Real Women Have Curves Musical Review

Collage of Real Women Have curves. Includes a mural with an indigenous person and billboard saying "Somos Boyle Heights," the other pictures show Cindy and Sean standing in front of the play photo area and playbill

I had the privilege of seeing the penultimate showing of Real Women Have Curves. It was my first time seeing the original cast and third time seeing a Broadway musical. I loved it and wish I could tell everyone to go see it, but it closed the next day.

I first saw a screening of the film version of Real Women Have Curves as a senior at UCLA (2001 or 2002). I had never seen the original play by Josefina Lopez, but liked the movie. I identified with Ana in a lot of ways. I saw myself in the daughter of Mexican immigrants who loved to write and hoped to go to college. I related with the tender relationships she had with her grandfather and father. And I had grandparents who worked as gardeners and seamstresses. But the similarities ended there. I didn’t have Ana’s confidence about her body and I got along well with my mom. She supported me going to college, but not far away. And to be honest, by the time I was picking where to go, I knew I wanted to be close to home.

Over 20 years later I saw a new version adapted for Broadway that simultaneously felt of it’s time in 1987 and also relevant to 2025. Ana is still ambitious and confident and butts heads with her mother Carmen. But she also recognizes that her status as the only citizen in her family means her family needs her in ways she really doesn’t understand. Still she supports her sister Estela’s dressmaking business while also taking on an internship for a local newspaper where she meets a cute guy. Amidst this family drama, Estela and the women in her business also fear workplace raids by la Migra. But they can’t stop that from showing up because they have a big order of 200 dresses to complete in a short timeframe.

I was touched to see how Ana, her mother, and older sister all grow to understand each other. I was in tears when Carmen gives Ana a blanket made from many dresses to take with her to New York and Ana sings, “you’re the hero of the story, mamá it’s you.” Then Carmen gives her a blessing, “Go, Ana, as far as you want. Fly, mija, we are with you para siempre y que Dios te bendiga.” I was full on sobbing at that point, just like I am writing this review – probably why I never finished the post.

The weekend I saw the play was about 10 years after I moved from LA to Ithaca. I recalled how Papá Chepe gave me and Xavi blessings at his bedside. When we got to LAX, my brother Danny gave me a big hug and my mom gave us her own blessing. Then Xavi and I walked toward security. We’d join Sean who was waiting for us after driving cross-country with my dad. There were a lot of tears.

Now this Ana, I could understand in a way that would’ve never made sense when I was 21.

Curtain call of Real Women Have Curves. Collage displays two photos of seven Latina actors. The women wear formal gowns in bright colors like pink, red or teal. One actor wears a white suit and one wears an orange suit. The background shows Doña Estela written surrounded by flowers and a purple mosaic pattern.

If Real Women Have Curves is produced again, you must go see it. I promise, you’ll love it and be singing “Make It Work” or “If I Were A Bird” (ca-caw!) or “I Got It Wrong” again and again. Oh, and take tissues. If you’re a chillona like me, you’ll need them.

Other notes:

Our family has listened to the OBC multiple times. The kids’ favorite song is probably “If I Were A Bird” (because they get to say “ca-caw!” and “I’d shit on that”) and mine changes based on how I’m feeling that day.
Xavi was a little bummed he didn’t go, but some of the jokes were pretty adult. There’s a whole song about menopause, Adios Andrés
All props go to the creatives who designed the set and details. They were so authentic I felt like I was back in the ‘80s at my grandparents’ house in East LA. Ana’s father dressed just like my Grandpa Bartolo (flannel shirt, Dickie’s work pants, and boots) and her mom had the same apron I’ve seen on my grandmother and tías.
The co-leads are supporting cast were all amazing. It was a real treat to see Justina Machado who was nominated for a Tony for this performance and has been in other shows I’ve enjoyed (One Day at a Time, Six Feet Under). She also originated the role of Ana in the stage version in 1992, so it was a full circle moment. Ana and Estela were played by two women making their Broadway debuts, Tatianna Córdoba and Florencia Cuenca, respectively. Florencia also made history in being the first Mexican immigrant originating a co-leading role on Broadway.
The audience was so enthusiastic and cheering like crazy, especially for the performance of the title song, “Real Women Have Curves.”
Latino USA has a great interview with co-leads Tatianna Córdoba and Florencia Cuenca that reflects on how hard it is to make a Broadway show successful
Why yes writing this took me quite a while because I got sucked into a YouTube rabbit hole of videos. Enjoy!

