La Gringa is the first play I’ve ever read in my life, once I started reading it captured my attention because of how relatable it was. I’ve been part of both sides of the spectrum, having family living away from your country and being the one that leaves the country. However, Carmen Rivera wrote this play based on the perspective of someone being born and raised in another country to immigrant parents, having this crisis of identity, in a way. This was interesting to experience through Maria and it helped me understand better this experience which a lot of people around me live.

When reading the play, the character of Iris seemed to me condescend and not trustworthy to Maria. Iris seemed like the type of person who would talk behind your back and put a nice face in front of you, being forced to interact with you but not really enjoying your company. I believe that a lot of this behavior was heavily influenced by her mom’s ideas because Norma was holding resentment toward her sister Olga for leaving Puerto Rico a long time ago and leaving the family behind. There’s a part of the play that I want to dive into, where Norma expresses her feelings and resentment toward her sister.

NORMA: Olga will never step foot in my house!

MANOLO: Without Olga, there would be no house.

NORMA: We built it.

MANOLO: With her money.

NORMA: Our blood and sweat built this house! The floor has our blood in it, these walls have our pain and suffering in it. Olga doesn’t know anything about pain and suffering.

MARIA: Mami and papi’s money is all blood and sweat . . . you think they had it easy, they worked 12 hours a day, two jobs. New York isn’t for lazy people.

MANOLO: Mami left this house to the whole family, the whole family Norma! (Rivera, 47-48)

I know for a fact that is really hard for someone to leave their country looking for a better future. For the immigrant, is the change of culture, language, and customs, and leaving people and what you’re used to, a real challenge. It’s even more challenging for older people because they must focus more on working and maintaining a family whereas the children can focus a little bit more on their social life. Norma said that the house was built with their hands but with Olga’s money, which was to me a self-centered statement. I liked the way Maria emphasized that the money that her mom sent to build the house in Puerto Rico was the same effort that they put on building the house.

I always heard from my family in Peru, how my family in New York had a lot of money, they were rich and had enough to give us gifts. They also used to say that they lived a good life and it was so much easier to make money here. Moving away taught me that those ideas were not true, everyone in my family in New York works as much as my family in Peru, they do have more rights and are better compensated here but is definitely not much easier, even more so because we are Hispanics; something that our family over there might never understand since they’ve never experienced it by first hand.

At least, Norma has character development, and at the end with Manolo’s death, when she opens her eyes and leaves her ego and pride aside to open up to Olga leaving the past to reconnect with her and the rest of the family. Something that maybe some of us hope can happen among our own family members.