What is community

What is community? Is community an essential aspect of what it means to be human? Could you and I live without a community? Does community exist now in our modern times? And if so, how should we assess what it means to be part of a community?

The musical In the Heights, directed by Jon M. Chu, ushers the spectator to the forefront of the prominent Hispanic community of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, New York City.

¿QUÉ QUIERE DECIR Sueñito?

As the musical begins, the Spanish worded question appears on the black screen, simultaneously, a child’s voice in the background asks the same question in English: “what does Sueñito mean?” As it emerges in the eyes of the spectator, the question signifies the theme of the musical.

“Sueñito? It means ‘little dream.” The man behind the voice, Usnavi, played by Anthony Ramos.

In the Heights begins with the main character, Usnavi, telling a story to a group of kids gathered on the patio of a bar near a tropical shoreline. As Usnavi recites his story, like the kids in the early scene of the musical, the audience is invited to the patio to listen.

“Once upon a time, in a faraway land called Nueva York, en un barrio called Washington Heights…. The streets were made of music.”

Now, returning to the intro paragraph question, what is community? After watching In the Heights, the sensational and exuberant musical, I was inspired to write this. I contemplated the significance of community as it relates to human life. In the Heights is filled with communal belonging; furthermore, a sense of cohesion. Every person en un barrio of Washington Heights not only grapples with similar issues as his/her neighbor but shares the same Sueñito.

Community, as we all know, is a group of individuals connected by one or more attributes. Leonard Swidler takes this a slight further in his journal, Where in the World Are We Going? He writes, “if a baby were fed and kept warm and clean but never talked to, never heard human speech, it would never dawn on her or him that there were such things as words…. Thus, the human person could not become fully human without the community…. The purpose of human communities is to increasingly humanize all participants.”

Watching In the Heights, we recognize the gravity of community and cohesion. Moreover, the musical endeavors to foreground the significance of cultural identity. For instance, the flags from various Spanish-speaking countries; the colors — white, red, and blue — in several scenes signifying the home country of Usnavi, Dominican Republic.

In the Heights, in a way, reminded me of early Spike Lee films. Lee aspired to incorporate various cultures and music to place his audience at the center and allow the audience to feel what it means to belong in a marginalized group. Hence, we recognize this In the Heights.

The spectator is brought along and placed at the center of the diverse community of Washington Heights. Now he/she is introduced to the daily struggles and triumphs of the community — a father wrestling with college tuition, a daughter struggling to find community in college, an undocumented cousin, endless debts, and bills to be paid; however, despite all of this, the community remains jubilant.

From the vision of Jon M. Chu and Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights presents powerful minority stories and diversity to the screen. Any minority in the U.S. can resonate with the musical.

As we watch, we are reminded of the power of community, cultural identity, and cohesion. We are reminded despite our setbacks, we can always have a fiesta.

We are reminded: “we are not powerless. We are powerful.”