This video features “Jugglin'”, “Flying Away” and “Daydream”

Cuentos, Familia

A Trivial Moment

Earlier this year I listed playing trivia and word games as one of the sources of joy when things seem hard. I was definitely feeling it in February, but even more now when the other shoe dropped in my work life (see: grants from NSF being terminated).

Sean and I play several, mostly just us two. We starting playing the NPR Sunday Puzzle last spring. Once I realized that the kids could join in and get the on-air challenge, I started waiting to listen so the kids could join in, mostly on the way home from work/after-school programs. It’s a fun part of our week and now the kids are so used to the intro music and taglines they try to do it along with host Ayesha Rascoe¹.

The Sunday Puzzle includes a challenge question you do at home. Sometimes we get it and enter, sometimes we get it but forget to enter on time, and other times we’re left stumped. This week I got it and entered:

Name a famous singer past or present. Remove the first and last letter from the first name and the result will be a potential partner of the last name. What singer is this?²

Odds were in my favor since only ~450 people entered.

On Thursday afternoon I got a call from an NPR producer telling me I’d been selected! Some people seem to have been playing decades before they get on-air. I felt lucky and excited to be chosen. It was hard for me to keep the news to myself for a few hours. When I told my family they were so excited. Sean high-fived me and Xavi said “let’s go!” like his team had won a game.

What I felt like before playing (left).
How I felt after (right)

I did the recording on Friday. It was hard being on the spot with puzzle-master Will Shortz and I needed several hints and help from Rascoe, which I’ve seen often. I suddenly couldn’t name things I would know, like a language that begins with a N. You can take my Chicana card now for not using Nahuatl³. At least one of the categories was something I’d know well, colleges and universities.

While I told people I was going to be on the Sunday Puzzle, I also was hoping for a kind edit and media magic. The recording aired today on Weekend Edition and the first friend who listened told me I did awesome, especially with the colleges question. The kids on the other hand were glad I didn’t say their names. Archie also suddenly could name a number of dog breeds.

Nevertheless, it was fun! Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be on game shows like Jeopardy! or Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? As my brother Adrian said, this might be the closest I get to Jeopardy!.

Aside: it was really nice to chat with Rascoe pre-taping while we waited for Shortz to join the call. I told her how my kids were going to be so excited to hear I’d “met” her. Next NPR “bucket list” item I have is to get to a watch a Tiny Desk concert live.

Rascoe was so sweet. We had a few minutes pre-taping while we waited for Shortz to join the call. I told her how my kids were going to be so excited to hear I’d “met” her. Next NPR bucket list item I have is to get to a watch a Tiny Desk concert live. ↩︎
Gladys Knight! Take off the G and S and that becomes Lady who can be a partner of a Knight. This literally came to me in the shower. ↩︎
This came to me after Shortz suggested using Navajo. I don’t speak Nahuatl, but know numbers and some words. My email address contains the word for star, citlalli. ↩︎

Listed

This Week: Friday Five

One. I have a pretty gnarly cold and had to skip book club at church. Normally this would not have been an issue, but I volunteered earlier in the week to facilitate the discussion and bring snacks. The book for this month was Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young-Lutunatabua. I felt bad about completely bailing, so I asked Sean to be my facilitator by proxy. Sean doesn’t go to book club and didn’t read the book. No worries, I told him. I’ll prepare you. I checked out the study guide for the book, highlighted some of my favorite quotes, wrote down several questions, along with how I would answer my own question in some cases and sent him on his way. It went fine. One of the people who attends every session told Sean to report back to me, “You have a good man.” I do.

Two. Archie and I recently started the Narnia series with The Magician’s Nephew. This was inspired by picking up The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from a local Little Free Library. I figured it would count for a reading challenge prompt and Archie and I could read it at bedtime, which I’ve really been enjoying lately. It was news to me that even though The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first book published, it’s technically the second in the internal chronology. So, I had to start at the beginning. Anyway, it’s been neat to see Archie discover this world and also raise questions like, “Why is Aslan only calling the male animals to his advisor circle?” Archie’s response, “I think it’s because when this was written, boys were more favored.”

