16th Play - 7/16/23 - Floating Girls Go to the Moon by Maria I. Arreola

I have a lot of Latinx students and I wanted to add more plays written by Latinx writers to my library, to have more scenes for them. Here’s one I found recently:

Summary: "With a traditional, overbearing mother, two Chicana sisters navigate the dynamics of their home in their own way. The eldest seeks freedom. Unable to truly be herself around her mother and the confines of their small apartment, she seeks a better place. The youngest strives to keep her family together, regardless of the cost. In a world where some girls become floating girls, these two sisters must decide to stay or to go." (New Play Exchange)

Loved: I love the relationship between Irma and younger sister Ampara. This relationship feels like real sisterhood, with both affection and irritation, and like in life, the relationship becomes strained as Irma needs to grow and look outside the family to find her life. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Irma and next door neighbor and crush, Ashley. It's so sweet to watch that develop - I really felt the excitement and fears of a first crush. Arreola does a nice job of creating the somewhat stifling world that she grows up in, with aunts and neighbors always gossiping and her mother never allowing her to do much outside of the house. I loved that Irma is looking for more of a life than she sees that her mother has. In her words: “All adults do is talk and talk and talk. Say the same things in different ways. Then it’s time for work. Then it’s time to sleep.” I also enjoyed the metaphor of the "Floating Girl." I thought I understood it at the beginning to be when girls got pregnant and disappeared, but as the play went on, it seems that you don’t have to be pregnant to be a Floating Girl. **SPOILER (sort of)** In the beginning they talk about how the Floating Girls have no name, and I love that by the end, Ampara wants her Floating Girl to be known by her name.

What I didn’t Love: This was a one act play, but it was too short for me. I think the playwright should write more scenes to flesh this piece out more fully. It may still end up a one-act, but we're missing a lot. I want more scenes with Ashley and Irma. I want to get to know the gossipy ladies of the neighborhood better. I want to get to know Amá, the mother better. She is the villain of the play, with her homophobia and need for Irma to stay home all the time. We want her to get to know her daughter and allow her to be who she really is. She feels a little two dimensional right now, but I think that would shift with some more scenes where we see her being a great mom and a human being who is more than just a mom. There is a scene where she talks to Ampara about her frustrations with life after immigration and her missing husband, and you get a glimpse of the humanity underneath, but it’s not enough. I'd like to have more empathy for her, even though she'll still end up being the antagonist of the play. Also, as I mentioned, I was a little confused about what the "Floating Girl" was at first - maybe that's intentional?

Overall: This is an interesting play, which is a wonderful example of the magical realism typical in a lot of Latinx literature. It's super realistic, until something happens like a carpet flying down the street (thank you Gabriel García Márquez). In this play, the magical realism is the Floating Girls, who just float up in the air and disappear. Who are they and why does that happen? We don't really know at first, although I thought I did, but it’s more clear towards the end. That being said, I did wonder if that meant that they had died? I didn't think so, but I suppose it could have been that also. Magical realism does not give easy answers. Overall, I like the characters in this play, but I think all of them need more time to be deeper and more fully dimensional. Adding more scenes to this short play would flesh out a lot of this, and turn this into a wonderful all-female piece, with LGBTQ+ and bilingual characters. The struggle of the Latina against the machismo of her heritage, and her family’s desire to keep her suffocatingly close feels honest, frustrating, and ultimately both sad and hopeful in this play. We clearly see the challenges for the modern teenage Latina growing up as an American, feeling like she's outgrown the "traditional" values on which her family frequently insists, but cannot get past. I am not the right person to act in or direct this piece, but I'd certainly be excited to help produce it, and I'd definitely like to see a production!

Here’s a link to Google Sheets with more info about the play: Play a Day Sheet

Want to know more about Maria I. Arreola? https://marreola031999.wixsite.com/website-1