Innovative staging, superb cast and a powerful script propel a funny, touching coming-of-age story at the Denver Center

It’s tempting to place I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter squarely into the coming-of-age category of plays, films and novels. And while it certainly deserves a spot there, this adaptation by Isaac Gómez of Erika L. Sánchez’s best-selling novel of the same name truly elevates the genre — with the added spice and complications of Mexican-American culture.

Júlia is our messy puddle of a teenager, and at the top of the show we’re at the funeral of her “perfect” sister Olga. It’s present-day Chicago and Olga, we learn, died a violent death after being struck by a truck. What follows is a year of events played out in a rolling series of scenes that overlap seamlessly. Rosa Isabella Salvatierra is absolutely tremendous as Júlia, never leaving the stage as a diverse array of friends and relatives come in and out.

Director Laura Alcalá Baker makes full use of the in-the-round Kilstrom Theatre to bring the audience directly into Júlia’s world. In what may well be the most innovative staging I’ve seen in that space, Scenic Designer Arnel Sancianco uses all of the Kilstrom’s handy gadgets to build an externalized version of what’s going on in her mind. Curved metal racks full of stuff mirror her cluttered thoughts above and below (while also serving as prop storage in some instances). And in one pivotal scene, the upper ones descend around Júlia, enclosing her in a cage of her own making that her father must punch through to save her.

Other inventive uses of the stage include the opening scene, where Olga’s open casket is represented by a structure containing the dress she’ll be buried in surrounded by the flowers, cards and other things you’d typically see at the scene of a tragedy. The trapdoor then disappears all of that, and it returns later in the show with Júlia’s quinceañera dress.

Rosa Isabella Salvatierra (left) and Heather Lee Cheverría in the Denver Center Theatre Company production of ‘I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter’ | Photo: Jamie Kraus Photography

Handling loss

It’s telling, if a bit cliché, that one of Júlia’s favorite books is The Catcher in the Rye. But she far outpaces Holden Caulfield by dragging everyone around into her morass of insecurities. Her trainwreck is increasingly difficult to watch, but it’s all tempered with a good deal of humor fueled largely by Júlia’s biting sarcasm. And they’re not just laugh lines; they’re aimed at the heart of parental BS – and the Mexican variety specifically.

(I should note that some of laughs came from bits of Spanish or allusions to Mexican culture that soared over my head. On the opening night following previews when I went, the audience was full of friends and family of the mostly Latino cast. They really added to the experience as they relished the many references to their own lives they wouldn’t normally see on the American stage.)

Nicole Betancourt plays Júlia’s mother, Amá, with a ferocity that makes us wonder how much she really loves her flawed daughter. She won’t say — no wait, she does! — but in her heart she wonders if certain actions on Júlia’s part on the fateful day didn’t lead to Olga’s death. Carrying all that freight in one character is a heavy lift, and Betancourt is utterly convincing in the role.

Olga’s presence looms large over the entire family, and it’s a neat device to have Heather Lee Echeverría portray her flitting in and out at key times. She’s not a ghost; more like a personified memory who doesn’t say much but conveys a lot by her presence. Sometimes she’s seen and sometimes not, but her being there is a constant reminder of her outsized influence on the living.

Echeverría — like many in the cast — plays other characters, and Goméz’s adaptation of the novel relies on this kind of utilitarian casting. One of the things I most appreciated in his script and the ways in which it was realized by Baker on this stage was how well the flow of scenes works. It keeps the pacing brisk while also replicating the cadence of life itself. For Júlia, everything seems to be coming at her at once, and in I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, it brings the audience along for the ride in determined fashion.

I’m also a great lover of scripts that combine languages, and this one nicely depicts how many immigrant or dual-culture families use a mix of languages as a matter of course. Spanish is a more colorful and rhythmic language than English with all those wonderful trills and accents. It affords a playwright like Goméz the ability to add interest and authority to the dialog while beautifying it in the process. Love it.

Rosa Isabella Salvatierra as Júlia reluctantly wearing her quinceañera dress | Photo: Jamie Kraus Photography

Circle of friends

Outside of her embattled relationship with her mother (father Apá, Alex Alpharaoh, is mostly silent) Júlia’s BFF Lorena (Leslie Sophia Pérez) provides a sanity check and sounding board. Pérez is a joy in this role portraying a fiery, highly opinionated young woman who’s the exact opposite of Júlia when it comes to decisiveness. So far as she’s concerned, the shortest, simplest solution is always the best, consequences and rules be damned. When a new friend, Juanga, comes along, the trio stands firm against the world. Juanga is a proudly gay teenager who papers over his own problems with over-the-top flair. Brandon Rivera has a lot of fun with this character, letting bits of the troubled teen behind the mask slip out until we ultimately discover his life is an order of magnitude more difficult that Júlia’s.

While Júlia makes her way through her last year of high school, she’s snooping into Olga’s past as well. Convinced that there was something off about her death, she ultimately discovers that the perfect daughter was anything but. Add to that a budding romance with a rich white kid from the ’burbs and it’s a very full plate of emotions to handle.

After a chance meeting in a bookstore, Júlia and Connor (Daniel Clark) have a sweet, awkward and at times very funny relationship as they explore the wide divide between them. It’s an important character with which to reflect the two worlds of rich-poor, brown-white and wealthy suburb versus the gritty city.

Rosa Isabella Salvatierra and Daniel Clark | Photo: Jamie Kraus Photography

In one of the most touching and inventive sex scenes I’ve seen on stage, intimacy director Maya Vinice Prentiss guides the couple through first-time awkwardness to create a moment that’s as sweet as it is funny. Fully clothed, they go through the motions that only sorta replicate the act while entirely convincing us that’s what’s happening. It’s a neat example of how to convincingly depict intercourse without necessarily showing it.

It’s the kind of detail we see throughout Mexican Daughter, and it all adds up to a powerful story told through a beautiful production that opens a window for white audiences to view a part of our population we don’t often get to know. For Latino audiences, it’s a chance to see themselves reflected with love and humor in a play that dwells on universal themes.

As we live through yet another election where one party is hell-bent on vilifying and degrading “the other,” I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter serves as a powerful reminder that people are people, teenagers are teenagers and our worlds are better connected than at odds with each other.