Writer and filmmaker Josefina López will speak about her independent film Real Women Have Curves on Thursday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Garrison Theater, located on the Scripps College campus at 10th and Dartmouth. The lecture, sponsored by the Alexa Fullerton Hampton Speaker Series Trailblazers, is free and open to the public. In conjunction with the lecture, a dinner will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday March 4, in the Hampton Room at Malott Commons, located at 9th and Columbia. There is a cost for the dinner and reservations are required. For more information or reservations, please contact the Malott Commons Office at (909) 607-9372.
Real Women Have Curves, a coming of age film about a first generation Mexican-American girl who struggles to find balance between her mainstream ambitions and her more traditional cultural heritage, has gained international acclaim since its release. Originally conceived as a play in 1990, Real Women Have Curves was rewritten for film by playwright Josefina López, and the film’s producer, George LaVoo. The film was honored at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival with the Dramatic Audience Award as well as a Special Jury Award for Acting. In addition, the screenplay recently received the coveted Humanitas Award.
Josefina López was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and moved to the United States when she was five. She lived undocumented in Boyle Heights for almost 13 years, until she received her legal residence through the Simpson-Rodino Amnesty Law in 1987. López started writing for her junior high school newspaper in Boyle Heights and authored her first play when she was 17. Since then, she has had more than 40 of her plays produced in the U.S. and has written television scripts for NBC, ABC, HBO, FOX, the WB, and UPN.
López completed her undergraduate degree in 1993 at Columbia College in Chicago and earned her MFA in screenwriting from UCLA Film and Television School. In addition to her own successful writing career, López founded CASA 0101, an art space in Boyle Heights where she teaches writing and digital filmmaking to Latino youth. López recently received a “Women Making History” citation from Senator Barbara Boxer and a Screenwriting Fellowship from the California Arts Council, and, in 2003, was named the “Woman of the Year” by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women.
López’s lecture is part of the Scripps College Alexa Fullerton Hampton Speaker Series “Trailblazers,” a series made possible through the generous bequest of Alexa Fullerton Hampton, Scripps class of 1942. Additional funding was supplied through the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Commons. Founded in 2000, the Malott Commons now serves as the center of many on-campus functions for Scripps students and the greater Claremont community. The Malott Commons is located on the corner of 9th and Columbia, on the Scripps College campus.