-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.