This flourishing and moving adaptation of Erika L. Sánchez’s New York Times Bestseller follows Júlia, a Chicago high schooler who is totally not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was her older sister Olga’s role. But everything in Júlia’s life changes and feels heavier after Olga dies suddenly, leaving Júlia to manage her family’s grief and unravel the secret truth — that her sister may not have been so perfect after all — all while trying to get into college as a first-generation student in New York City to be the famous writer she knows she’s destined to be.
As she struggles with the all-too-real challenges of being a teenager today in the city of Chicago, and the feeling that she’s failing to become the daughter her sister was and who her parents want her to be, Júlia is left questioning what she really knows about anything.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is a love story to young Latinas who, in trying to find the truth about the people and the world around them, end up finding themselves.
Based on the novel by Erika L. Sánchez
Written by Isaac Gómez
Directed by Laura Alcalá Baker
Dramaturgy by Hannah Herrera Greenspan
Denver Center for the Performing Arts — Denver, CO
September 27-November 3, 2024
*Access to dramaturgy and study guide available upon request
Photos by Jamie Kraus Photography