Father of Lin-Manuel Miranda launches new book

Luis Miranda is a political strategist who came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico in the 1970s and became an activist for the Latino community. In the 1980s, he was the Special Advisor on Latino Affairs for then Mayor Ed Koch and has worked on a number of senatorial campaigns, including those of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chuck Schumer. Miranda is also the father of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created “Hamilton the Musical” on Broadway.

His new book, “Relentless,” is a fascinating narrative of his life and career, from his early days as a radically-minded Puerto Rican activist to his decades of political advising and problem-solving.

“Many people were telling me that I kept criticizing the many columns and write-ups that I read about the Latino vote and how the Latino vote was behaving or was going to behave,” Miranda said. “People said ‘Don’t complain, act. You’ve been in this field for 45 years, why don’t you put down what you have seen in those 45 years of working in the Latino political space?’ And as I did that, more and more of my family, historically, has been part of everything that I’ve done, so they became a protagonist of the book. And the book ended up being a mix of politics and biography.”

Miranda explained he has always been involved in community action in Puerto Rico. His parents were also heavily involved in the civic fiber of the town Miranda grew up in. As a family, they were very politically active.

“Even though I wanted to study psychology and came to New York to do a Ph.D in clinical psychology, that never meant that I was not gonna be involved in activism,” Miranda said. “But what ended up happening is that I realized that I was not gonna be a very good psychologist. I wanted my patients to move and resolve their issues faster than they could.”

His professors kept telling him clients go at their own pace, and Miranda wanted them to go at his pace, so he left the profession.

Miranda’s life and career have been defined by his work in activism, politics and his involvement in the Latino community.