In The Heights follows Usnavi as he runs his deceased parents’ Washington Heights bodega, but what actually happened to his parents? The new movie musical follows Usnavi and the neighborhood family in the Latinx community of Washington Heights, New York City, New York. In The Heights is adapted from Hamilton writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2008 Broadway musical of the same name, and is a reflection of the neighborhood he grew up around and a way for him to exhibit his Puerto Rican pride.
Anthony Ramos, who originated the roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in Hamilton, stars as Usnavi de la Vega, a 20-something-year-old orphan who runs his family’s bodega with his cousin Sonny and dreams of opening a bar in his homeland of the Dominican Republic. Usnavi is tied to Washington Heights with his desperate love for his neighbor Vanessa and protection over his cousin Sonny, though is preoccupied with leaving New York for the Dominican Republic, seemingly as a way for him to realize his father’s dream and leave a legacy for his family.
Usnavi’s parents, especially his father, and their legacy are important to his dreams and motivations, though not much about them is revealed besides their vague and untimely deaths. Usnavi mentions he came to America with his parents when he was eight years old and Sonny was still an infant, and that Abuela Claudia raised him after his parents died. Before moving to Washington Heights, his father owned a bar on a Dominican Republic beach, which Usnavi later hoped to buy and reinvent. Exactly when and how Usnavi’s parents passed away is never revealed in the film or original musical, though whatever it was took both of their lives at the same time.
In The Heights is similar to West Side Story in focusing on what being a Latinx immigrant in New York City and America means, and the importance of establishing a community of people with a shared history. Usnavi is focused on his legacy as a Dominican Republican immigrant as a source of Latinx pride and maintaining a close connection to his parents, though the course of the film sees him realize he should focus on cementing the Latinx legacy of Washington Heights instead. Similar to Nina leaving Washington Heights to save it, Usnavi has to stay. He wanted to move to the Dominican Republic to secure what he believed to have been his father’s unrealized dream, but helping Sonny and keeping the barrio away from gentrification was a more lasting legacy for Usnavi.
Usnavi’s relationship with his parents still deeply impacts nearly every part of his life, even though they passed when he was really young. By not moving to the Dominican Republic, Usvani almost felt as if he was betraying his parents and their legacy, but Graffiti Pete’s mural of the DR beach in the bodega became a way for Usnavi to memorialize his parents while preserving the new life his parents made for him in Washington Heights. Considering his parents named him Usnavi after mispronouncing “U.S. Navy” when first visiting the United States, In The Heights suggests it may have always been their plan for Usnavi to remain in America.
