#17 - In the Heights Ranking

Top 15 is coming closer.

Ironically, at this point, things have gotten a bit easier; but let's wait for top 5 to see if I still feel the same.
So, number 17 on this list is "No Me Diga". Yeah, your favorite salon ladies have some chisme.

As it happens in almost every musical, but surely in every single Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, this song is the comedy relief, despite the fact that Nina reveals to Daniela (not "Daniella", oh my God), Carla and Vanessa that she has dropped out of college. These news aren't as impactful for us as they are for the women.

If you've ever been to a Latinx owned salon anywhere in the world, you'll know that this song is an incredibly accurate portrayal. The salon ladies always know EVERYTHING. Everything, I tell you.

But let's get at the analysis then.

DANIELA:

Gorgeous!

CARLA:

¡Linda!

CARLA/DANIELA:

Tell me something I don’t know!

VANESSA:

¡Vieja!

DANIELA:

¡Sucia!

CARLA:

¡Cabrona!

CARLA/VANESSA/DANIELA:

Tell me something I don’t know!

The first two lines are about Nina; the next three are one for each of the salón ladies.

(Protip: Don't call anyone "vieja", "sucia" or "cabrona" if you're not at that level of friendship yet.)

DANIELA:

Bueno

You didn’t hear it from me!

But some little birdie told me

Usnavi had sex with Yolanda!

NINA/CARLA:

¡No me diga!

VANESSA:

Ay, no! He’d never go out with a skank like that!

Please tell me you’re joking!

DANIELA:

Okay!

Just wanted to see what you’d say!

"You didn't hear it from me"? Sure, Dani. Everyone would know it was you the one who said it, come on. Also, the "some little birdie told me" it's obviously to quote a reliable source, which is what every woman with a chisme would probably say. 

Here, Yolanda is mentioned for the first time,and the second time being in "The Club". This is the thing: Vanessa knows Yolanda and is already jealous of her. So at the club, when Usnavi is dancing with her, she has a reason to get extra jealous at the woman who's supposed to be not the type for him. 

As if we needed another hint about the fact that Vanessa likes Usnavi. She likes him because he's dorky and kind, unlike the rest of the men in the neighbourhood; but if he "had sex with Yolanda", then maybe he wasn't what Vanessa thought he was. 

DANIELA:

So, Nina, I hear you been talking to Benny.

NINA:

And what do you hear?

DANIELA:

I hear plenty!

They say he’s got quite a big… taxi!

This right here is the reason why I actually decided to rank this song a bit higher than I had intended at first. You don't get a joke like this all the time, and it does give the show a shakesperean tone.

Remember I said that the salon ladies know everything?

NINA:

Okay! I don’t wanna know where you heard all that!

CARLA:

I don’t think I know what you mean…

DANIELA:

Carla! He’s packing a stretch limousine!

Despite Carla being around Daniela all the time, she still doesn't get everything. 

And involutarily, she contributes to the joke. 

CARLA:

Long as he keeps it clean!

NINA/VANESSA/DANIELA:

¡Ay, Dios mio!

I quote a genius.com annotation: "Carla, bless her, accidentally continues the double entendre. She’s thinking about a clean car, while the rest of us are stuck thinking about STIs." 

Go figure.

DANIELA:

Nina, seriously, we knew you’d be the one to make it out!

VANESSA:

I bet you impressed them all out west;

You were always the best, no doubt!

CARLA:

We want front row seats to your graduation—

DANIELA:

They’ll call your name—

DANIELA/CARLA/VANESSA:

And we’ll scream and shout!

NINA, spoken:

You guys, I dropped out.​

DANIELA/CARLA/VANESSA, spoken:

¡No me diga!

NINA, spoken:

I should go.​

Nina has gone off to the salón to see the ladies, and of course they would bring the subject up. Everyone is proud of Nina's success, even though she sees that pride as a source of stress for her, which adds even more to the disappointment she already felt. 

DANIELA, spoken:

That’s a shitty piece of news.​

CARLA, spoken:

That girl never quit anything.​

VANESSA, spoken:

What the hell happened?

DANIELA:

I don’t know…

DANIELA/CARLA:

I don’t know

DANIELA:

I don’t know...

CARLA/VANESSA:

Tell me something I don’t know!

ALL:

¿Qué sé yo?