Three. I’ve been obsessed with The Pitt. Not only is a great show with compelling storylines and amazing acting, but it also rectifies some of my problems with the streaming model. Instead of 8-12 episodes, we get 15. There’s more time to see characters develop and actually see story arcs be resolved. I know some people love to sit down and binge watch a show. I get that, but there’s also something so nostalgic about waiting week to week for the new episode to drop.

Four. Leonor had a few recent newsletters about 5 rules. The February 5 rules newsletter included rules on running (fully agree with all of them) from a contributor as well as others on fashion, art, all things money/budget/saving, and more. I don’t know if I can think of 5 rules for anything at the moment, but I do have one: there is a The Wire line for everything and I will quote it at least once a week. Most recently: is you takin’ notes on a criminal-fucking-conspiracy inspired by the Signal group chat with The Atlantic editor.

Five. It’s National Poetry Month and I’m trying to write a poem a day. I wrote one haiku and attempted a word association/stream of consciousness poem about my Grandpa Bartolo who would’ve been 100 in March. I condensed it all to this haiku:

North of La Brooklyn
Lived Don Bartolo, sobador,
Known for healing hands

Música, Parenting

It’s An Old Song

A few months ago I remember seeing a prompt on Bluesky from a contributor with This American Life. They needed stories from when someone said an off-hand remark that stuck with you for a long time and had a major impact on your life¹. I couldn’t think of one to add, but this winter, I recalled a remark my dad made about musicals when I was a kid.

We had just rented The Sound of Music on VHS. I don’t know what prompted it, but I distinctly remember him saying it was boring and too long, “They sing the same song for 15 minutes!”

I took that and extrapolated it to believe that all musicals were boring and too long. Musicals weren’t my thing.

I still held on to this belief even after seeing a few musicals at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. We could never afford orchestra tickets for a family of six, but my dad got complimentary tickets from work. We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Candide and a couple other shows thanks to that perk². Joseph and Candide were fine and I enjoyed them, but I didn’t go home and immediately beg my parents to get a CD recording so I could listen to the songs endlessly. In my 20s, I saw a few other shows at the same theater and was a bit bored in the second act. Don’t hate me, but I didn’t love Wicked and Mamma Mia!

The joke is on me. I’ve enjoyed musicals and musical theater since I was a teen. I was really into the 1990s Disney musicals. Some of the first CDs I owned were the soundtracks to Lion King, Aladdin, and Pocahontas. A friend gave me a 4-CD disc set of Disney music for my quinceañera, and it was one of the best gifts ever. To this day, “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid is still a go-to at karaoke.

Two, I was a band kid from middle school into college! Do you know how many times I played music from musicals?! Twice. West Side Story really had a grip on my band directors. Yes, I’ve formed a shark and a jet on a football field.

Maybe my dad isn’t into musicals, but I am³. See: Hamilton obsession and Hadestown.

Hadestown came to me by way of Xavi.

After acting in the fall Shakespeare play, The Tempest, Xavi decided to audition for the winter musical which would be either Hadestown: Teen Edition or Mary Poppins⁴. The students and school decided on Hadestown and Xavi was cast as a member of the chorus/workers.

From December through February, he worked hard in many rehearsals on weeknights and weekends to learn the music and choreography. We’d listen to songs from the musical in the car or at home as he practiced his parts and choreography. It was cute to hear him share the origin story of Orpheus and Eurydice with Archie.

Collage of photos from the Hadestown teen production.

We saw the school’s production four weeks ago. I was blown away by all the performers and so proud of Xavi’s hard work. I was also touched that my mom was able to come out to see Xavi. He didn’t know she was coming and was so surprised to see her when he came home from school.

Before the teen performance, I had only heard a few of the songs from Hadestown. But afterward I knew I wanted to see the Broadway production. So, when Xavi asked if we could see it while visiting family in Long Island, I immediately said “yes, let’s see if there are tickets!”

Collage of photos from Broadway Hadestown outside the theater, in theater of set and playbill, and Cindy, Xavi and Archie.

We both loved it and I’m obsessed⁵. Two weeks later, I’m still amazed at the set, lighting, actors, and musicians and have had the Original Broadway Cast recording on repeat. Seeing the Broadway production made me appreciate more what Xavi and his peers did with a minimal set and budget. I told Sean that I was much more touched by the teen rendition of “Why We Build the Wall” because I saw Xavi up there and because the themes of the musical will have a greater impact on his generation.

