Instead, she is the cheerleader and caretaker for everyone in the film’s vivid barrio.
Abuela means “grandma,” although Abuela Claudia is no one’s relative by blood. Her singing is potent and sorrowful, with a hint of desperation in every word her movements are tender. She is portrayed by Olga Merediz, the same remarkable Cuban American actor who played the role in the Broadway version of the musical, created by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes. Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), the entrepreneurial 20-something owner of a corner bodega eager to return to his childhood home in the Dominican Republic, narrates their triumphs and tribulations.īut one character who’s key to understanding In The Heights is not a young adult with bold plans: Abuela Claudia is the community matriarch and emotional lighthouse of the film. There’s Nina (played by Leslie Grace), a student back from Stanford University who is afraid of betraying her values the businesswoman Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega), who has been priced out of her storefront Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), a fashion visionary trying and failing to lease a downtown apartment. They form an ensemble cast of working-class Latino characters-immigrants and American-born-chasing far-fetched but not entirely implausible sueñitos, or “little dreams.” Its focus stays mostly on some dreamers (and a “Dreamer”) living in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights. Chu’s Hollywood adaptation of the groundbreaking Broadway musical, is ostensibly a tale about the aspirational young. This article contains spoilers for In the Heights.