Real women

have curves
a play
by Josefina Lopez

Mariela Pea
4th IRM

The author

Josefina Lopez (born1969, San Luis de

Potosi, Mexico) is a Chicana playwright,
best known by her play Real women
have curves.

She was five years old when she

immigrated to the United States and
settled in the East Los Angeles
neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

Josefina was undocumented for thirteen

years before she received Amnesty in

The author

Josefina has been an

activist and has been
doing public speaking
for over 20 years and
has lectured on various
topics
She has been the
subject of countless TV
& Radio interviews in
which she has
passionately discussed
immigration issues and
other controversial

The author

Josefina also paints, writes poetry,

performs, designs, and is a mother of
two boys and resides in Silver Lake.

She is the Founder and Artistic Director

of CASA 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights,
where she teaches screenwriting and
playwriting and nurture a new
generation of Latino artists.

Interview to Josefina
Lopez

Overall summary

Real women have curves is a coming-ofag story about Ana, a first-generation

Chicana, torn between pursuing her
college ambitions, a personal goal, and
securing employment which is a family
expectation.

Ana confronts a host of cultural

assumptions about beauty, marriage and
a womans role in society.

Characters

ANA :18, plump and pretty, sister of Estela,

daughter of Carmen.

ESTELA: 24, plump, plain-looking, owner of

the "Garcia Sewing Factory".

CARMEN : 48, short, large woman, mother

of Ana and Estela.

PANCHA : 32, a huge woman.

ROSALI : 29, only a bit plump.

Conflicts

Person-against-self - an internal
conflict of feelings.

Person-against-person - the typical

protagonist vs. antagonist scenario.

Person-against-society - the
protagonist battles against the larger
organizations of society
(or a system of beliefs held by society).

Person-against-nature - the
protagonist is threatened by a

Themes
Ambition
Fear
of
Body consciousness
La Migra
and
the value of money

Womens
roles

themes

themes

Body consciousness (Weight,food,diet

pills)

Impossible ideal of what beauty is.

Distortion of beauty.

Womens roles

Conservative vs. Modern (or Liberal).

Fear of La migra

Living as a segregated minority.