Rise up: Nuyorican resistance and transcultural aesthetics in Hamilton

Based on author and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda’s cultural background as a New York-born Puerto Rican (i.e. Nuyorican) artist, this article develops a reading of Hamilton as a transcultural Nuyorican text. As part of this process, the article contextualizes Hamilton in relationship to the United States’ history of colonialism in Puerto Rico, showing how this history has informed the representation of Puerto Rican cultural identity on Broadway and in the US popular consciousness as subordinate to and distinct from hegemonic US nationalism. By analysing Miranda’s deployment of Broadway musical conventions alongside Nuyorican cultural aesthetics, the article argues for a reading of Hamilton as a site of resistance against the imperialist appropriation and subjugation of Puerto Ricans and Puerto Rican culture on Broadway.