If I Were Me

In 2001, all-star student Camila Rivera makes one critical mistake: she gets pregnant during her sophomore year of college. Forced to drop out and with a new baby in tow, Camila is desperate to make ends meet; she enrolls herself and her infant son, Gaél, as genome donors in the Human Cloning Program, an up-and-coming longitudinal research program offering its participants monthly stipends in exchange for data. Although Camila is conflicted about the ethics of the program, she is assured that the program is win-win-win: donors receive ongoing financial support for their contribution, clones are given high-quality education, superb nutrition, and treated with the utmost care, and the world benefits from a better understanding of nature and nurture on human outcomes.

Twenty-four years after Camila and Gaél's enrollment in the HCP, their clones, Elena and Antonio, want to meet. The request finds Camila and Gaél in multi-year ruts: Camila works in housekeeping under the cruel regime of an ignorant boss; Gaél lives at home and works at a discount gym, letting his college degree collect dust. Conversely, Antonio and Elena are successfully working in tech and finance, building thriving friend groups and generally reaping the benefits of being raised as clones. When the four decide to meet, it is with only an abstract understanding of what is to come. They have to navigate entirely new types of relationships, and they find themselves asking questions such as: What is my culture? Is mental illness more Nature or Nurture? Do I like who I would have been under different circumstances? Do I like who I am now? Meeting their genetic doubles will hold up mirrors, and those moving, breathing reflections may just show them more than they bargained to see.