Lin-Manuel Miranda joins Texas AG challenger Rochelle Garza at Houston reproductive rights event

Listen to the cast recording of the musical “Hamilton”: When Daveed Diggs, playing Thomas Jefferson, adds a swampy funk to “Never gon’ be president now,” the pinched, nasal and decidedly Southern diction certainly calls to mind Chad Butler, the late, great rapper from the Gulf Cost heroes UGK.

“Hamilton” creator Miranda landed in Houston this week, but his visit was unrelated to his hit musical or Houston hip-hop tourism.

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The award-winning songwriter, actor, producer and director instead had Texas’ state elections on his schedule. His first stop was the historic Ensemble Theatre in Midtown, where Miranda took part in a panel discussing women’s reproductive rights and Planned Parenthood while hoping to spread awareness about the State attorney general campaign of Rochelle Garza.

After the panel, Miranda told the Chronicle that Garza’s campaign carried a particular resonance with him.

“She won a five-way primary running on abortion rights and reproductive care,” he says. “That shows you Latinos will show up and that choice is on the ballot. We wanted to get word out about Rochelle and how important it is she be elected as a safeguard against this terrifying new era we’re in. If me being here gets two more cameras on her, and if the election is in play, I’m happy to be here.”

 

Family matters

By “we,” Miranda meant him and his parents. His mother, Dr. Luz towns-Miranda was his companion on the panel. She is a clinical psychologist who was once a board member of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. 

Towns-Miranda spent many years working in the south Bronx community in New York. She sees abortion and women’s health not as a binary about choice, but rather with longitudinal studies about mothers and children.

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“Women in general are already a depression risk,” she says. “Compound that with an inability to have a choice regarding pregnancy, and that raises the risk of post-partum depression with mothers. Because the sequela is the result of an unplanned pregnancy, it reverberates with the child. There’s no way that doesn’t get conveyed. Non-verbal communication is the best way to establish attachment in the first four month. A depressed mom, who doesn’t want to look at the child, will be a less than optimal attachment that will affect that child the rest of his life.”

Luis Miranda, his father and political strategist, was also present at the panel. Luis Miranda addresses the disparities between means. He says that anyone who seeks an abortion from a family of means will be able fly to another state to undergo it. 

“Abortion choice is just an issue for poor women,” Luis Miranda says. “Everybody else will have a vacation in New York. This is an issue for poor and working women.”

He has been met with some resistance from Texans, who have questioned his visit to Texas. 

“I see it in my Twitter feed,” Luis Manuel says. “’What are you doing in Texas? Go back to New York!’”

But the family is visiting a series of places — Texas, Georgia, Florida — to push for candidates the way Lin-Manuel has throughout his career in New York.

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“Rochelle Garza isn’t just a candidate for attorney general of Texas,” he says. “She’s a symbol for every single one of us throughout the country. Texas could make a significant difference if they elected her. But for the rest of us Latinos in the rest of the country, it’s someone we could point out to girls and boys to suggest it’s possible to make it to these highest levels.

“If the candidates are right and the issues you’re raising are right, you’ll have different outcomes. Rochelle is a great example. She’s a fifth generation Texan. Nobody can accuse her of not knowing what’s happening in her backyard. Her backyard is her home.”

He also mentions the Austin City Council member Greg Casar’s campaign for Congress. 

“When people say, ‘Don’t give up on Texas,’ you can’t. There are amazing candidates that represent the entire political spectrum getting elected by Texans.”

 

“What is past is now”

Latino candidates aren’t the only ones on the Mirandas’ tour. Before flying out late Tuesday night they planned to appear at a rally for gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke at Imagen Venues Escapade, a Latin music nightclub on the Eastex Freeway.

They performed at the Ensemble before about 150 people. 

Lin-Manuel explained to those present that he needed to explain to his 7 year-old son why he was leaving the city for three days. 

“I had a very frank conversation with him,” Miranda told the audience. “I told him there are places in this country where folks are taking away the right to do what we want with our lives. And it’s important to vote. And I’m just there to help people with the energy. . . . Even if you’re not in the same state, it’s important to show up for each other. As Americans, it’s important for us to show up for each other in times of crisis. And he said, ‘OK, can I have breakfast now?’”

Asked at the panel about his work, Lin-Manuel said “For Latino guys, it’s Bernardo in the Sharks or bust when it comes to what existed out there. So I began writing about what I saw missing. I wrote about my neighborhood.”

He later remarked, “I will not try to quote any ‘Hamilton’ today. But the only thesis of ‘Hamilton’ is that what’s past is present.”

His mother and he both touched upon themes of care through connectivity. 

“Look,” he said after the panel, “we’re all coming out of isolation. We’re all learning to be people again, to be with each other again, in fellowship with other people again. My bread and butter is where people gather, whether it’s film or theater. So for me, it’s not hard to be with people again if they’re people fighting the good fight in places where the odds are stacked. It’s impossible for me to come out of these events not feeling hopeful.”