“In the Heights” low on Afro-latinx representation
By hola | Published | No Comments
The new movie, In the Heights, takes place in New York City’s Washington Heights, where nearly seven in every ten people identify as Latino and the neighborhood is commonly referred to as “Little Dominican Republic.” For more than a year, excited anticipation surrounded the film, which is based on the play by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the famous author of Hamilton. It was widely hailed as an opportunity to depict the true Washington Heights. Instead it has sparked a controversy over the film’s Afro-Latinx representation.
Publicity photos courtesy of Warner Bros.
The movie tells the story of a young man named Usnavi, the owner of a bodega who sings his hopes for a better life in the Dominican Republic. As the neighborhood changes around them, Usnavi and his neighbors try to enjoy and support each other for what time they have left before the rising rents of gentrification force them out. Unsavi is left making a huge decision whether he should stay or leave the community he has lived in his whole life. Though the film showcases a vibrant Latino cast with a Dominican main character, not a single leading cast member looks like the predominantly dark-skinned, Afro-Latino community members that Washington Heights is known for. The entire main cast of the movie, with the exception of Benny, a non-Latino character, are fair-skinned Latinos.
Since it premiered on June 11, viewers have been asking why its portrayal of the neighborhood is so off. Some say the answer is colorism. Colorism, as defined by the National Conference for Community Justice (NCCJ), is “a practice of discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin.” The practice has its roots in the caste systems of many former slave-owning countries, including ones in Latin America. An individual’s worth was based on their proximity to whiteness, deeming those with more white blood as superior, and those with little to none as inferior. This ideology has morphed throughout the years into what can be described as a “white is right” mentality—that the shade of someone’s skin determines his or her worth.
The movie sparked a raw exchange of opinions on social media. On Twitter specifically, the lack of Afro-Latino representation stood out as one of the biggest complaints. Tweets went viral on the platform and then resurfaced virally across other platforms like Instagram.
One user tweeted: “Dark Skinned Afro-Latinx actors are put into boxes where they can’t even audition for Latinx roles. I’m so proud of being Black, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when we are literally written out of the narrative of our own communities’ stories b/c we aren’t in the room.”
Another tweet with a similar tone and sentiment stated: “in the heights is a win for *check trailer* ah yes. White latinos who erase black latinos in our own black latino enclaves. Still watching yall talk sh*t about one step at a time like u aint been taking ONLY that white [expletive] step for centuries & on every latino network forever.”
While the second tweet carried a rawer tone, they both convey vulnerability and feeling left out. Many social media commenters expressed disappointment in the ongoing misrepresentation of Afro-Latinidad, which happens so often there were those who commented that it seems like a purposeful tactic rather than a mistake of the mainstream media. One post that generated many comments and “likes” on Instagram said: “Lin Manuel Miranda is a great representation of a white Boricua who has internalized colonial ideology and anti-black sentiments.”
In the Heights is not without its defenders. One of Miranda’s staunch supporters is the famous actress Rita Moreno. While she wasn’t involved in the film, she expressed her indignation during a segment on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert, where she expanded on the variety of identities in Latin American countries and defended Miranda for making Latinx Americans more visible.
“This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn’t do it! I mean, heck I would love to say I did, but I couldn’t. Lin Manuel has done that,” she told Colbert on her appearance on The Late Night Show, appearing to suggest that the Latino community should be grateful to Miranda and that gratitude should preclude criticism. Moreno finished her defense to a round of applause by saying, “It would have been so nice if they hadn’t come up with that and just left it alone just for now.”
For Afro-Latino audiences who have waited to celebrate a rare Hollywood showcase of their culture, the unrecognizable neighborhood depicted in the film was not a matter they could just leave alone, particularly since leaving something alone is often a pressured phrase to stay silent on difficult conversations. As Rachel Elizabeth Cargle wrote about her experience with pressured silence in a Harper’s Bazaar article: “Time and time again my voice has been muffled by those who would rather not be bothered by the conversations around racism—both its gnarled roots, and its modern manifestations.”
Afro-Latino viewers of In the Heights were having none of it after the film premiere, which left Moreno caught in some social media crossfire. After her TV remarks were not received well, she went on Twitter to apologize for her comments that she categorized as dismissive.