The ladies are confused, although they're not disappointed. They just wanna know what happened, and then just give up.

It's unexpected; everyone already had a plan made for Nina and she couldn't make it. 

NOTE: "Shitty"? "Cheery"? "Chiddy"? Discuss.

-A.

#18 - In the Heights Ranking

We've been through "Atención", "The Club", "Benny's Dispatch", "Hundreds of Stories" and "Alabanza".  It took me a while to figure everything out but I finally finished putting everything in order.
Number 18 is "Champagne".

Here, the rhymes are not the most important thing, but the message. In fact, "Champagne" is more of a musicalized dialogue rather than a song.

VANESSA:

So I got you a present

I went downtown to get it

Doing anything tonight?

USNAVI:

Cleaning.

VANESSA:

Done for the day

USNAVI:

No way

VANESSA:

‘Cuz we got a date

USNAVI:

Okay—

VANESSA:

Before you board that plane

I owe you a bottle of cold champagne.

This song mirrors two of the interactions between Usnavi and Vanessa during the show. Here we can see elements from "In the Heights" and "UIt Won't be Long Now". Now is Vanessa the one who asks if he is doing "anything tonight" and pays the bet she had with him, which is brought up in the first number of the show. Also, the "no way" is said in a similar way as Vanessa says "okay" during "In the Heights".

USNAVI:

I don’t know if we have coffee cups

Or plastic cups, I think Sonny has the cups—

VANESSA:

Tonight we’re drinking straight from the bottle. 

From what we know, Vanessa was usually oblivious to the fact that Usnavi was trying to flirt with her. Now he's the one who doesn't realize it or is trying to dismiss it; most likely the first one. 

This "we're drinking straight from the bottle" means two things here. They literally are going to have to drink straight from the bottle because the cups are gone. But it's also a metaphor for seizing life while they can. 

Drinking champagne is a celebration, and the act of not even waiting to pour some in a cup means that you're eager to do it. Vanessa knows they don't have much time left together, so she wants to enjoy it as much as possible. 

VANESSA:

Before we both leave town!

Before the corner changes and the signs are taken down

Let’s walk around the neighborhood and say our goodbyes

Usnavi, are you alright?

USNAVI:

I’m fine, I’m tryn’a open this champagne

See the twisty thing is broken

But I’m gonna open this damn champagne!

Usnavi always gets overly talkative and nervous whenever Vanessa is around, but right now he's quiet, and focusing his attention on the damn champagne instead of focusing on her. The girl of his dreams is asking him on a date and this guy is entitled to open the bottle. 

This could be him trying to change the subject and avoid talking about how he's about to leave. 

USNAVI:

I mean you went to all this trouble to get us a little bubbly—

VANESSA:

And it’s gonna be okay

USNAVI:

I’m sorry, it’s been a long day

VANESSA:

You oughta stay

USNAVI:

What?

VANESSA:

You can use that money to fix this place

USNAVI:

Ha ha, very funny

VANESSA:

And it’s not like Sonny’s got role models—

USNAVI:

Role models?

VANESSA:

Stepping up to the plate—

USNAVI:

Yo, what are you talking about?

VANESSA:

I’m just saying, I think your vacation can wait—

USNAVI:

Vacation? Vanessa, you’re leaving too—

VANESSA:

I’m going down to West Fourth Street; you can take the A—

USNAVI:

What are you trying to say?

VANESSA:

You’re leaving the country, and we’re never gonna see you again—

USNAVI:

What are you trying to say?

VANESSA:

You get everyone addicted to your coffee then off you go

USNAVI:

Vanessa, I don’t know why you’re mad at me

VANESSA:

I wish I was mad—

I’m just too late.

This bit is an argument, as it is. However, Vanessa never says "I'm going to miss you". She mentions Sonny, and the rest of the neighbourhood who are going to miss Usnavi, but it's never her. Here's where the subtext lies. Because in "96,000" Vanessa dreams of leaving and she even says "you'll never see me again", but now she has an issue. During "96,000", everyone was being hypothetical, just saying what they would do if they won the lotto. But now Usnavi has some of the lotto money and it's not so hypothetical anymore. 

Also, she doesn't say "I'm never gonna see you again", she says "we're". She's been dropping hints and Usnavi doesn't get it until she kisses him. 

