This analysis evaluates identity formation of Puerto Rican migrants based on María’s experience in La Gringa by Carmen Rivera. In this play, María, the daughter of Puerto Rican migrants, has an unstable foundation of identity, not feeling part of the dominant culture in New York, and she hopes to find a sense of self when she travels to Puerto Rico for the first time. During her stay on the island, she experiences a rude awakening that she is viewed as an outsider in Puerto Rico for being too “gringa.” I interpret María’s experience through the lens of Juan Flores’ description of (im)migrant identity development in “‘Que Assimilated, Brother, Yo Soy Asimilao’: The Structuring of Puerto Rican Identity in the U.S.,” as María undergoes a transformative process where she reaches a newfound confidence in her bicultural identity, accepting that she possesses both Puerto Rican and US cultures.