Both producers and cast members have highlighted the film’s success for shining a light on often ignored Latino stories, as well as emphasizing the good intentions of the filmmakers. Director Michael Chu provided an apology, as reported by NPR, saying: “I promise to do better in my future projects, and I’m dedicated to the learning and evolving we all have to do to make sure we are honoring our diverse and vibrant community.”
But given their career trajectories, it’s hard to believe that Chu and Miranda weren’t aware of the importance of representation and didn’t already understand the sensitivities. Miranda’s career exploded when he prioritized representation with storytelling that brought Black and Latino characters to life in Hamilton, a play about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton that prioritized a multicultural view of history. Chu’s previous film, Crazy Rich Asians, was accused of colorism, which taints his recent apology as it would seem he should have “learned and evolved” after that movie’s controversy, and “done better” by avoiding the same problems with the current film. Instead Chu’s words appear to follow the trend noted in the Los Angeles Times article titled, “Celebrities quick to apologize for mistakes but are they sorry?” link?
Maybe more than his apology, Chu’s quote on colorism in an article published by the online site Insider is more revealing: “When we were looking at the cast, we were looking for the people who were best for those roles specifically,” suggesting he thinks he should not need to apologize since he found the “right” people for the role.
Diversity was a common theme among defenders of the film’s casting decisions. Lin Manuel referred to the diversity ion the Latino community, as his intent had been “to paint a mosaic of this community” and that “all I wanted was for us – ALL of us – to feel seen.”
For the more than 60 million Latinx residents in the U.S., any Latino narrative in Hollywood may be a welcome sight. The diversity of the Latino community is also undeniable, however, the Dominican neighborhood Chu and Miranda wanted to share has a predominantly Afro-Latino presence, even if that presence usually goes unrecognized in U.S. Census questionnaires and public opinion polls. For instance, New York University’s Furman Center, published a report, based on 2019 census data, stating that 67.9 percent of Washington Heights is Hispanic and 7.9 percent is Black, without taking into account the cross-over between Black and Latino people. As a result, the Furman article creates a misleading portrait of the Washington Heights neighborhood, which has long been known for its Afro-Dominican community.
Leslie Grace, one of the film’s leading cast members and a self-identified Afro-Latina, remarked on the film’s positive effect for all U.S. Latinos in the Insider article.
“I feel so blessed that we get to express the diversity that is within the Latinx community in a way that we haven’t been able to see on-screen because so many times we’re put on-screen in one particular way and since we get so little opportunity, everyone wants to claim that one story. Because it’s all we got,” said Grace, who plays Nina, the community’s golden child who returns home after her first year at Stanford and considers dropping out due to the lack of a Latino community at the school.
Grace went on to say that she was happy that In the Heights helped break the glass ceiling for Latino actors. However, she quickly added that she hopes to see darker-skinned Latinos in future lead roles, rather than being stuck in the background and lucky to get one line, as most of the Afro-Latinos in the movie remained “put on-screen in one particular way.”
Including Afro-Latinos in these culture-centered movies would allow for an accurate representation of the Latino community—both within and beyond Washington Heights—but more importantly would give less recognized Latinos the space to be the stars of their own stories. Instead critics of the filmmakers say they are sending a message to Afro-Latino viewers that even in a story about a neighborhood filled with people who look like them—one celebrating their music, dance and food—they are not allowed to see themselves on screen. It tells them that their culture is to be enjoyed without them.
Does In the Heights succumb to colorism considering that its fair-skinned cast is telling the story of an Afro-Latino neighborhood? Although the music was catchy and the film spotlighted important topics such as gentrification in powerful ways, we found that In the Heights makes for an uncomfortable and angering movie experience. The lighter skinned leads and diverse dancers behind them acted as a constant reminder of who was deemed worthy enough to lead and who was not. The familiar parts of Latino culture were heartwarming to see, but some felt more aimed toward general Latino culture instead of a Dominican specific neighborhood. A prime example would be the prominence of salsa music and the lack of the merengue or bachata more popular in Dominican culture.
Readers, what do you think? We tried polling our Twitter followers about the movie last week, but the poll only received four responses. If you have an opinion, please share it below in the comment section.
—Lizzett Garcia, Ramona Santana and Sahara Ukaegbu
Recent Stories
