Latinos, the Tony Awards, & the Loan Shark!

admin — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:36:00 GMT

5/18/08-By Sally de La Puerta

El Barrio…“In the Heights” is a Broadway musical

that got 13 nominations to the Tony Awards, including

Best Musical, here in New York. The story is about the
life in the very Latino neighborhood in the upper side
on Manhattan, Washington Heights.

It is an original musical conceived by Lin-Manuel
Miranda that was staged first in his college years.
After his graduation he came back to New York, and
worked with some people to adapt the musical to bigger
and wider audiences. It was in an Off-Broadway
theater, and got enough success to make the move to
Broadway.

I haven’t seen the musical yet, but I am looking
forward to it, since I actually know one of the cast
members, Olga Merediz, who happens to be also one of
the nominees to a Tony Award. For what I was told,
the play is basically the story of the life in the
barrio, where everybody pretty much knows everyone
else, and the realization of the American Dream. The
music is fantastic, and it is hard to keep
seated and not get up and dance to it. I’m really
looking forward to see it.

My last visit to Washington Heights was very
interesting. I was with a couple of friends. We saw
the people chatting on the streets, we saw a young
mother leaning on a pillow over her window, chatting
with her friends who were on their way to a party.

We also saw an older woman walking with a couple of
bags when a younger man approached her and helped her
into a building. One of my friends told us that when
she was a kid, she went to visit her grandmother, a
Cuban matron that knew everybody in the barrio in
Brooklyn, and proudly screamed to everyone she saw:
“my grandoter! My grandoter!”

Later she told us that her grandmother was a very

known woman, because she was the “loan shark” of

her barrio. Just that image made me laugh a lot!

So, if you are in the New York area, make sure to
check out the musical In the Heights. After all,
coming to New York and not going to a Broadway play or
musical is not experiencing the city as it is meant to
be!

Sally De la Puerta

El Connoisseur : hispanic culture

Latinos, the Tony Awards, & the Loan Shark!