One of his mentors suggested he go to Tisch and enroll in the Musical Theater program. He applied and was accepted. He went to NYU every day after to ask about financial aid, and every time he did the answer was, âNot yet.â He showed up so often that finally the financial aid office sent him to the Office Where These Things Are Decided, and he was scared, but he reminded them that theyâd accepted him, theyâd wanted himâso how were they going to make sure he could actually come? He made his case and got his tuition cut from $30,000 to $3,000, which still wasnât chump change for him, and didnât include supplies and books and fees. So he applies for grants. He worked as a nanny, in a bakery, as a restaurant host.
But at school, they didnât know what to do with him. He was only cast in small roles. He was a Latino man in the 1990s. âNo even knew how to say my name correctly.â They called him Javeer. Or Munzo. Munzo! Once again he was invisible. It didnât feel like a guy who looked like Javier ever stood a chance at doing anything critical on stage.
A few years after graduation, Javierâs parents were both diagnosed with cancer within months of each other. Javier quit looking for acting work and got a job as a waiter so he could take care of them. But a friend had written a musical and was hounding him to audition. Fine, he thought, this will be my swan song. One last time, then heâd say goodbye.
But during rehearsals, a woman watching him sing told him about a new musical in developmentâwould he maybe audition? She gave him a CD, and it was this guy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, rapping the opening number for In The Heights. âIâm thinking someone wants to put rap on stage, what?â He took the script home. He saw that this was a musical about Latinos that had no drugs or crime. âThey werenât caricatures that I was used to seeing on TV and film and permeating everywhere. These were real, real, real human beings that happen to be Latino. And I thought it would be the greatest mistake of my life if I didnât say yes to this opportunity.â He sang George Michaelâs Praying for Time at his audition. He got the job, and the rest is early American history.
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