To start off Hispanic Heritage Month, I decided to watch the movie In the Heights. This movie, to me, showed the importance of family, culture, and chasing dreams.
This movie is about a number of people from the same community, The Heights, in Upper Manhattan. This is a heavily Hispanic and Latino neighborhood.
Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) is the main character, and he owns a small shop, the bodega, where the whole community comes to shop. Usnavi has a dream or a sueñito (little dream), as he likes to call it. He dreams of leaving New York, returning to the Dominican Republic to reopen his father’s beach bar; his father passed away earlier in his life.
Usnavi has a crush on Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), whose dream is to be a fashion designer. She works in a local beauty spa that is getting shut down and moving its location to the Bronx because it is cheaper.
Another main character is Nina (Leslie Grace); she is someone whose community is very proud of. She went to Stanford, but when she returned to the Heights after her first year, she knew she wasn’t going back, but her community didn’t. She slowly let everyone know, including her father. Her father desperately wanted her to go back, so he sold his business in order to afford it. But later found out that Nina was racially discriminated against, and that’s the real reason that she didn’t want to go back.
There are a lot of other characters that make this movie come alive; these are just the main ones that stuck out to me.
Throughout the movie, they are constantly singing and dancing with each other, showing their strong sense of culture and community.
By the end of the movie, Usnavi and Vanessa were happily in love and even had their own daughter. Both of their dreams came true, together. Even though Usnavi didn’t move back to the Dominican Republic, he built his sueñito in the Heights. He opened his store back up and sold Vanessa’s clothes in there. He realized his dream was right where he was, continuing the legacy of his father and abuela from Manhattan.
I would strongly recommend this movie to anyone. It shows the true meaning of a tight-knit family or community. Personally, I would rate this movie five stars; it highlights the importance of working towards your dreams and shows what Hispanic culture is all about.