WARNING: The following contains spoilers for In the Heights, now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
There are a lot of positive things to say about In the Heights. It's the first musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who rose to fame after his show Hamilton became a cultural phenomenon. He and Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes (who wrote the musical's book and adapted it into a screenplay) are both proudly Puerto Rican. The musical centers on a largely Latinx community in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood and discusses serious issues like gentrification, racism and immigration while maintaining a spirit of joy and hope. The music is catchy, the characters are likable, and the creative cinematography of the film adds a fun, sometimes surreal element. However, In the Heights' film also gracefully adds queer representation that was not previously part of the stage production.
The stage musical features multiple male-female romances (Usnavi and Vanessa, Benny and Nina). Though both couples experience some ups and downs, their relationships are ultimately healthy and endearing. There isn't really any queer representation, though. There's an offhand joke about two men sleeping together (the joke isn't "haha, they're gay" but rather that being gay comes as a surprise to one of their wives), but that's really it. Daniela and Carla are friends and coworkers, rarely seen without each other. Carla works at the salon that Daniela owns, and they keep up with the gossip in the neighborhood.
In the movie, Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and Carla (Stephanie Beatriz) are also in a romantic relationship. They debut waking up in bed together and being affectionate. To an audience that isn't expecting the characters to be romantically involved, this comes as a surprise but a pleasant one. To viewers used to media that dances around queer representation and even engages in queerbaiting, Daniela and Carla's closeness is exciting but also prompts the question: will this be true representation?
So much of what passes for "queer representation," even in modern media, is barebones. Trini from the 2017 Power Rangers was promoted as the first queer superhero in film, and actor Becky G played the character as queer/questioning and talked about it in interviews. However, the film's onscreen representation amounts to one discussion about "boyfriend problems" or "girlfriend problems." Disney and its subsidiaries Marvel and Star Wars have been lambasted for their minimal effort at queer representation.
In the Heights' Daniela and Carla never say, "We are queer, or we are in a queer relationship," but the longer they're on screen, the more obvious it is that they're romantic partners. They're constantly physically affectionate -- Carla's head in Daniela's lap when they're lounging at the pool, the pair dancing intimately at the found-family dinner party -- and right before the Daniela-led showstopping musical number "Carnaval del Barrio," Carla addresses Daniela as "mi amor." They proceed to flirt and touch each other through the whole song.
Stephanie Beatriz is an out bisexual woman who has spoken at length about her sexuality and the importance of acknowledging and supporting sexual identity without making it the sole defining characteristic. Her Brooklyn Nine-Nine character Rosa came out as bisexual around the same time that Beatriz did and remains one of the only openly, explicitly bisexual characters on prime-time TV. Her In the Heights character is the opposite of Rosa in many ways -- Rosa prides herself on being scary and tough, Carla is cheerful and sweetly dim-witted -- but they're both fantastically queer.
Daphne Rubin-Vega first became known for her role in the original Broadway production of RENT, a musical that tells, among other things, several queer stories. While Rubin-Vega's Mimi wasn't one of the queer characters, she's advocated for and supported the queer community. Her turn in In the Heights just takes this to the next level. "To play a woman that loves another woman is an honor to me," she said in an interview with the Advocate. She also enthused about how the queer, immigrant, and Black and brown stories help "decoloniz[e] cinema."
Daniela and Carla's relationship is revolutionary in many ways because it isn't revolutionary. These characters being queer doesn't define them. It's not even something the other characters need to discuss. They're confident, vibrant Latina women, and they just happen to be in love. Their relationship could serve as an example for other media looking to include queer representation in a realistic, affirming way.
Directed by Jon M. Chu and based on the musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights stars Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Berrera, Olga Merediz, Jimmy Smits, Gregory Diaz IV, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanco and more. The film is currently in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
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