Josefina Lopez Celebrates Latinas in ‘Real Women Have Curves’ on Broadway

When the film Real Women Have Curves (RWHC) was released in 2002, it was a significant moment for Latina representation and empowerment. Now, more than 20 years later, the Real Women Have Curves musical hits the stage and it’s achieving that same feat in the world of theatre. Both the film and musical are adaptations of the 1990 play by Chicana playwright Josefina Lopez. Since its premiere for previews on April 1, with opening night officially happening April 27, the musical adaptation of the beloved story has affected attendees in the same way the film did with the added element of original music. In an industry with minimal Latina representation, the musical is one of a few theatre shows highlighting the Latinx community. Other shows include Buena Vista Social Club—based on the Cuban musical ensemble of the same name—which is also on Broadway and Take the Lead starring Adrienne Bailon-Houghton and co-choreographed by Maria Torres. The Broadway debut of RWHC is monumental for this story and for Lopez, who’s been on a 37-year journey with this story based on her lived experiences as a young undocumented Latina in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Lopez spoke with HipLatina about the importance of this show over time and the ways it celebrates Latinas.

“It really is a celebration of Mexican-American culture, Latino culture, a celebration of women. It’s an explosion of color and music and sound. It’s so wonderful that we have mariachi music, we have Broadway tunes, we have cumbias, we have salsas, ” she says. “What it has taught me is that when you’re growing up and you’re made to feel like you come from an inferior culture or inferior people and then when I saw this show, I said, “oh my god, we have so much to draw from’ because we have such an incredible musical history and we have so much flavor and color and we have so much as Latinos. It’s sad that we were made to believe that we were less than when in fact we are so extraordinary… it’s the perfect story for now. it’s a good act of resistance against stupidity, ignorance, and hatred towards our community and towards women. It’s a wonderful way of fighting back through art and celebration. 

Lopez was born in 1969 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. At the age of five, she immigrated to Boyle Heights and was undocumented for 13 years before becoming a U.S. citizen in 1995. It was in 1988 when she presented early scenes of RWHC with her first full draft completed by June of that year. This original source material is inspired by Lopez’s experiences as a young Latina working in a sewing factory in Boyle Heights and the women in her life. Following the massive success of the play, the 56-year-old is the Founding Artistic Director of CASA 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights, where she promotes plays celebrating women and Latinxs and teaches playwriting. Her career also includes over 130 productions of her many plays throughout the country including Simply Maria, Confessions of Women from East L.A., and A Woman Named Gloria.

The RWHC musical adaptation had been an idea in Lopez’s mind since she was 18 years old. She wrote the story as a play because she didn’t know how to go about writing a musical and made attempts at producing it throughout her career—including a 2008 workshop that didn’t work out and another attempt in 2010. What the musical theatre-goers have seen and loved is the adaptation’s third attempt at production. When Lopez saw that choreographer Sergio Trujillo, who is of Colombian descent, won a Tony, she immediately told her agent and manager. In perfect coincidence, Lopez wanted to reach out to Trujillo to direct and he was thinking the same thing. After trial and error, the musical has finally found its way to the Broadway stage.

Almost a month into their Broadway run, the musical has made history in representation with the casting of Mexican actress Florencia Cuenca who is now the first Mexican immigrant to originate a role on Broadway. As Lopez celebrates Cuenca’s history-making casting, she recalls the issues she faced when casting her first play: “When I was 18, 19, I wrote my first play and there was not a Latina actress in San Diego who could play the role, so they had to get a non-Latina to play her who did a great job. Now it’s played by a Latina actress because now there are enough Latina actresses who can play those roles.”

The musical follows 18-year-old Mexican-American Ana who is an aspiring journalist played by newcomer Tatiana Cordoba. Ana dreams of leaving her family’s sewing factory, looking to pursue college and her dreams. Set in the summer of 1987, Ana is an ambitious and rebellious girl dreaming of leaving her home in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles. When her family receives a make-or-break order for 200 dresses, she juggles with her desires to leave and the expectations placed on her by her mother, Carmen played by Justina Machado (One Day at a Time, The Horror of Dolores Roach) while helping the women in the shop. It centers on the complicated mother-daughter relationship through Ana’s dreams of independence clashing with her mother’s more traditional hopes for Ana informed by traditional family values.

Whether it’s through Carmen’s traditional ways and chismosa habits or Ana’s rebelliousness and dreamer attitude, this musical, like its source material, celebrates the nuance of being a woman. In contrast to the “spicy Latina” trope, the Madonna/whore complex, and other stereotypical portrayals of Latinas in media, RWHC showcases women’s relationship to their bodies, the complicated mother-daughters bonds, and the women’s connection to their culture. While reminiscing about how RWHC continues to resonate with audiences, Lopez recognizes the women who inspired her to write the play:

“What really motivated me to write it was that although I was working in a sewing factory and it was 100° in there—I did the ironing and the steam iron at that—I was so hot, I knew that despite all this hard work I was having so much fun because I was surrounded by these women who shared their stories and who made life so bearable and interesting and especially my mother, my mother told the juiciest chisme and the most wonderful stories.”

The Broadway adaptation is also an ode to women and was recently praised by the likes of Eva Longoria, Sofia Vergara, and Gloria Calderón Kellett for uplifting Latina representation and providing both a story and music that are so powerful and meaningful.

The cast of the musical includes newcomer Cordoba as Ana, Machado as Carmen, and Mauricio Mendoza as Ana’s dad, Raul. The creative team behind the musical includes Tony-Award winner Trujillo as director and choreographer and music and lyrics by Grammy Award-winning artist Joy Huerta from the Mexican pop duo Jesse and Joy. For Lopez, the music in the show is compelling in its expression of characters’ joy and the universal experiences of Latinas.

She specifically speaks to the iconic scene from the film where the factory workers, in an act of liberation and fighting off the heat, strip down proud of their bodies and beauty. “You see women dancing and singing at the same time as they undress and then they start rapping…You see, Estela, for instance, she’s in her underwear rapping, talking about being a chingona, and then you go, you know what? You’re right. Because how many people can undress in front of a thousand people? How many people can dance undress and hardly anyone.” she says.

As much as RWHC is a celebration of women, it is an ode to Lopez’s mother. When looking at the musical and listening to the music, she has celebrated her mother and seen her live on through Carmen. She teases a song in the musical where Ana apologizes to her mother after realizing why her mother is the way she is, speaking to the generational trauma and differences that come up in Latina mother-daughter relationships.

“Every time I hear that song I cry because my mother passed away almost three years ago.  I think about how in many ways I look down on my mother because she always would have these old-fashioned ways of looking at things, which was her way of showing me that she loved me because she was trying to protect me. But also this incredible amount of unconditional love she had for my father and this incredible amount of love she had for her family and how that ultimately is what kept our family together ”

As her impact on representation and our community continues, she invites audiences to take inspiration in what they see on the stage as they pursue their own dreams: “I want people to say, “Wow, Josefina really was in a sewing factory. Look at her. She’s on Broadway and the community that shaped her is on Broadway being celebrated. I want people to leave inspired thinking, “wow, what could I create? What could I dream and aspire to manifest? I can do it, too.’”