George LaVoo first saw the play — written by Josefina Lopez — in a store-front theater in East Los Angeles and optioned it to make a film. He moved to Los Angeles from New York City and spent one year interviewing Josefina and developing the screenplay. After more than 50 companies turned down the project because no one was interested in a Mexican-American woman as the leading character, he pitched the film to HBO and they agreed to finance it.

Real Women Have Curves broke many conventions of traditional Hollywood filmmaking and became a landmark in American independent film. According to Entertainment Weekly, it is one of the most influential movies of the 2000s and cast a wide shadow over the new generation of filmmakers to come. The movie is cited for showing the impact a movie could have in the culture.

In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"

Over twenty-years later the story of human characters is as relevant as ever, now thrilling audiences as a Broadway musical adapted from Josefina’s play and from the film. The musical is nominated for 12 major New York theater awards.