SUMMARY
This article examines the 2002 film Real Women Have Curves, as a case study in the life of a young Mexican American and the challenges she faces living with her family in the United States. The case study can serve as a microcosmic view of the universal issues facing other young Latinas who immigrate to the United States. Many Hispanics come to the United States each year. In fact, Hispanics are the fastest growing minorities and expected to become 15 percent of the population by 2020. The large groups of Latino immigrants in the United States have created greater acceptance in mainstream culture. However, the experiences of Latinas are different and have unique challenges such as the following: maintaining collectivist family relationships in an individualistic society, negotiating the traditional roles of the Hispanic family in a culture that embraces different ideas about relationships, sex and marriage, and struggling with their own self-image when they are forced to see their body shape through the narrow lens of their new dominant culture.