Literature to Life (LTL) adapts Erika L. Sánchez’s YA novel as their newest title in their Signature Performance series!

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter focuses on the idea of finding one’s own identity, and breaking free from societal, cultural, and familial expectations. The story follows Julia Reyes, a Chicago high school student, as she navigates trials and tribulations of following her dreams of becoming a writer, alongside the death of her sister, Olga—who might not have been quite as perfect as she seemed.

LTL is a performance-based literacy organization that presents professionally staged verbatim adaptations of American literary classics. Each performance features one actor portraying all of the characters in the novel.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter was co-produced in partnership with Freedom Reads, the only organization in the nation transforming the experience of incarceration by opening libraries in prison housing facilities.

Trigger warning: The novel addresses mature themes, including suicide and sexual assault. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people ages 10-14, and the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15-18, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. One in 9 girls and 1 in 20 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault and females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). We see the performing arts as a powerful way to open up a dialogue about issues like these that may otherwise go unspoken.

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Runtime: 90 minutes with talk back

Recommended grade levels: 9-Adult

Curricular Connections: ELA, Theatre, Bilingual, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Showtimes at 10AM and 12:30PM