She wishes she was mad because it would probably be easier for her to accept his departure instead of trying to make him stay. 

All throughout the show, Vanessa has been either ignoring or hiding her feelings for Usnavi and now she knows it's too late. (Sad.)

-A.

#19 - In the Heights Ranking

I know I said it last time, but this is honestly getting harder and harder with each song, so it took me a few days to figure all of this out. But I finally got it, so I'm not stopping.
That's how entitled I am.

Get your tissues ready, because my pick for number 19 is "Alabanza".

Usnavi begins the song, and he's not rapping now; yes, it's that sad.
Not only this song is placed right after "Carnaval del Barrio", which makes this piece of news fall even heavier on us. It's an interesting choice, since Abuela's death was as unexpected for them as it was for us. Or was it?
We've seen some pieces of foreshadowing in previous songs, but they're rather hard to catch. It's not until this happens that we realize what they all meant. So it's not just about sadness, it's about despair and lack of acceptance, perhaps even guilt. Because we knew, so there was definitely something to be done, that didn't happen, and it led to this.
Usnavi sure feels like it.

USNAVI:

[...]They said

A combination of the stress and the heat…

Why she never took her medicine, I’ll never understand[...]

These lines show Usnavi's conmotion about this. He doesn't even finish his first sentence, and he goes through this moment of asking himself "why?" 

USNAVI:

Abuela Claudia had simple pleasures,

She sang the praises of things we ignore:

Glass Coke bottles, bread crumbs, a sky full of stars[...]

From "Paciencia y Fe" we know that Abuela Claudia would buy a loaf of bread everyday to feed the birds, and that was one of her biggest hobbies, if you will. But it also brought her a lot of joy, and I might be making a bold statement here, but she was probably the only one who was completely happy in the neigbourhood. 

About the glass Coke bottles, here's a bit of history: Coke was sold in glass bottles before moving to plastic and aluminium cans. There was a Coke blottling plant in Cuba, which opened in 1906. According to the show, Abuela Claudia emigrated to the US with her mother in 1943, so she definitely grew up drinking from those kind of Coke bottles. 

USNAVI:

She cherished these things, she’d say: “Alabanza.”

Alabanza means to raise this

Thing to God’s face

And to sing, quite literally: “Praise to this.”

It would have been easy to just say: "She cherished these things, she’d say: 'Alabanza'", and then just add "which means 'Praise to this'" , and add some rhyme. But here we see that the word in Spanish and the word in English fit exactly at the beginning and the end of this stanza, which gives the feeling of enclosure. It's a cycle ending. 

USNAVI:

When she was here, the path was clear,

And she was just here, she was just here…

Which path? The path Abuela and Usnavi were supposed to go through just to get to Dominican Republic and fulfill his dream. Now that Abuela is gone, the plan doesn't sound that appealing anymore. 

And then he just can't handle it and he can't even finish the sentence. 

NINA:

Alabanza.

Alabanza a doña Claudia, señor,

Alabanza, alabanza.

Alabanza.

Alabanza a doña Claudia, señor,

Alabanza, alabanza.

From what we see in the show, the second closest person to Abuela Claudia was Nina. So she takes the eulogy from where Usnavi left it and continues with a song of praise. 

Now, we can't ignore how much influence RENT had on In the Heights. They both are musicals about the struggles of minority groups living in specific areas in New York. 

In RENT, the "heart of the group" (Angel) dies, and everyone comes together to mourn. The same thing happens here, and everyone joins into the song as they leave candles outside Abuela's house. 

USNAVI:

Alabanza.

Now listen; I might be reading too much into it when I say that this song shows the progression of life. Stay with me.

When Nina comes in with the first "Alabanza", it starts siently. Then, more people start to join in, and even the music gets more complex. And out of a sudden, everything ends and Usnavi finished with a quiet voice, which feels kind of out of place. See where I'm going with this?

The birth is when Nina starts, and then life goes on, reaches its peak point, and then there's a pause out of nowhere, which is death. 

Yeah, it's sad as fuck. 

But hey, this is what you signed for. 

What? Did you think it was a lighthearted musical about Latino people? 

Well, yeah, kind of. But there's also a lot of sadness and pain hidden underneath. So you pretty much signed up for this too. Face the consequences.

-A.