Celebrate Women-Power – Real Women Have Curves

Jun 25, 2025 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Two Sues on the Aisle, Susie Rosenbluth and Sue Weston

Real Women Have Curves is a high-energy musical with a Latina twist. Set in 1987, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, during the Reagan-era amnesty program. Real Women Have Curves is based on Josefina López’s semi-autobiographical 1990 play and the 2002 film. It is a story about community, following seven hardworking immigrant seamstresses. The themes are similar yet very different from Jewish-European (just-off-the-boat) immigrants who worked long hours in poor conditions, grateful to be in America, and free.

The factory received an order to complete 200 dresses in 3 weeks. The women agreed to step up to the challenge, knowing that if they were unable to complete the order, they would not get paid. But if they did, this would be the biggest order ever and could be the beginning of something great.

Real Women is about reaching for your dreams, fighting adversity, and winning.

Showing Grit

The show focuses on one family of Mexican immigrants, the Garcias. Raul (Mauricio Mendoza), who “was thrown back four times” before he could relocate his wife, paints houses. They invested everything into a small factory space where their oldest daughter, Estela (Florencia Cuenca), with a small staff of undocumented workers, sews dresses. Their younger daughter Ana (Tatianna Cordoba) is the only US citizen. She wants to go to journalism school at Columbia University, where she won a full scholarship without anyone knowing. Carmen (Justina Machado), Ana’s hardworking mother, imagines a traditional life for her daughter, one where she would be protected, staying at home while working in the family business after high school.

But Ana has bigger dreams. She wants to become a reporter. To appease her family, she agrees to work two jobs. one as an unpaid internship as a reporter at a local paper, the second working at her sister’s factory to help complete the 200-dress order.

As she works with the undocumented immigrants at the dress factory, she learns how much each of these women has sacrificed to get to America and start a new life. These tough women live in fear of being deported, knowing that if they were, they would do everything to return.

Providing Perspective

The Immigration Reform and Control Act, implemented in 1987, established a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants who had lived in the U.S. continuously since before January 1, 1982. Ana shared this information at the factory. But the women were afraid to apply, even though they paid taxes, worked hard, and met the full requirements.

We would have liked the women to pursue the legal option, but the reality of the situation was different. Fear prevented them from acting. They hid and worked to give their children a better life in America.

Body Positive

The show includes songs about some taboo topics that had the women in the audience rolling with laughter. These segments added humor, with a woman-focused, body-positive theme. Beginning with the first song, “Make it Work,” which jokes about the number of jobs women must juggle, including their husbands and lovers. This sets the stage to share other topics, which are chutzpadik, topics commonly avoided, like menopause. Carmen is afraid she is pregnant, and the ensemble joins her in a number that resonated with older women in the audience.

Its signature song is a risqué, but funny sequence where the factory workers strip to their underwear, showing their normal-sized bodies. They find community in their imperfect selves, with hanging skin, stretch marks, cellulite, but they are strong and will survive, ‘No matter what life throws our way, we can bend, we can dance, we can ricochet.’ They are real women who work harder, get paid less, but persevere. These sentiments apply to more than Latino immigrants, but it is a universal message, relatable to all women. The lyrics fluidly mix English with Spanish. “La vida’s la cumbia that we all know.”

Believe In Yourself

The most notable aspect of the show is the diversity of body types, featuring real full-bodied women.  Ana’s mother commented often that Ana could use to lose weight if she wanted to find a boyfriend. Yet, Ana maintained a positive self-image. She is confident in her abilities as a writer and is waiting to meet a boy who will like her for who she is (and she does). It is a reminder that each of us are beautiful.

Real Women shows a positive, supportive family that pulls together to get through the tough times. We enjoyed watching the women at the factory support each other, coming in earlier, staying later, and working harder to achieve something great.

The show itself was colorful, pushing the envelope on acceptable women’s topics, and doing it with a marvelous mix of music. The title itself might be a double meaning: the ability of women (who have curves) to come together and succeed against life’s unexpected curves.

Real Women Have Curves celebrates the power of women.

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Two Sues on the Aisle bases its ratings on how many challahs (1-5) it pays to buy (rather than make) to see the play, show, film, book, or exhibit being reviewed.

Real Women Have Curves received 4 Challahs

Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes – including a 15-minute intermission