Lindsay Ellis is generally worth listening to, but I especially liked this because the comparison she made between Rowling and Card hits home for me. It was shocking to learn about his political views and activities after reading Speaker for the Dead, and it took me some time to come to the conclusion that while he was alive, I could not, in good conscience, support him financially or socially.

This brings me to Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Hamilton.

First, I want to be clear: based on what I know about Miranda, I do not think he belongs in the same category as Rowling and Card. He seems to have a general liberal desire for the world to get better, he’s on the right side on most things, and I’m aware of no bigotry on his part. That said, he has also not been and entirely benign and positive influence in the world specifically when it comes to Puerto Rico, and I think that’s worth paying attention to.

why puerto ricans don’t claim lin-manuel miranda and why you shouldn’t support him [thread🧵]:

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

created and signed the promesa bill. promesa imposed a fiscal oversight and management board (fomb). fomb was made up of unelected officials with too much power and jurisdiction over the archipielago (including policy making), whose sole job was to reduce the debt (2/14)

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

like health, infrastructure, natural reserves, pensions and eventually the closing of 200 schools across the archipiélago. (4/14)

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

this resulted in him displacing the art students whose classroom was, for the most part, that same space. even before this, students of the university had made clear that they weren’t in agreement with lin hosting hamilton at the university. (6/14)

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

there’s an article that describes it better than i ever could: “There’s something about the image of planting a flag that doesn’t sit right with colonized people. Something about tourism as recovery (and in Puerto Rico’s case, as a decades-long colonial venture). + (8/14)

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

at that time, non-teaching unions were planning to go on strike. before this, they sent a letter to lin warning him of ways the production could be affected by the strikes. (10/14)

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

for someone whose only personality trait is based on a bad stereotype of puerto ricans, he sure did not show solidarity with the puerto rican struggle. (12/14)

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

lin-manuel miranda is a rich, white passing, diáspora puerto rican who has yet to live the realities of us colonialism. his “puertorriqueñidad” has been based on exploiting archipiélago puerto ricans for his own gain and savior image. (14/14)

— lizdanelly ☭ 🇵🇷 (@lxzdanelly) July 4, 2020

I like Hamilton. I really do. I love the music and the writing, and its ability to make me feel feelings. I also think it’s worth noting the hard work and skill of the many people who created that musical other than the author, and I don’t blame them for his actions any more than I blame the cast of the Harry Potter movies for Rowling’s bigotry.

Just as Miranda has used the wealth, power, and fame he got from Hamilton, and his earlier hit “In The Heights”, I think it’s important to use the spotlight that’s currently on him and his work to also highlight the ongoing damage of colonialism. This isn’t just to shame Miranda, or to get him to personally change how he thinks about and uses his power. It’s nearly certain that he will never read this blog post, though I hope he has read @lxzdanelly‘s twitter thread, and it would be nice if he would listen to his critics in Puerto Rico and change his behavior accordingly.

My purpose, in writing this, is to play some small part in using Hamilton to draw more attention to the situation in Puerto Rico, and the role Miranda has played in it. As we keep seeing, the problems of people with little wealth or power rarely make it into corporate news. The massive Black Lives Matter uprising in the United States hasn’t stopped, but with a decrease in showy property damage, and the media’s propensity to lose interest in ongoing events, the coverage has dropped off in a big way.

Puerto Rico got a lot of attention when it was hit by Hurricane Maria, but while those troubles, and the thousands of needless deaths continued, the attention paid to them by the United States, as a body, faded far too quickly.

It has also been noted – and bears repeating – that Hamilton tells a story about a chapter in American history, while making no mention whatsoever of the people indigenous to this continent, who were forced out their homes to “set the stage” for the events fictionalized in Miranda’s play. Reality is messy and complex, and it’s not possible to capture every nuance of history in a single work, but this is a glaring omission, particularly given the thought that went into the racial dynamics of how the story was told.

The problems faced by Puerto Ricans, and by Native Americans, are likely to continue for as long as neoliberalism holds sway in the United States and around the world. The path to a more just world is long, shifting, and hard to see at times, but raising awareness of perspectives and commentary like this twitter thread seems to be an important part of the process.

I can’t give a comprehensive list of places to learn about these issues, and I won’t try. There are some links to follow in this post, and you could do worse than checking out this article on neoliberalism and Puerto Rico from Solidarity.

While you’re checking things out, I highly recommend you listen to this Native America Calling episode from April of 2019 on socialism and capitalism.

And finally, I can’t afford not to make my regular plug for myself. If you want to support this blog, and my ability to keep a roof over my head and food on my plate, please consider signing up to be a patron at patreon.com/oceanoxia, at whatever rate you feel you can afford.