I began writing my play when I was 18 right after I left my sister’s tiny sewing factory in East L.A to go to the Hispanic Playwrights Workshop at INTAR led by Irene Fornés in New York City. At 19, I presented the first draft at the writing workshop and finally at 21 it was produced and presented at the Mission Cultural Center on May 25, 1990. I can’t believe it’s almost 30 years since this play opened in San Francisco. It’s sad to say that it’s also 100 years since women got the right to vote and we still don’t have a woman President and it’s worse now for undocumented people. 30 years later I thought things would have been better for communities of color and women, but it seems it has gotten worse. Or perhaps the topics I wrote about 30 years ago now have a name like “Intersectional Feminism”, and racism in this country is no longer something that can be denied. It’s terrible to see children in cages, but perhaps that’s what it took for people to be outraged the way I have always been since I found out I was undocumented and that a piece of paper determined whether I could be respected as a human being. You see I was a “Dreamer” before it was cool to be a “Dreamer”. I was undocumented for 13 years before I finally obtained Amnesty in 1987 and became a legal resident and eventually became a U.S. Citizen in 1995. I always dreamed of being a writer and being undocumented has been the opportunity to tell a story very few people can tell authentically. This is my story to share with you, this is my pain and my resiliency that I get to share with you through my play and film and soon with my musical.

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30 years later I am humbled by the fact that my play has had over 100 productions throughout the U.S. and abroad. I still can’t believe all the success my play has obtained including the AUDIENCE AWARD from the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 for my movie version of Real Women Have Curves. I am also on the verge of getting the modern TV Show version of this play to the small screen.

I am so lucky to have a community of over 500 women who have contributed to this play with their performances in which they bare their bodies and their souls to celebrate the truth of who women really are. This play has grown with me and has taught me so many lessons including that “women are powerful” when they work together. I’ve also learned that “curves” are not just physical, they are also a representation of the sacred feminine energy that all women carry in their bodies, hearts and spirits which allows them to bring in the divine through their bodies which are sacred. All women are goddesses, sacred temples, portals of light - thank God for women.

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                  Sincerely,