Luis Miranda Jr. reflects on giving, the arts and his son Lin-Manuel in new memoir ‘Relentless’

Luis A. Miranda Jr. was just 19 years old when he arrived in New York from a small town in Puerto Rico, a broke doctoral student in desperate need of a job.

It was 1974 – decades before “Hamilton,” the Tony Award-winning musical created by her son Lin-Manuel, made a splash and brought her family international recognition and unexpected fortune – when a Nonprofit organization focused on Puerto Rican youth hired Miranda as a researcher. in his office a few blocks from the Empire State Building.

“You can imagine the symbolism,” Miranda told the Associated Press. “A job with the Empire State Building in the background? I felt like Debbie Reynolds in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

Miranda planned to complete her doctorate in clinical psychology and return to Puerto Rico. He was an ardent independence activist, determined to help his country emerge from the shadow of American colonialism.

But this work opened his eyes to the different challenges facing the Puerto Rican diaspora. They lived in substandard housing. Their children did not have access to a good education. Like other Latino groups, they have faced inequality and lack of representation. These questions became the questions that interested him the most.

“The Empire State Building was the symbol of the great city,” Miranda said. “But El Barrio, the South Bronx, our communities were the places I wanted to devote my energy to supporting.”

Miranda did not complete her doctorate. Instead, he embarked on a career of community activism, political organizing and philanthropic giving — a transformation he chronicles in his new memoir, “Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit that Is Transforming America,” published May 7.

Although he has spent most of his career in politics, Miranda spoke to the Associated Press about how he and his family have also been dedicated to helping Latino communities thrive through donations. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

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Q: Your parents were very involved in their community. How has their example influenced your own dedication to service?

A: We lived in a small town, Vega Alta. There were literally six streets. We had no money. We couldn’t do what philanthropy does in the United States. But we had human capital and we used our human capital to help others.

Every Thursday, my father went to a Rotary Club meeting. They talked about the good deeds they were going to do for the city. We were always involved in the Red Cross, and whenever a hurricane or something like that hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, my dad was a leader in making sure we sent things.

What I learned from making a little more money and being able to be a philanthropist is that you also have to give human capital. Getting involved with the organization takes a lot more work, but it’s different than when you just donate money. I learned this from my parents.

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Q: What guides your family’s decision to share resources?

A: At the Miranda Family Fund, we always try to be the first to give money. Money makes money, so we want to make sure we’re part of that and helping sell the story.

We are working with the People’s Theater Project on the dream of having the first off-Broadway theater in Washington Heights. You can’t imagine how many people have said to me: “It’s really a big challenge, we don’t have the audience.” » It becomes a chicken and egg situation, because if you don’t have space, how do you attract an audience?

So we invested the first million dollars. Then I went to New York-Presbyterian and said, “You have to match us, because you are the employer of this community.” And then all of a sudden all the foundations come in and we raise $20 million to create a real theater.

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Q: Why have the arts been such a priority in your family’s giving?

A: The arts have changed our lives. We believe it not only nourishes your heart and soul, but is also a door to opportunity.

If my son hadn’t created “Hamilton” and if my wife and I hadn’t taken the risk of mortgaging our house to invest in “Hamilton,” the Mirandas would still have been great people using a lot of their money. their human capital to help. But the arts have changed our fortunes.

The arts are therefore a path to prosperity, but to achieve this, we must seize opportunities. And to have opportunities, someone has to invest. We invest in arts organizations that open doors, as well as artistic people who have talent and want a chance.

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Q: Helping Puerto Rico recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria must have seemed like a monumental task. How did you approach it?

A: We did what we do best through the Hispanic Federation, which was to use a network of non-profit organizations to help us. The nonprofit sector in Puerto Rico already existed, with real leaders and a vision, but it was very weak. So we said, “Okay, we know how to strengthen existing organizations and we know how to advance their development.” »

We created the Flamboyan Arts Fund, again, not ourselves. A donor contacted us, he already had a foundation in Puerto Rico. So we haven’t spent a cent to create new systems. There are organizations in Puerto Rico that are part of the arts ecosystem and need to be developed. So we invested in it. We brought “Hamilton” to Puerto Rico and raised $15 million for the Flamboyan Arts Fund.

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Q: You write about how ordinary people also played a key role in mobilizing aid for Puerto Rico.

A: This was the most difficult but most rewarding chapter to write. I remember going to the Hispanic Federation one day. José Calderón, the president, opened a safe and showed me 500 donation letters they had received that day. They had to recruit volunteers just to help open the envelopes.

The children would send a $10 bill to Hamilton in honor of Lin-Manuel. Other people sent large checks. Even the Facebook group “Fans de Lin-Manuel” mobilized as if there was no tomorrow.

They were normal people from everywhere. Those who were emotionally invested, as the diaspora was, and those who were connected, sometimes peripherally, because they loved “Hamilton” and they loved Lin-Manuel, or just because they saw a real need and simply came to the rescue.

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Q: Any final thoughts on giving?

A: You have to give, and you have to give until it hurts. When our children were growing up, if we gave $250, we suffered. We weren’t going to go hungry, but if Lucecita or Lin-Manuel needed shoes or new things, that didn’t happen because we were donating $250 to a neighborhood organization.

I hope my children have learned this heritage and that it becomes a pursuit in their lives and in how they teach their children to give to people who care about their neighbors. This is what I hope future generations of Mirandas continue to do.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support from the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.