Released: June 3, 2008

Featuring: Mandy Gonzalez

Songwriter: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Producer: Joel Moss Kurt Deutsch Andres Levin Bill Sherman Alex Lacamoire Lin-Manuel Miranda

[NINA]
In this album there’s a picture
Of the ladies at Daniela’s
You can tell it’s from the eighties
By the volume of their hair
There’s Usnavi, just a baby
‘Eighty-seven, Halloween
If it happened on this block, Abuela was there

Every afternoon I came
She’d make sure I did my homework
She could barely write her name
But even so…
She would stare at the paper
And tell me
“Bueno, let’s review
Why don’t you tell me
Everything you know.”

In this album there’s a picture
Of Abuela in Havana
She is holding a rag doll
Unsmiling, black and white
I wonder what she’s thinking
Does she know that she’ll be leaving
For the city on a cold, dark night?
And on the day they ran
Did she dream of endless summer?
Did her mother have a plan?
Or did they just go?
Did somebody sit her down and say
“Claudia, get ready, to leave
Behind everything you know”?
Everything I know
What do I know?

In this folder there’s a picture
From my high school graduation
With the program, mint condition
And a star beside my name
Here’s a picture of my parents
As I left for California
She saved everything we gave her
Every little scrap of paper

And our lives are in these boxes
While the woman who held us is gone
But we go on, we grow, so…
Hold tight, Abuela, if you’re up there
I’ll make you proud of everything I know!
Thank you, for everything I know

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an award-winning American writer, composer, playwright, and actor. He created and starred in two hit musicals, In the Heights and Hamilton (2015), an epic adaptation of Ron Chernow’s biography of the American founding father. Miranda also co-wrote the music and lyrics for Disney’s Moana (2016). The film’s main theme, “How Far I’ll Go”, was nominated for the 2017 Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Personally, Miranda has received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama (Hamilton), three Tony Awards (Best Original Score for both ITH and Hamilton, Best Book of a Musical for Hamilton), two Grammys (Best Musical Theatre Album ITH, Hamilton), and an Emmy (Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for “Bigger”). He was the recipient of the 2015 MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant”. He has a star on the Puerto Rican Walk of Fame and will receive a Hollywood star in 2018.

Awards for musicals