Lin-Manuel Miranda, who conceived and wrote the music and lyrics for the stage hit “In the Heights,” apologized Monday for the lack of Afro-Latinx representation in the film adaptation, directed by John M.
“I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, of feeling still unseen in the feedback,” Miranda wrote on social media, saying that he’d seen the discussion happening around the movie.
On the surface, the movie is championed by Chu, a groundbreaking director of color.
By not casting dark skinned Afro-Latinxs in speaking roles and cutting the ONLY plot directly addressing racism, it asks Afro-Latinxs to settle.
In an interview last week with the Root, video producer Felice Léon, a Black woman of Cuban descent and a New York City native, probed Chu about the lack of Afro-Latinx representation.
She referred to Washington Heights as “a melting pot,” yet the one Black main character, Benny , is not of Latinx descent.
Chu asked, “Did you not see that in the dancers?,” to which Léon replied that Black actors have often been relegated to the background.
Apart from the colorism, audiences also critiqued the movie’s vague framing of same-sex couple Daniela , saying the two were unrecognizable as romantic partners to viewers who were not a part of the LGBTQ+ community.