How Lin-Manuel Miranda And Quiara Alegría Hudes Assert Dignity With 'In The Heights'

Before there was Hamilton, there was In the Heights.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's exploration of the American dream started in his own hometown of Manhattan — which holds the first chapter in many American stories, he says. Specifically, Miranda's first Tony-winning musical takes place in the immigrant neighborhood of Washington Heights.

"I think there's lots of metaphors for the fact that this has always been an immigrant neighborhood," Miranda says. "We live on a mountain in a city."

Both Miranda and screenwriter Quiara Alegría Hudes are children of Puerto Rican migrants. They translated their personal relationships with home and identity to the characters in In the Heights.

Finishing college or even leaving has big aspirations. When main character Usnavi de la Vega, played by Anthony Ramos, readies his bodega for service in the morning, he ushers his neighbors into yet another day of working toward their dreams in America.