In the early 1970s, Celina Guerrera is a young Latina woman from San Diego with a son and a difficult husband. The story then moves back into 1967, showing how Celina got into the situation, with her struggles to escape from poverty and provide for her son, being shown as she faces strong disapproval from her family among other people for being an unwed mother initially.
Tropes:
- The '60s: The film begins in 1967, with Celina as a high schooler. Abortion being illegal and the Vietnam War raging are integral factors to the plot.
- Abusive Parents: Celina's dad is an abusive jerkass who mistreats her mom and demands her money as payment for babysitting his grandson (well, her mom does the work mostly) even when Celina pays half already, plus many other expenses. When she angrily tells him off, her dad slams her against the kitchen wall, and then threatens his grandson for intervening. This is the last straw for Celina, who leaves along with her son.
- Determinator: Celina is very strong-willed, and won't let anything or anyone stop her from climbing out of poverty, whether it's her boss, her abusive father or her negligent baby daddy/husband.
- Domestic Abuse: Celina's father is abusive to her mother, first throwing something at her when she tells him about something and then they get into a furious argument, making Celina retreat into her room.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Celina has to go through a long struggle with her family, poverty, her son's dad etc to finally have money to buy a house for herself, her son and her friends in triumph as the Roe vs. Wade decision is also announced, overjoying her as it can spare more women like her friend dying from botched abortions.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Celina and Marty both get pregnant, deciding to go have illegal abortions (this is in 1967) from a dentist who's provided them. Both are treated sympathetically, while Celina's concerned only by the fact it might not be safe. She even talks right to the viewer about it, saying this isn't the easy way out but it's actually a very difficult choice and she'd been denied an informed decision ahead of time by her strict Catholic upbringing. Marty dies when the dentist botches the abortion, and asks Celina if God will forgive her beforehand. Celina assures her there's nothing to forgive. She goes through with her pregnancy as a result of the risk. On hearing when Roe vs. Wade is announced, Celina reacts with joy.
- How We Got Here: Celina is first shown as married to Matea with a young son, and then the film goes back to show things led up to there.
- Imagine Spot: Celina has multiple ones where she imagines what other people think or would about some situation, like her mother or a banker who denies her a loan.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Celina gets pregnant by Mateo unintentionally, in what's also her first time.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Minerva and Calvin sympathize with Celina's struggles a Latina single mom, due to being an interracial couple (she's white, he's black), and help her out, saying they've experienced discrimination too as a result.
- Mama Bear: Celina is very protective of her son Christian, leaving her parents' home when her dad threatens him and later her husband when he's injured as a result of his negligence, both of them also serving as her Rage Breaking Point.
- Morning Sickness: Celina is revealed to be pregnant when she vomits violently into the toilet.
- No Fourth Wall: Celina regularly speaks to the audience about things going on, as does a bit character too once.
- Rage Breaking Point: When Celina's dad threatens her son and then her husband gets him injured as a result of neglect, Celina blows up at both, leaving them after having put up with a lot beforehand.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Celina decides to have sex with Mateo, kisses him and then the scene ends, but it's made clear they did afterward (as she gets pregnant).
- Slut-Shaming: Celina is shown walking past her family and friends, who are mostly disapproving of her being pregnant when unmarried. In one Imagine Spot she also sees her mother say that she's a whore for wanting to use the pill.
- Struggling Single Mother: Celina is shown while having to work two jobs as a single mother, while her asshole dad demands she pay a greater share of the rent (she's living at home with her parents), when she's been paying half to begin with, the food and utilities as well, because he along with her mom babysit her son when Celina's working. Then she gets told off by her boss for making mistakes or falling asleep at work due to how tired it all leaves her. Meanwhile Mateo, the father, isn't around initially at all and doesn't help with it. Celina learns he left her so she'd be pressured into marrying him, going AWOL and later then demanding to see her son. She is naturally pretty angry about this. Despite good history of employment and credit, she can't get a bank loan due to (it's strongly implied) both being a single mother and Latina (which at the time was legal to both discriminate toward). He doesn't appear to pay any child support for years. After her dad becomes abusive, she and her son go to live with him only because there's no where else. However, by then Celina has gotten good advice from her boss on how to get more money. She then marries Mateo, with things soon starting to turn around in her life, although it's mostly because of her previous sound frugal investments. Then her previously benevolent boss fires her as she spends more time at home with her son, and Mateo resents her as more successful. She ends up single again soon, after he leaves their son at home alone, with Christian injuring himself as a result to her rage. Even when they had been married Celina might as well have been single still, as Mateo was little help to her.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Celina and her friend Marty both get pregnant unexpectedly by the guys who they sleep with.
- Teen Pregnancy: Celina and Marty both get pregnant while they're 17.
- Their First Time: At his urging, Celina has sex with Mateo on the roof after agreeing that she wants her first time with him.
- Time Skip: After Marty dies and Celina is resigned about being pregnant, the film moves ahead to show her full term from when she's about three months along before she's giving birth.
- Title Drop: Celina states "Women is losers" while she narrates after the opening scene, relating how they're seen by many people in the early 1970s when it's set.
