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  • -Hi. Oh, it's great to see --

  • -How are you? -Hi, bud.

  • -It's great to see you both.

  • You look fantastic. Thank you for doing this.

  • We have so much to talk about.

  • I just watched the documentary last night,

  • and I was blown away.

  • "Siempre, Luis" means "Always, Luis."

  • That is how you sign all of your memos and letters?

  • -That's how I have signed my entire life,

  • and so I'm very honored

  • that then Lin-Manuel took all the "Siempre, Luis."

  • So the "Siempre, Lin-Manuel."

  • So now it'll live forever.

  • -It was -- The cameras follow Luis around for a year.

  • And I was watching it.

  • And I, you know -- I know you guys pretty well.

  • I thought Lin had a lot of energy.

  • Luis, you are nonstop.

  • -Well, that's what some people say.

  • I'm energetic

  • but by no means nonstop.

  • I'm working on being nonstop.

  • -You're always doing something, and it's -- I mean,

  • I know you have great energy and just fun.

  • But, wow, the work you put in.

  • You came here from Puerto Rico,

  • and you came to New York City.

  • You worked on a number of political campaigns.

  • You've always worked to help people in times of need.

  • You get that from watching this.

  • And both of you are so active in so many great causes.

  • Lin, is that something you learned from your dad?

  • -Yeah, I think so.

  • It always just sort of came with growing up.

  • Other kids had paper routes,

  • and I was registering voters in buildings.

  • I was, like, the guy with the green paper and the clipboard.

  • That was my -- That was my teenage chore of choice.

  • -Wow! -So it was --

  • And then I also remember, like,

  • going to toy drives as a kid.

  • We always did the Three Kings' Day toy drive every year

  • where we would get toys for kids for Three Kings' Day.

  • So, yeah, there was always sort of an activism

  • and sort of charity component of growing up.

  • That just came with the deal of living in our house.

  • -Luis, you were hoping that Lin would be a lawyer.

  • Do you remember the moment you knew

  • that he was going to be a performer?

  • -Actually throughout my life, I just pretended.

  • -Look how he shakes his head. Just so...

  • -I continued pushing.

  • I figure I'll tire him out, and he'll want to make me happy

  • and be like Rubén Blades and also be a lawyer.

  • But it was actually one day

  • watching him on TV

  • that he was with a chorus, a school performance,

  • where it was so clear to my wife, Luz, and me

  • that this kid was not going to be a lawyer,

  • as he was flapping his hands and just being so animated.

  • -Yeah. -I looked at Luz and said,

  • "He's never going to be a lawyer."

  • Those skills of flapping hands and stuff like that

  • can be helpful for legal.

  • -Flapping hands? That's my -- That's what I do for a living.

  • Flapping hands. -"Your honor!

  • Your honor! My client is innocent!"

  • -"I object!"

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -I mean -- Ohh. -It was clear.

  • It was not happening. -Yeah.

  • Lin, you tell a story in the documentary

  • about the time you asked your dad for advice

  • about your career.

  • What did you ask him?

  • -Yeah. I was -- My first job out of college

  • was teaching 7th-grade English,

  • and I found, to my surprise, that I really liked it.

  • I loved teaching.

  • It's an incredibly rewarding profession.

  • I think teachers should make, like, all the money.

  • Like, I think we should just reverse the way society works,

  • and teachers should get the inverse of what they are making.

  • And -- But I loved it.

  • And I got offered a full-time job

  • at the end of my first year,

  • and I kind of saw two paths ahead of me.

  • I saw the "Mr. Holland's Opus" path

  • where I live a happy life teaching

  • but I never finish that play I was working on.

  • And -- But I really -- I genuinely loved it.

  • And so I asked my dad, "Should I take the full-time job

  • or should I sort of say no to that and not have a job

  • but, you know, have more time to write?"

  • And he actually sort of

  • nudged me in the direction

  • of pursuing my dream.

  • And I'll always be grateful to him for that,

  • even though he was,

  • you know, just on my shoulder to be a lawyer

  • all through high school, he kind of realized

  • you actually have to go for the thing you want.

  • -Luis, do you remember writing that letter?

  • -I remember writing that letter.

  • And the advice came easy.

  • I knew it was the right thing to do,

  • even though I was smacking myself

  • for giving that advice.

  • -Flapping his arms!

  • -Parents should be saying,

  • "Go to work, go to work, take a job."

  • But I knew that was not his path.

  • He would've been a great teacher.

  • He probably would have created

  • lots of Lin-Manuels in that classroom,

  • but he would have not been the Lin-Manuel we love.

  • -The one thing I took from it is that the work is never over

  • and you just have to just continue to wake up,

  • and you go, "Yeah," and you got to show up,

  • and you got to show up for people

  • and stand up for people.

  • It was inspiring to watch.

  • Everyone should watch "Siempre, Luis."

  • What do you want people to take from it, Luis?

  • -Two things.

  • On the one hand,

  • that even though the documentary is about me,

  • I'm really just a place holder for migrants, immigrants

  • who come into this country

  • and have to work the double shift

  • in order to move their families forward.

  • And, two, that my most important job,

  • it's being a dad.

  • That's how we live forever, by being a good dad

  • and creating the next generation,

  • that it's better than you.

  • -I want to show a clip. Here's a look at "Siempre, Luis"

  • out on HBO and HBO Max right now.

  • Check this out.

  • -If anything has come out of Hurricane Maria

  • is that it has brought together...

  • [ Speaking Spanish ]

  • ...our allies in the United States with Puerto Rico.

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • And now, together,

  • we cannot be stopped!

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • -They're living in a hotel.

  • They're looking for a place. They're looking for jobs.

  • They're looking for schools for their kids.

  • And on top of that, we're telling them,

  • "Oh, [bleep].

  • And this is a historical election.

  • And you got to be involved."

  • [ Speaking Spanish ]

  • -"Siempre, Luis" is on HBO and HBO Max now.

-Hi. Oh, it's great to see --

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