The all-Latina cast brings Josefina Lopez’s story of family expectations, body image, immigration and women’s choices to the Playcrafters stage Sept. 25 through Oct. 4.
By Jonathan Turner, Hola America
The next show at Playcrafters Barn Theatre, Moline, is the heartwarming play “Real Women Have Curves” (1990) by Josefina Lopez.
The story was originally set in a small sewing factory in East Los Angeles in 1987, but has been updated to be in the present, with references to ICE and social media.
Its themes include gender politics and the Latina immigrant experience. The story is told from the point of view of Ana (in Moline played by Cristina Gomez), the youngest employee and Mexican-American teen navigating family expectations, self-confidence, and body image while discovering the true meaning of love, family, and empowerment.
Ambitious and bright, Ana yearns to go to college, but doesn’t have the money, according to a synopsis. The five women talk about their lives, loves and deepest desires while attempting to meet impossible production deadlines. Within that week at the factory, the women face many challenges such as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, troubles with their husbands and other male characters mentioned in the play, judgment from other characters, as well as yearning for dreams that do not seem possible to fulfill.
Five Latina actresses bring the story to the Playcrafters stage
All five actresses are Latina, as are their characters.
“You realize in one way or another, we’ve all been through similar situations. So then to come together for this and be in a show, it’s so rare to be able to do a show that is all Latino,” director Cindy Ramos (who also plays Pancha) said. “When I did ‘In the Heights,’ I was strongly discouraged from doing that production because people kept saying that talent did not exist in the Quad Cities. And now it’s been like, haha, proved you wrong.”
She’s done QC theater for 30 years, including music director, book director, costume designer, and performer. Among her favorite roles are Christmas Eve in “Avenue Q,” and Bloody Mary in “South Pacific.” She directed the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical “In the Heights” at Countryside in 2024.
Playcrafters has become a member of the Greater Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber, and will collect feminine hygiene products during the “Real Women” run for Glenview Middle School’s Dignity Project, Ramos said.
The play connects immigration fears with family expectations
While most of the characters in the play are documented, “they’re still scared,” Ramos said. “They’re scared to walk outside. They’re scared that that man’s going to take them if they don’t have that green card ready to show.”
Estela (Ana’s older sister) is played by Adriana Blanco. The story shows Estela is undocumented, and how it “sets you back and why you didn’t do it. A lot of it’s fear is based on other things that have happened,” Blanco said.
She’s making her debut at Playcrafters, after playing Fritzie in “Cabaret” earlier this year at Music Guild. Her program thanks “the brave, curvy women in my life who have made me all that much stronger and wiser, this is for you. May your legal status never define the endless possibilities life has to offer.”
“I decided finally, at this point I was like, you know what, I’m getting older, I would like to do something that’s very for me and just for me,” Blanco said. “I always enjoyed theater growing up.”
Adriana Blanco finds similarities with Estela
Blanco can identify with her unmarried 34-year-old character since she is 30 and single.
“There is pressure to make your family proud. There’s that sense of pride of I want to make you guys proud, but also how do I do my own thing at the same time and learning to balance that,” she said. “There’s lack of confidence that can come with being raised in a traditional household, especially when you have family members that love to talk about your body image, that I feel like a lot of Latinos can relate to.”
Ana “is very much trying to defend her body and say, these are my curves, I embrace them, but her mom does not,” Ramos said. “If you would just lose 20 pounds, is what she’s told, you could be beautiful. This is the thing, I mean, culturally it happens.”
“To see it on a stage is going to be quite jarring for some. There are a lot of people, I think, no matter what culture you come from, that are going to be able to relate to this on some level,” she said.
The characters confront expectations around marriage and motherhood
Estela doesn’t have to have children, which Blanco can relate to.
“I think coming to terms with that too, because I have aunts specifically that didn’t have kids and the taboo that comes along with not having children. But also there’s just so much more to life, including for Estela towards the end, the different goals and dreams you can have that don’t always relate to children or marriage,” she said.
Ramos did not have her 9-year-old daughter Reina until she was 40.
In the play, “there’s a big epic fight about growing up traditionally Latino versus the modern woman of today,” she said. “There’s a big struggle with that in this show.”
“I had my child at 40, which was like taboo in my culture. Oh my God, they’re like, you’re so old,” Ramos said. “I’m not that old. I’ve had my life. I’ve traveled. I’ve done my theater career. I’ve enjoyed myself. But now the time has come to settle down.”
She took on the part of Pancha because she couldn’t find another right woman to play the married, childless 32-year-old.
“She has no children and wanted them so badly. And her battle is one that is with God,” she said. “God, why did you make me like this? If you want me to be a woman, why don’t you make me a real woman? She doesn’t feel like she’s a full woman because she can’t have kids.”
Celeaciya Olvera highlights diversity within Latino communities
Rosali is played by Celeaciya Olvera. A 2024 Augustana alum who’s done a lot of local theater, Olvera is half Mexican-American and in her real job, she helps students get into college. “I think it’s really important that people that are wanting to seek a better life for themselves, that they kind of go in a direction that maybe not be something that they ever thought of. It’s okay to look beyond what they see,” she said. “It’s okay to have different options.”
“What’s really important about the show too, while every character in here speaks English and Spanish, I think it’s also important to point out that not every Spanish speaker is Hispanic, not every Hispanic speaks Spanish,” Olvera said. “Me being one of them, I don’t speak fluent Spanish. I can pick it up pretty well, but there’s a huge diversity when it comes to the Hispanic/Latino community.”
‘Real Women Have Curves’ runs Sept. 25 through Oct. 4 in Moline
“Real Women Have Curves” will run at Playcrafters from Sept. 25 to Oct. 4. Tickets are available HERE.
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