Character Breakdown: REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES

So I'm playing Ana Garcia, who is a first generation, first generation, um, uh, Mexican

American first citizen in her family. She comes from a family of immigrants

Um, and she has these aspirations of being a writer, going to Columbia university

and while she has those dreams, she also has to figure out how to balance

being sort of her biggest help to her family. And Ana is who I wish I was at 18

She's just so confident, so headstrong. She is so in herself and unapologetically so

and I feel like I'm very much that now in my life but I wish I was her at 18

I love her. Well, I'm playing Carmen, which is Ana's mother. And what I love about her already is that she's witty. She's sassy. She's funny. She loves her family. And there's a dynamic and complicated mother-daughter relationship that I love. And it's something that I get to put my acting chops into

Estela Garcia is Ana's older sister. I can relate because I'm an older sister, too

I know how it feels to be an older sister. And she's a hardworking woman

And I feel that that's what we have in common. Okay, so I'm playing Henry Cole

I love Henry Cole because Henry Cole is kind of just me in high school. He very passionate about the things that he passionate about He a little nerdy He super dorky And also he a little bit you know he falls in love with Ana Garcia during the course of the show And so it like it the first time he falling in love And I was definitely not the smoothest guy in high school

either, but he is so passionate about journalism and he finally meets somebody else that's just

as passionate as he is. So it's so lovely getting to portray someone that finally feels seen for the

first time and, um, and getting to just be a genuine version of myself that I think I would

have loved to have seen when I was in middle school and high school, somebody that is just authentically themselves and gets to be that way despite all the things that they work through and

everything. So it's great. Yeah. For you. I play Raul Garcia. I play the dad. And for me to play

this is very, very easy. Why? Because I have a daughter who's 12 years old, Juliana, and my son

who's 23, Adrian, and he's at Princeton. I have to say it. And, you know, for me to be able to play

a dad who just feels pride, wants her to do better than them, and is here to support her dreams

It's all a parent wants is for their kids to fly. And at least for me, I want my children to fly

And that's what I do for Anna. I play Flaca, Prima Flaca. So I'm a cousin of the Garcias

And I, what I love about her is she's a chola. So she's very much, when we were talking about

what the character meant to us and like what we wanted to see about in the character I was like

I needed to be a chola because back in that day being a chola was a revolution and it was like a

big like middle finger to society and to authority figures and so I I just I was like that's my

character that's what I want her to be I want her to be badass like I want her to be in charge

and just like powerful and I that how I feel about Flaca and I play Prima Fulvia I also a cousin of the Garcias And for me it very special because they brought in a queer character like I said

And we existed even in the... We existed. We've existed since time began

We just didn't talk about it. You know, the family was like, oh, she's the gay one. We're not going to talk about it

But my character is, I'm here. I'm queer. I've been here since time began

And so to put a queer character in a show that takes place in 1987

especially a mask is so like revolutionary too like whoa there is a lesbian on the upper left

hand side of the stage and she but and my character i love she's got the heart she's got the humor

she's got the funny one-liners she's just really humble and just and us our chemistry between both

of us is like we're down we're we have each other's back and you know east l.a yeah that's i love it

I play Pancha, and she is one of the factory workers. She's a little older, and she can say whatever she wants

And she has a lot of laughter and sage advice, and I love playing her

Like I say, a little lipstick, and she says, a little g

And that pretty much describes us. And actually, I would be putting on my makeup so often in rehearsals

that it actually made it into the score. Yeah. So that's why it's there

Because I'm literally always like, oh, no, no, no. I have to fix, especially the eyebrows, too, because sometimes they wipe away

So what's the name of your character? Rosalie. And she's from El Salvador

And she really into like horoscopes and makeup and like trendy and fashion And like so she me And lipstick a little bit yeah yeah yeah i mean i excited to like grow my lipstick collection on this production yeah so my character

name is it's a she is a 19 year old from guatemala that just arrived at the factory

and she does not have papers obviously she has just gotten here and she's trying to bring her

family forward. You know, she's trying to, as an older daughter, she is doing exactly what Ana is

doing, exactly what Estela is doing. There's a parallelism there, I think, between the daughters

of immigrant families that you just have to do whatever you can to lift your family up

And obviously, the immigration system in this country, even back then in 1987, when our story

is set, was not friendly. And I think the interesting thing about this is we are really

going to show that there are people that spend years and so much money just trying to earn their

their citizenship here and I think for me to play Itzel as someone that moved to this country when I

was 10 years old is just so meaningful because I know Itzel I I these are my friends this is my

family I think there are so many of us that are mixed status families so to portray that on stage

especially at this moment where our immigration system is getting more cruel by the day is just

so important and I feel the weight of this character. I'm going to throw everything I

have into her and I hope that I do her justice and that our audience can find compassion and ask

themselves what would I do if I was in that situation? Do I have the strength to cross a

border to help my family