| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Thursday, November 28 2002 |
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| I started to get teary-eyed three minutes into the movie. Ten minutes had gone by when the first tear rolled down my cheek. By the time the plot of "Real Women have curves" started to get really interesting, I was sitting in the movie theatre sobbing. My husband looked at me like I was crazy. This movie was supposed to be a lighthearted comedy not a tearjerker. "It's a woman thing", I told him.
Not just that, it's the story of my life. Just like Ana Garcia, the main character, I am a Mexican-American from Los Angeles, my mother was a seamstress, my first job was in a clothing factory and my parents thought little girls should be brought up to someday walk down the aisle in a wedding dress, not walk on stage in a graduation gown with a college diploma in her hand. We lived in a modest home much like the one in the movie. The only detail missing in my life was the curves. I was a very skinny young girl.
Although the movie mirrors my life and the lives of many Hispanic women, it is actually about the life experiences of playwright Josefina Lopez. She wanted to tell the story of a teenager growing up in East Los Angeles in a hard-working immigrant family that clung to old-world traditions. Like Josefina, Ana is a product of two cultures, trying to pursue mainstream ambitions while dealing with the pressures created when two cultures meet.
I recently had a chance to interview her in a small theatre in East Los Angeles. "This movie is a celebration of my parents", Josefina told me. "For too long I have seen negative stereotypes of Hispanic families represented on film, this was an opportunity to portray Latinos with dignity".
But the movie is about a lot more than family traditions. It has many sub-plots, dealing with tough issues such as a woman's self-image. Ana's mother Carmen, played by veteran actress Lupe Ontiveros, is constantly criticizing the plus-size teenager for her weight. But Ana, who is the youngest worker in the factory, teaches the rest of the women to be proud of their bodies regardless of their weight.
Lopez still recalls when her drama teacher in high school told her she had the talent to play Shakespearean characters, but would never be a leading lady because she was overweight. "As a Mexican, I knew I would only be type-cast as a maid, hooker or gang member", recalls Lopez. So she gave up acting and turned to writing and creating roles for women like herself.
The movie also deals with the importance of education. One third of all Hispanic students drop out of high school, and many who do graduate are not motivated by their families to pursue a higher education, mostly so they can work to help ends meet. This is a serious problem that is dealt with tastefully and realistically in the movie.
"Real Women Have Curves" is an award winning, critically acclaimed film. But that is not enough to turn it into a box-office hit. The movies' creators are hoping it will follow in the footsteps of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", another film on family traditions that became a hit by word of mouth. In the first 6 weeks real women grossed a little over $3 million dollars, but it was only playing in 163 theatres nationwide. Actress Lupe Ontiveros believes that the future of films with Hispanic themes will depend in part on the support of the Hispanic community. "If the 35 million Latinos in this country spent one dollar to go see the movie, it would make Hollywood react", she told me.
Real Women is about real people with real problems. It has a strong social message about the challenges that many immigrant families face. But for the author who wrote the original play over 12 years ago, it shows that real women really do have curves, and denying that biological fact, would be denying who we really are. |
