Her new play, 14 Freight Trains, about an undocumented Latino who became the first American soldier to die in Iraq, premiered in 2014 at Arena Stage to critical acclaim. María grew up an undocumented "dreamer," graduated from Harvard, is a NALIP Trustee and a member of WGAE. She has won Warren, Rockefeller, George Peabody Gardner fellowships, among others, and served as a visiting artist/scholar at Harvard, Tulane and Brandeis universities. Her new dramatic script, The Secret Life of La Mariposa, is a Sundance screenwriter’s lab finalist.