s baby boy, Lin-Manuel Miranda. In the Heights (which premiered June 11 in theaters and on HBO Max) is more than just a tale of a local dreamer experiencing mixed feelings about closing his grocery store and returning to his roots, moving back to the Dominican Republic. With music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel (who also starred in the original Broadway production and now cameos in the film), the salsa-and-Latin-pop-infused project is a deeply personal ode to his community’s people, goals, heritage and aspirations.

The new movie stars Anthony Ramos as Usnavi (the role played by Lin-Manuel onstage), plus Corey Hawkins (from The Walking Dead), singer-songwriter Leslie Grace and Melissa Barrera, who starred in the Starz TV series Vida.

“This was my first attempt to bring all of me into my work,” says Lin-Manuel, who also documented his journey in the new book In the

Heights: Finding Home (out now). Though the talented star led a cultural revolution (and picked up Tonys, Grammys, the Pulitzer Prize and a

Kennedy Center Honor), thanks to his musical Hamilton, he says

In the Heights is a true reflection of who he is. “The setting made sense to me because I grew up and live in one of the most musical neighborhoods in New York,” he says of the show, which he started composing in 1999. “This is a world where bodies in the street sing, sweat and dance. Characters live and rise together.”

And during these unsettled times, he adds, “That theme is actually poignant.”

Like Father, Like Son

Luis, 66, and Lin-Manuel, 41, have always been close, and they still are. They live within walking distance of each other in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood. The elder Mirandas, now married for 43 years, still live in that first house and have no plans to move. “If we did, it would require 10 moving trucks!” Luis exclaims. “We’ve saved everything, including Lin-Manuel’s letters when he was a little boy.” (Lin-Manuel pipes up: “Can we please not call it ‘hoarding’ for Parade magazine?”) Lin-Manuel estimates that he and his wife of 11 years—chemist Vanessa Nadal, 38—along with their sons, Sebastian, 6, and Francisco, 3, stop by every few weeks and on the weekends.

Beyond geography, father and son spend many of their working hours together in an arrangement that plays to each other’s strengths. Luis, who spent years as a political consultant for New York City mayor Ed Koch and later for the Senate campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, now throws his energy into promoting his son’s projects and their social endeavors. In 2019, when Puerto Rico was still recovering from 2017’s Hurricane Maria, Luis helped his son bring Hamilton to the island for a series of benefit performances. And in April, they helped open a COVID vaccination site in New York City’s Times Square intended to jump-start the local entertainment industry.

“We have very similar instincts,” Lin-Manuel says. “There’s a lot coming at me all the time, and my dad is sort of a natural gatekeeper.”

‘Write What You Know’

Though Lin-Manuel’s upbringing in the Heights featured music constantly booming from cars and the streets, life inside the Miranda household was more low-key. He watched NBC sitcoms like Family Ties with his dad and L.A. Law and NYPD

Blue with his mom. (The latter series both starred Jimmy Smits,

who plays a patriarch in the new movie version of In the Heights.)

He credits his older sister, Luz Miranda-Crespo, for introducing him to his favorite hip-hop artists, including A Tribe Called Quest, Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys.

Certain childhood memories pop up, like seeing Les Misérables on Broadway in 1987, his first musical. “I remember crying when Fantine died and falling asleep for a spell and waking up to Javert’s suicide,” he says. “I was also jealous that there was a little kid onstage [the character of Gavroche] and thinking, Wait, how do you get that

job in theater?!” He also vividly recalls his mom listening to the cast album, always crying during the ballad “Bring Him Home.” Even as a 7-year-old, he says, “That music was very formative.”

Lin-Manuel also regularly saw a special film close to his father’s heart: The Unsinkable Molly Brown, starring Debbie Reynolds, a 1964 fictionalized musical about the real-life woman who, among other things, survived the sinking of the

Titanic. As a kid, Luis was so taken by the actress’ grit that he wrote her a fan letter and was giddy when she personally responded. He quickly adopted that can-do spirit and credits the character for inspiring him to leave Puerto Rico in 1973 and move to New York City to pursue his American dream. “We watched that movie so many f---ing times,” Lin-Manuel says with a groan.

Some swearing aside, Lin-Manuel admits he was never much of a troublemaker (“I watched my sister fight my parents, with limited success”) and had zero interest in pursuing his father’s cutthroat world of politics. Instead, he threw himself into writing and composing. At Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he wrote the first draft of In the Heights, and he continued to fine-tune it

after graduation. “I saw it as an opportunity to create my dream show,” he says, “because there was nothing in the musical cannon with an all-Latino cast. It’s as simple and as complicated as writing what you know.”

When he had a choice between teaching seventh grade at his public-school alma mater or pursuing the show full-time, he chose his dreams. The show eventually worked its way to Broadway, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2008. Its success led to a national tour, a higher profile and the means for Lin-Manuel to work on his next project: a historical musical based on Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. But perhaps the most meaningful perk of all, certainly for his father, was a private meet-and-greet with—yep— Debbie Reynolds herself.

It happened when Lin-Manuel brought In the Heights to Los Angeles in 2010 and a mutual friend arranged a postshow get-together. She held court for 45 minutes. “The first thing [Luis] asked her was if she really got his letter!” Luis notes that she made an impact on his son too. “Because Debbie Reynolds answered me when I was a kid,” he says, “Lin-Manuel answers every single letter that he gets.”

The star will even autograph $10 bills, which, of course, bear the likeness of Alexander Hamilton. But he has a request. “Please,” he asks, “stop sending me money. I feel bad if I don’t return it!”

Kids Are Forever

The Mirandas are big on holiday traditions. On New Year’s Eve, Luis says the family celebrates

together either in Puerto Rico (where his relatives are still based) or New York. On birthdays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, the designated honoree gets breakfast in bed. Growing up, Lin-Manuel made mix CDs for his parents as presents.

This Father’s Day, three generations—including six grandkids—will convene for a big lunch in New Jersey. “My sister’s house is the center of family gatherings, so it’s party time over there,” Lin-Manuel says. “I bring the dog, and my sister has two birds and we try to keep them from killing each other.”

It’s all loud and chaotic, which is exactly how they prefer it— even more after COVID forced everyone to see each other only via their computer screens last year. After all, if the pandemic taught them anything, it’s that family matters. “My kids are my No. 1 priority no matter what I’m doing,” says Lin-Manuel. As he tinkers with everything from directing the fall movie musical

Tick, Tick . . . Boom! to crafting the score for the November Disney animated film Encanto from home, “It’s interesting to see what their brains have picked up. The other day, my 6-yearold son told me that one of my songs was too long. I have two little test audiences!”

That’s certainly music to the ears of his father. “The biggest lesson for my kids is that they know they are the most important things I have,” Luis says. “No matter what is going on in my life, your kids are forever.”

PARADE PICKS

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2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.com/article/282492891655897

Santa Fe New Mexican