named after them. but what about us latinos? we ve been here in this city, and we ve got every kind of latino. you want your puerto ricans? wepa. you want your cubans? dale! dominicans? que lo que tigre. colombianos? todo bien, todo bien. mexicanos? no manches, guey. and this is where i grew up, too. and when i was a kid, i don t know what the streets were paved with, but it damn sure as hell was not gold. but that didn t stop latinx new yorkers from making big contributions. basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, right from the start, we ve been here making this city great. now, i don t know what new york would be without latinos, but it sure as hell wouldn t smell as good, it wouldn t taste as good, and it definitely wouldn t sound as good. that s right, cause
- you know how they used to say the streets of new york were paved with gold? and then wave after wave of immigrants came here to make their lives better for themselves. the irish, the italians, the jews, the chinese they all got whole neighborhoods named after them. but what about us latinos? we ve been here in this city, and we ve got every kind of latino. you want your puerto ricans? wepa. you want your cubans? dale! dominicans? que lo que tigre. colombianos? todo bien, todo bien. mexicanos? no manches, guey. and this is where i grew up, too. and when i was a kid, i don t know what the streets were paved with, but it damn sure as hell was not gold. but that didn t stop latinx new yorkers from making big contributions. basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, rig
but what about us latinos? we ve been here in this city, and we ve got every kind of latino. you want your puerto ricans? wepa. you want your cubans? dale! dominicans? que lo que tigre. colombianos? todo bien, todo bien. mexicanos? no manches, guey. and this is where i grew up, too. and when i was a kid, i don t know what the streets were paved with, but it damn sure as hell was not gold. but that didn t stop latinx new yorkers from making big contributions. basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, right from the start, we ve been here making this city great. now, i don t know what new york would be without latinos, but it sure as hell wouldn t smell as good, it wouldn t taste as good, and it definitely wouldn t sound as good. that s right, cause salsa music was in
basquiat, rita moreno puerto rican. cardi b dominican. supreme court justice sotomayor, nuyorican from the bx. even the very first non-indigenous person to live and work in the island of manhattan in the 1600s was juan rodriguez, a dominicano. mira eso, right from the start, we ve been here making this city great. now, i don t know what new york would be without latinos, but it sure as hell wouldn t smell as good, it wouldn t taste as good, and it definitely wouldn t sound as good. that s right, cause salsa music was invented here in new york, that s right. [vocalizing along to salsa music] you re welcome. i wanna retrace my steps from queens, where i grew up, all the way to the bright lights of broadway and show you how latinos have contributed to the culture of the greatest city on earf. that s right, i said earf. and you can t tell latino stories without plenty of good food, music, and dancing. so come on, let s go, let s go. come on. [upbeat music] welcome to jackso
[music winds down] back then, it was rare to see any latino faces on stage besides the great raul julia. and he wasn t necessarily playing latin roles. so what chance did a kid like me have of making it to broadway? that s why spaces like the puerto rican traveling theater and pregones theater are crucial for latinx talent to be able to develop their work. the first musical i wrote, kiss my aztec, was workshopped back in 2018 at the puerto rican traveling theater with an amazing ensemble of actors. since its founding in 1967, theater directors like jorge merced have worked non-stop to hold a space for latin art to flourish. - so happy that you re here. you know, you have a connection to this building. it was built in 1888 as a firehouse. it s a historical landmark, and it s the only freestanding latino theater in the broadway district. - and it s because of latin innovation and how we adapt. so we took a firehouse so we could get our own theater.