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Rita Moreno defends Lin-Manuel Miranda: 'You can never do right, it seems'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 6/16/21

Rita Moreno was the first Latina to earn an Oscar for her iconic West Side Story role as Anita in 1961, and she is the first Latina to become an EGOT winner.

In other words, the 89-year-old pioneer is an authority on the struggle for Latinx representation in Hollywood.

Moreno stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss her acclaimed documentary Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It, but she had something else on her mind.

"Can we talk for a second about that criticism about Lin-Manuel Miranda?" she asked Colbert, subsequently noting that Miranda served as executive producer for her documentary. "That really upsets me. Did you see that?"

Colbert then explained that Miranda has received online backlash for the absence of Afro-Latinx representation in leading roles for In The Heights, the Jon M. Chu-directed film adaptation of Miranda's Tony Award-winning musical that hit theaters and HBO Max last week.

Moreno continued:

"I mean, it's like you can never do right, it seems. This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn't do it! I mean, I would love to say I did, but I couldn't. Lin-Manuel has done that really single-handedly, and I'm thrilled to pieces.
[...]

"I'm simply saying, can't you just wait a while and leave it alone? There's a lot of people who are Puertorriqueno, who are also from Guatemala, who are dark and who are also fair. We are all colors in Puerto Rico, and this is how it is. It would be so nice if they wouldn't have come up with that and left it alone just for now. They're really attacking the wrong person."

Miranda acknowledged the criticism Monday and held himself "accountable for our shortcomings":

-LMM pic.twitter.com/CHfdLgFUz3
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) June 14, 2021

Anthony Ramos, who plays the lead role of bodega owner Usnavi dreaming of leaving Washington Heights for his native Dominican Republic (a role Miranda originally wrote for himself and portrayed on Broadway), as been crediting In The Heights as the first time he's felt represented.

"As a kid, growing up, I never had a movie like this to watch," the 29-year-old told Jimmy Fallon earlier this month. "I never seen this Latino explosion on a screen like this."

Ramos also told Good Morning America that seeing In The Heights during his last semester of drama school was the first time he saw himself on stage:

"I sat there, and I was feeling pretty discouraged because there weren't a lot of shows, especially for Latinos, and for me—I was the kind of person that I would walk into a room, and I could just see the confused look on these casting directors' faces. They're like, 'What do we do with this guy? We don't know what to do with this guy. ... But then I sat and watched In The Heights, and it just gave me this hope. Like, wow, these people look like me. They sound like me. They feel familiar."

Vox put together an exhaustive 22-year history of In The Heights here, and you can watch the trailer below.