On the road trip back from Long Island, we did family sing-alongs to Hamilton, a musical I played constantly when Xavi was a toddler and Archie was in utero/a baby. After asking to skip to “Wait for It”, Xavi said, “I have such memories of this song!” He then didn’t allow me to sing until the chorus, because he claimed Aaron Burr’s parts.

Whether we’re singing “Wait for It” or “Wait for Me”, I’m glad we can have these full circle moments and influence each other’s music taste.

It’s a parenting moment I didn’t know I was waiting for.

The resulting episode was pretty good. ↩︎
I also got to see an incredible flamenco show there and Natalie Merchant at the Greek Theater. That was my first concert. ↩︎
No shade whatsoever to my dad who has had a huge and positive influence on my musical upbringing. I’ve reflected on it like in this snippet from seeing Los Lobos years ago. ↩︎
The number of times I watched my VHS of Mary Poppins might also say something about my affinity for musicals. ↩︎
Sean and Archie didn’t go, but Archie still had a good time spending Christmas money in the Nintendo LEGO stores. ↩︎

Familia, Sentimientos

In these times

I’ve been getting flashbacks to early 2020 when we didn’t yet know how COVID-19 was going to impact us. There were huge impacts in my work at a university. I had to pivot to cancel or figure out how to move programs online. I barely knew how to use Zoom before March 2020 and quickly had to learn. I won’t even get into all the changes with school and childcare. It was hard, but fortunately I had a good support system both with family and professional help and felt relatively safe in my Ithaca bubble.

These days are different and I feel it in my bones and ability to concentrate. I love to read and struggle to get through books. It’s the dead of winter and the walks and activities that I enjoy and help manage my worries don’t seem appealing. As I write this, it’s in the teens outside.

So, here’s what I’ve been doing to try and manage my own mental health amidst a barrage of bad news.

Daily gratitude journal. Some days I’m just thankful for a cozy sweater or the light that streams into my window in my office. Just writing, using my dozens of pens and markers for doodling and making something pretty calms me.
Staying informed by reading/listening to a few news sources rather than doomscrolling endlessly. It’s one thing to read an article about the latest cuts to research funding. It’s another to read dozens and dozens of takes on that on Bluesky. I’m not on Twitter anymore. I’m never calling it the new name. I still doomscroll, but way less.
Playing more games. Sean and I recently started playing Cinematrix on New York Magazine. He is a movie trivia whiz. We also still play the NY Times games like Wordle and Spelling Bee. We listen to NPR’s Sunday Puzzle with the kids. No matter how many times Archie insists he doesn’t like the game, he joins in for the on-air puzzles. Usually, the weekly challenge is a little tough for them (and us too!), but Xavi was so excited when he helped us solve the puzzle on January 26th almost instantly: “Think of a popular singer whose first and last names each have two syllables. Drop the second syllable from each name and you’ll be left with the piece of a toy. What singer is this?” He gave the name of the singer and instantly I got the toy.
Music! Lately, I’ve been listening to Khruangbin or jazz greats like Miles Davis and Bill Evans while I work.
More TV and theorizing about my favorite mystery box shows like Severance and Yellowjackets.
Connecting with friends and family. This isn’t always easy, but a quick voice note does wonders to lift my spirit.
Being creative. Recently, I made the 12th version of Valentine’s Day cards for family members from the boys. I have a running list of punny jokes related to different members. The next project is making cards for friends.
Investing in creators who make content I value and enjoy. I’ve subscribed to Patreon for creators like The Stacks Podcast and Vibe Check. They both have robust communities for subscribers.
Volunteering. I’ve made an effort to get more involved with my local church. I’ve completed training for being a lector and have already.
Singing. I went to karaoke for the first time in years (maybe 15ish?). There was no one else in the place except me and a few coworkers. I sang way too many songs including “Por Un Amor” in Linda Ronstadt Canciones de Mi Padre style. Xavi is also into Hamilton again and we’ve been singing “Nonstop.”

Valentine with a photo of Xavi in a circle that reads "tío Adrian, you're bun in a million! burger bros p/v" from Xavi

valentine with a photo of archie's head and text that reads "tía Lori, I love you to the mountains and back"