Lin-Manuel Miranda on ‘Latinx’ and ‘the Limits of Defining 32 Different F*cking Countries with One Word’

As the musical visionary behind “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda has emerged as one of the biggest cultural figures of the past decade, and played a major role in the popularization of Latino storytelling.

Or is that Latinx storytelling?In recent years, debates have festered around the best term to describe people from Spanish-speaking countries and territories — including Miranda, the immigrant child of Puerto Rican parents.

But even this wordsmith hasn’t settled on a specific term to describe his background.“What you run up against are the limits of defining 32 different fucking countries with one world,” Miranda said in a recent interview with IndieWire.

“Literally, no word is going to make everyone happy.”In conversation, Miranda often defaults to describing himself and others as Latinos, the most natural term for native Spanish speakers.

However, Miranda noted that the debate over “Latino” predates the existence of “Latinx” and variants thereof.

Read full article