In the Heights is a Cultural Celebration, and Hopefully the First of Many Latino Blockbusters

As a first-generation Colombian-American growing up in South Florida, I was very in tune with my Latino heritage. Over the years, I’ve learned about the realities of the Hispanic immigrant experience, both good and bad. This experience, however, has not been represented in the vast majority of media created in the United States. About 60.6 million Hispanics live in the United States, the Census Bureau estimates. Latinos have consistently led the box office, reaching 29% of all tickets sold, according to the latest Motion Picture Association report. Yet we only represent 4.5% of all speaking or named characters, and only 3% of lead or co-lead actors. These telling statistics highlight the fact that Latino culture, actors, and creators have been underrepresented in Hollywood Cinema since its inception. And even now they are still being criminally excluded, along with all other minorities and POC. However, I do believe that there is hope to change these truths as more and more minorities obtain more prominent roles in the entertainment industry.

With all that being said, hearing that Jon M. Chu from Crazy Rich Asians and Lin-Manuel Miranda from Hamilton would be bringing the popular Latino Broadway show In The Heights to the big screen with a full Warner Brothers budget, I was both excited and hopeful. Being a theater kid in high school also gave me another reason to look forward to the film, because of my love for musicals and theatrical productions. In the Heights centers on a variety of characters living in the neighborhood of Washington Heights, located on the northern tip of Manhattan. Usnavi de la Vega (Anthony Ramos) is a first-generation Dominican immigrant who tends a bodega on the corner of 181st Street. He feels his life slipping away from him and saves up his money to buy a bar in the Dominican Republic. In the meantime, he observes what goes down on his block during a blistering summer week as he pursues his childhood crush, Vanessa (Melissa Barrera). Simultaneously, Stanford freshman Nina (Leslie Grace) returns from school feeling alienated in California and drawn to her ex-boyfriend, Benny (Corey Hawkins), who works for her dad’s car service. These roles were brilliantly cast, and all the actors brought personality, presence, and raw talent.

From a cinematographic point of view, the film is top-notch. The musical movie has many well-executed shifts between conventional dialogue and grandiose dancing/singing scenes. While Hamilton mixes rap with traditional Broadway musical styles, In The Heights injects hip-hop into salsa and merengue, and the soundtrack is just as catchy, energetic, and memorable. Choreographer Christopher Scott (who accompanies Chu from the Step Up movies) makes excellent use of the locations, with dance moves for manicurists in the nail salon and domino players in the park that help capture the essence of Washington Heights. The use of big set pieces with wide shots and close-ups was also impressive. With its various references to the mainstays of life in the “Big Apple,” it reminded me a lot of how L.A is portrayed in La La Land. The film also has a very saturated color palette that makes the screen pop as it captures the vibrant and colorful nature of the Latino Community. With a hefty budget, In The Heights definitely nails both the production and musical side of the film, making it a real spectacle.

Culturally, the film does a beautiful job of capturing the nuance and beauty of the Latino immigrant experience. While the film is centered around Dominican and Puerto Rican characters, there are many references to other Latino countries and the community as a whole. As a child of Latino immigrant parents, it was heartwarming to be able to relate to the experiences of the characters in such an intimate way, as well as to see these kinds of stories told on the largest of platforms. The film highlights the discrimination, economic hardships, and social struggles that many immigrants suffer, while also showing the determination, hopefulness, grit, and deep family values that the Latino community has always identified with.  

For all its successes and diversity, the reception of the film has not been all positive. Since its release, there has been some criticism from the Afro-Latino community who feel that the film lacked sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, specifically in the lead cast. While there are many Afro-Latin actors in the background of many of the scenes, the lead cast is mostly white-passing and light-skin Latinos. And the only dark-skinned Afro-Latin lead is played by non-Latino Corey Hawkins. The cast and crew have responded to these criticisms with an open mind and acknowledgment they could have had a more accurate representation of Washington Heights within the cast. Lin Manuel-Miranda himself posted on his Instagram, "I hear that, without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the world feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy. In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short. I'm truly sorry." Others have defended the film, saying that they cast on an individual basis, filling the role with the actors they felt would do the best job. Iconic and beloved Boricua actor Rita Moreno from West Side Story defended Miranda by saying, "It’s like you can never do right, it seems. This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn’t do it. I mean, I would love to say I did, but I couldn’t." Personally, I think that this is a valid criticism and makes my enjoyment of the film a bit bittersweet. I believe everyone involved in the production of the film had good intentions and did the best they could. I also think that the film had an impossible task of trying to make up for decades of underrepresentation from both the Latino and Afro-Latino communities, so it’s understandable that they couldn’t possibly fix all of that in just one film.  

I loved In the Heights. I saw myself and many Latinos I know reflected in the stories about having ambitious goals, insecurities about navigating elite institutions, and remembering our families' pasts with an eye towards our future. But I am also a white Latino, and while I have been frustrated by the decades of erasure of Latinos in Hollywood, I have not experienced nearly as much erasure as Afro-Latinos or indigenous people in my community. I think that Leslie Grace summed it up perfectly in a recent interview when she said, "I hope that this is cracking that glass ceiling. Because I do hope to see my brothers and sisters that are darker than me lead these movies". Now that POC and minorities are starting to obtain higher positions of creative influence both on and off-screen, my hope is that we will see more productions that accurately depict the experiences, stories, and communities of the various groups that have continually been deprived of the limelight. In The Heights is a celebration of family, culture, and Latino heritage that I found to be extremely well-done and will certainly pave the way for many more Latino stories to hit the big screen in the coming years.

Written by: Bryan Herrera | Instagram

Art by: Laura Pellini | Instagram