HAMILTON's Lin-Manuel Miranda Calls For Congress To Help Resolve Puerto Rico's Economic Crisis

As reported by BroadwayWorld, HAMILTON'S author and star Lin-Manuel Miranda gave an impassioned speech on Tuesday at a Capitol Hill press conference, where he urged congress to pass legislation restructuring Puerto Rico's $72 billion debt.

Miranda and several of his cast-mates were in Washington D.C. as guests of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, to give a White House performance. (click here for videos),

Today the Spanish-language website El Nuevo Dia publishes a guest column by Lin-Manuel Miranda that explains the need for legislation that will revitalized the United States territory after congress, in 1996, ended tax laws that aided the island's economic development, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs.

"As I am an artist, I can add to this discussion my personal experience," reads an English translation of his column.

"That experience is centered in a Puerto Rico that welcomed me every summer. The Puerto Rico I remember revolved around Vega Alta," the town where his grandparents lived. What he remembers as a thriving community in his childhood is now in an economic crisis.

"Alexander Hamilton, the historical figure on which I based my musical, emigrated to New York from the island of Nevis," he continues. "His eloquent response to the hurricane that struck the island in 1772 moved his townspeople to make up a collection to send him to what were then colonies of England. Puerto Rico is in the middle of a hurricane, but one created by us. That hurricane can start to be solved if Congress acts now."

Click here for the full article.

Click the photo below for a video of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Capitol Hill speech on the Puerto Rico crisis.

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The cast of Hamilton is comprised of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), Daveed Diggs(Marquis De Lafayette,Thomas Jefferson), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler),Christopher Jackson (George Washington), Jonathan Groff (King George), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy Schuyler, Maria Reynolds), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton alternate), Okieriete Onaodowan (Hercules Mulligan, James Madison), Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr), Anthony Ramos (John Laurens, Philip Hamilton) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).

From bastard orphan to Washington's right hand man, rebel to war hero, loving husband caught in the country's first sex scandal to Treasury head who made an untrusting world believe in the American economy, Hamilton is an exploration of a political mastermind. George Washington,Thomas Jefferson, Eliza Hamilton, and lifelongHamiltonfriend and foe, Aaron Burr, all attend this revolutionary tale of America's fiery past told through the sounds of the ever-changing nation we've become. Tony Award nominee Thomas Kail directs this new musical about taking your shot, speaking your mind, and turning the world upside down.