About the Show

A play following a New York-born woman traveling to Puerto Rico for the first time to find her roots.

La Gringa follows a young woman born and raised in New York City who travels to Puerto Rico for the first time to meet her family and explore her cultural heritage. What she encounters challenges the assumptions she has carried about the island and the people she comes from, gradually reshaping her understanding of what it means to be Puerto Rican beyond geography or upbringing.

Written by Carmen Rivera and directed by René Buch, the play is presented in Spanish with English translation. The production centers on questions of identity, belonging, and cultural inheritance as experienced by someone navigating the distance between the place they are from and the place that formed them.

Performed in Spanish with English subtitles

Critic Reviews (1)

For a previous production

“All the characters in ‘La Gringa’ have a strong streak of the ridiculous in them, and it is precisely that quality that makes them familiar and lovable...Rivera has captured the spirit of the Puerto Rican experience...The plot tatters and the story gets emotionally confused in the last 10 minutes as Ms. Rivera tries to bring peace and reconciliation to all. But that is after 90 minutes of laughter, and a delight ratio of 9 to 1 would be a very high score for any theatrical veteran.”
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