Simply Maria, or the American Dream (1987) was written by Josefina Lopes while still in high school at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. This wildly funny play tells the story of Maria, a young, precocious Latina aspiring to be an actor, and her dream of going to college. The story begins in Mexico with Maria's parents eloping. Maria is born, and shortly after they leave for the U.S. her father, Ricardo, tells Maria that in America, with an education, she can have the American dream. Maria believes him and studies hard. However, when she tells her parents she wants to go to college, they order her to get married instead. Maria is so upset she cries herself to sleep and has a nightmare in which her American self and her Mexican self wrestle with each other. best of her two worlds.