Abstract
Ana, the young protagonist from Josefina López’s playReal Women Have Curves, queries, “Is it selfish of me not to want to wake up every morning at 6:30 a.m., Saturdays included, to come work here for 67 dollars a week?”(10). She posits the question to a secret journal that she keeps hidden away in the bathroom of her sister’s East Los Angeles dress factory. Ana continues,
Oh but such is the life of a Chicana in the garment industry. Cheap labor … I’ve been trying to hint to my sister for a raise, but she says I don’t work fast enough for her to pay me minimum wage … The weeks get longer and I can’t believe I’ve ended up here. I just graduated from high school … Most of my friends are in college …. It’s as if I’m going backwards. I’m doing the work that mostly illegal aliens do … (Scratches “illegal aliens.”) No, “undocumented workers” … or else it sounds like these people come from Mars … Soon I will have my “Temporary Residence Card” then after two years, my green card … I’m happy to finally be legal, but I thought things would be different … What I really want to do is write. (10)
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© 2013 Imelda Martín-Junquera
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Godsey, Y. (2013). Reading Los Angeles costureras in the Landscape of Josefina López’s Real Women Have Curves. In: Martín-Junquera, I. (eds) Landscapes of Writing in Chicano Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137353450_7
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