If you look through my Spotify playlist, you’ll probably notice that I’m a little bit obsessed with this musical called Hamilton.
Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton tells the story of United States founding father Alexander Hamilton, famous for being the country’s first Treasury Secretary and for dying in a duel against Vice President Aaron Burr.
It may not seem like the most exciting story to adapt into a musical, but Hamilton’s story is told entirely through rap verses and RnB beats. Cabinet debates are full-on rap battles, complete with an audience hooting and cheering.
The musical’s cast is also made up mostly of people of color. You have a Latino playing the lead character, an Asian-American playing Hamilton’s wife, and black men playing George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Marquis Lafayette.
Not only has the musical been praised for its story, music, and casting, Hamilton has also been praised for the way it teaches history. According to an article in The Atlantic, “the most significant lesson the show might teach audiences, and one that has particular relevance today, is the outsized role immigrants have played in the nation’s history.” As Miranda himself puts it, Hamilton is the story of America then as told by America now.
Interestingly enough, the Philippines’ entry to the Oscars this year is also a story rooted in history. Heneral Luna has not only garnered praise for its storytelling, cinematography, and acting, but also for its portrayal of a forgotten period of our history.
Not only does the film touch on the Philippine-American War, a subject that we don’t usually touch on in our history classes in school, but Heneral Luna also portrays our national heroes as multidimensional—flawed, brash, and arrogant.
Heneral Luna also got audiences talking about “how the Philippines’ greatest enemy was (and is) not external predators, but instead internal divisions and narrow loyalties, which have stunted its nation-building quest to this date,” as a piece on Huffington Post puts it.
History may get a lot of flack for being boring, useless, and irrelevant. But Hamilton and Heneral Luna show that history is far from these.
History is full of interesting stories about interesting people. There are heroes and villains, all of them flawed and multidimensional. In Heneral Luna, for example, you have a national hero making the tough decision of betraying his own president in order to prevent foreign conquerors from taking over his country.
Both Hamilton and Heneral Luna have started important conversations about history’s place in our society today. Hamilton brought up the United States’ past of immigration and the place of immigration now, especially with their national elections coming up.
On the other hand, Heneral Luna brought up the question of what it means to be Filipino, and of course, the importance of making a choice between bayan o sarili (nation or self).
History has plenty of stories to tell and plenty of lessons for us to learn. It is all just a matter of knowing when to listen.
