{"id":60964,"date":"2021-06-21T02:06:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T02:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=60964"},"modified":"2021-06-22T21:04:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T21:04:58","slug":"how-in-the-heights-casting-focused-a-wider-problem-of-afro-latino-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=60964","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018In the Heights\u2019 Casting Focused a Wider Problem of Afro-Latino Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"

How \u2018In the Heights\u2019 Casting Focused a Wider Problem of Afro-Latino Representation<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Rolling Stone<\/a>
2021-06-16<\/p>\n

Andrea Marks<\/strong><\/a>, Research Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
MELISSA BARRERA<\/a> (center) as Vanessa in Warner Bros. Pictures\u2019 \u201cIN THE HEIGHTS<\/a>\u201d
Macall Polay\/Warner Bros<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A prevalence of light-skinned actors demonstrates Hollywood\u2019s<\/a> \u2014 and Latin America\u2019s<\/a> \u2014 history of colorism<\/em><\/p>\n

When the musical In the Heights<\/em><\/a> debuted in 2008, it was considered a triumph of Latin American story-telling. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda<\/a>, who is of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent, it brought the barrio<\/a> to Broadway and centered Latino immigrants building a community in New York<\/a> \u201cnorth of 96th street\u201d so their children could chase the American Dream<\/a>. The plot is centered around Usnavi (originally played by Miranda himself), the son of Dominican immigrants, who runs the family bodega but dreams of something bigger.<\/p>\n

The movie version of the Tony Award<\/a>\u2013winning show hit theaters and HBO Max<\/a> last week to largely positive reviews and praise for its three-dimensional portrayals of Latin-American characters, not to mention its ambitious full-cast musical numbers. A majority-Latino cast carries the film, starring actors like Anthony Ramos<\/a>, a star of Miranda\u2019s other Broadway<\/a> blockbuster, Hamilton<\/em><\/a>, who is of Puerto Rican descent, playing Usnavi; Mexican TV actress Melissa Barrera<\/a>; and Bronx<\/a>-born bachata<\/a> singer Leslie Grace<\/a>, who is of Dominican descent. At the same time, many viewers have expressed disappointment at a lack of Afro-Latino<\/a> representation in the cast, especially among lead characters…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prevalence of light-skinned actors demonstrates Hollywood\u2019s \u2014 and Latin America\u2019s \u2014 history of colorism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8413,14646,8,20],"tags":[31527,31540,240,9107,18934,23408,31543,31541,31528,31542,28842,23949,23950,2113,5161,2112],"class_list":["post-60964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-communications","category-latino","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-andrea-marks","tag-anthony-ramos","tag-colorism","tag-ed-morales","tag-felice-leon","tag-janel-martinez","tag-jon-chu","tag-leslie-grace","tag-lin-manuel-miranda","tag-melissa-barrera","tag-natasha-alford","tag-rolling-stone","tag-rolling-stone-magazine","tag-tanya-hernandez","tag-tanya-k-hernandez","tag-tanya-kateri-hernandez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60981,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60964\/revisions\/60981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}