Real Women Have Curves
In Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, in 1987, recent high school graduate Ana García is accepted to Columbia University. Ana struggles to balance her dream of going to college with family duty and a tough economic situation. Ana conceals the news from her father Raúl and her mother Carmen. Initially, Carmen resists the idea in favor of Ana helping her sister Estela, who oversees a textile factory and needs to manufacture 200 dresses in three weeks. The factory experiences several challenges including an immigration raid next door and the deportation of Itzel, one of their employees. Ana wants to both keep her family together and resolve their precarious finances. Ana accepts an internship at a newspaper, where she meets another intern named Henry. The two interns form a romance, with Henry disregarding Ana's self-deprecation. Ana juggles the newspaper internship with her factory job; in the end, she ultimately decides to go to Columbia University.