A new web series, created by and starring Jamaica Plain residents, is currently raising funds for a late summer release.
“The Pineapple Diaries,” created by JP native Paloma Valenzuela, who is of Dominican descent, would focus on the lives of three young JP Latinas who are best friends—Maité, Feliz and Catalina—and their next-door neighbor, Montserrat.
“The way I see it, I’m a Dominican woman, and if I can watch ‘Sex and the City’ or ‘Girls’ and put myself in the shoes of those women—white characters in a show with a predominantly white cast—then why can’t it go the other way around?,” Valenzuela told the Gazette. “A Latino show does not need to be packed with stereotypes just so people can ‘get it.’”
“I wanted to create this show to put Latinas, Dominicans, women of color in the foreground, being their relatable, awkward, silly selves, going through the same life stuff we all go through,” said Valenzuela. “White characters are not the only characters who can tell universal stories, and Latinos don’t always need to always have heavy accents, or eat tacos on television or in the movies for the world to understand us.”
Valenzuela grew up in JP and attended Boston Arts Academy and Emerson University before spending five years in the Dominican Republic. One of her plays, “Queseyocuanto,” originally written in Spanish, was first produced in Santo Domingo at the Teatro Guloya, but was presented through Escena Latina in Jamaica Plain last year.
Valenzuela has worked in TV in the Dominican Republic and in short films both locally and in the Caribbean.
The title of the series refers to a common hairstyle among multi-racial people with curly hair: a high ponytail that resembles a pineapple.
“I wear my pineapple every night!,” Valenzuela said. “There are a growing number of Dominican women and women of color in general who are embracing their curls, their natural textured hair, and celebrating the fact that they are a part of the Africa diaspora. I wanted to celebrate this as well. Latinas don’t all look the same.”
The funds raised—over $2,100 as of April 20—will go toward covering food and transportation, sound equipment, editing tools, video equipment, wardrobe, props and set-design. All actors and on-set crew members are working pro-bono, Valenzuela said.
The Indiegogo fundraiser is ongoing through April 30 at indiegogo.com/projects/the-pineapple-diaries-a-mini-web-series. Valenzuela’s website is gringalocaproductions.com.