Immigrants: they get the job done
Lin-Manuel Miranda doesn’t just write musicals about immigrants, he supports them too.

You may have heard about the Broadway musical, Hamilton. The creator and man that plays main character, Alexander Hamilton, is Lin-Manuel Miranda. He is also known for his other Broadway musical In The Heights, and his work in Moana, Bring It On, and the new Mary Poppins movie coming out in 2018.
While writing the musical Hamilton, Lin was reminded of his father. Like Hamilton, Lin’s father, Luis A. Miranda, Jr., is an immigrant from Puerto Rico. Although Hamilton was not from Puerto Rico he was still an immigrant like Luis. In an interview with Playbill Lin reveals that Luis wrote Lin a letter saying, “when I was 17, I was a manager at the Sears in Puerto Rico, and I basically threw it all away to go to New York, [and] I didn’t speak a lot of English.” This was in order to prove that Luis couldn’t tell Lin that dropping everything to focus on writing wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Like Hamilton, Luis gave up everything to move to another country in hopes for a better life. Luis has been a big inspiration for Lin growing up.

Not only did Lin-Manuel write an entire musical about an immigrant, but he is also a big supporter of immigrant foundations. He recently released a video for the song Immigrants (We Get the Job Done) from The Hamilton Mixtape, an album of songs from the musical covered by celebrities. This is not the only time celebrities have been covering Hamilton’s songs though.
There is a challenge on Twitter right now that includes singing a song from Hamilton. Celebrities are uploading a video of themselves singing their favorite Hamilton song and then tagging others to do the same. The challenge was kicked off by Steph Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry. Through this challenge people are also donating money and all proceeds to will be given to The Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition. This Coalition is apart of the Hispanic Federation. The Hispanic Federation was founded by Lin’s father, Luis. Luis was also the former President of the Federation.
In an interview with NBC Lin-Manuel Miranda says, “The goal is to raise money for them so they continue their work with immigrants.” Through the Coalition organizations such as the National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON), the Tahirih Justice Center, and United We Dream are able to provide immigrants and refugees with legal agents and social services. In total there are twelve organizations working with the Hispanic Federation.

Through this challenge Lin is able to work towards his passion of helping immigrants and seeing people’s passion through his work. Lin gained this passion through his father and his work. His father founded the Hispanic Federation almost 30 years ago, when Lin was just a child. Lin has grown up with the ideals to help minorities. It’s no wonder he grew up to be so passionate about minorities that he wrote a musical about an immigrant.
Lin takes his passion for minorities to another level with Hamilton. The only white cast member is King George III. Every other single character is some sort of person of color. Many people were upset and calling reverse racism when the producers of Hamilton called for non-white performers to audition for roles. This was not reverse racism though it was a statement. White founding fathers are being played by non-white people. Lin is giving people of color the chance to be huge stars on Broadway instead of all of the white faces that usually dominate Broadway shows.

Alexander Hamilton was an important immigrant in American history. Without him our country would not be the same. Hamilton was a big advocate and one of the founders of the first national bank. Hamilton was also one of the founders of the Cutter Service, which was still used almost 200 years later in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although Alexander Hamilton was a huge influence on our country, he was not given a monument until over 200 years past Hamilton’s death.

Lin-Manuel was able to use his musical talents to support immigrants. The entire musical, Hamilton, is about an immigrant who came from nothing to become something in America. Without this immigrant America would be a lot different. Lin is supporting these immigrants today because he knows that America needs them to thrive. He knows that America needed his dad to thrive. Lin continues to pursue his passion to help immigrants in America any way that he can.

