Olga Dies Dreaming

In Olga Dies Dreaming, Olga and Prieto have to contend with the expectations that others, especially their mother, have placed upon them. Ultimately, both leave these expectations in the past and forge a life surrounded by those who love and accept them.

Olga and Prieto’s mother Blanca has always had a clear vision of who she wanted her children to become: revolutionaries fighting for the liberation of Puerto Rico. Her letters to Olga, Prieto, and even their father used whatever tactics necessary to encourage them to follow in her path. Whenever a family member refuses to succumb to her manipulations or goes against her demands, Blanca cuts them off, as she did when Olga became a wedding planner or when Prieto voted for PROMESA.

The siblings also feel the pressures of society. By all accounts, she has achieved success. She went to an Ivy League university, forged a career as an in-demand wedding planner catering to the wealthiest in society, and has a regular gig on daytime TV. Still wrestles with the expectations she has internalized, always worried about being stereotyped as a subservient Latin woman. Nevertheless, she finds herself in situations like the pandering TV show pilot that wanted to capitalize on viewers’ biased assumptions.