HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS
JULIA ALVAREZ
JULIA ALVAREZ
1991,1992,2005
ISBN-13: 978-0452268067
- Average Customer Review: (154 customer reviews)
- Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,998 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Well, I finally finished this novel. And I'm quite upset by how long it took me! I could have read 2 books maybe even 3 in this time, ha-ha.
So, it took me so long because I couldn't get into it. I finally started liking the book about 100 pages in. But, by then 2 week have already gone by. (the fact that I started my internship in July contributed too I suppose.)
This, novel though, hasn’t been my favorite this summer, but it kept me intrigued. It confused me a whole lot though. The author Julia Alvarez wrote the book in reverse chronological order, but that was not what confused me. It just seems like every chapters was a different story. The whole book is based on 4 girls, Carla, Yolanda, Sandra, Sofia, and their parents, however sometimes it was hard to tell whose point of view we were reading from or who was speaking or which sister it was that did this or that. Then the next chapter would be about, the housemaid or something which didn’t make it quite the easy read.
With that said though, Julia Alvarez did tackle a lot of serious issues. Alvarez spoke of the girls’ struggles growing up in America. They grew up in the Dominican Republic until their parents left the rule of Trujillo for NYC. These young girls faced racism in school more then they would nowadays, at least that is what I would like to hope for; even though the mother decided to take them to Catholic school so they do not lose their religion, but that didn’t stop the boys.
I cannot really relate to the name calling and such seeing as I grew up in the U.S and went to a school with a majority of Hispanics (Grammar school anyway), but I can feel her pain not being accepted. It was very heart-warming. But, you see, events like this in the novel did not happen until the middle of the book already. The first half of the book was about the girls now that they’ve aged, married, divorced, had kids, and Yolanda’s visit back to the homeland (like I said a lot happened in 90 pages or so). What I can relate to though, is being one of the only minorities in a classroom. At my school I typically am the only minority, if (and that’s about a 50-60% IF) there is another the student is 99% not Hispanic, so I know how it is, to feel out of place or like maybe people won’t take you seriously. However, I’m grateful that people are more, a lot more, opened now a days then they were in the times that the book was written (60’s-80’s). Which brings me to another thing, one of the girls talked about how she made friends with people by going to lunch with them and that lunch turned into dinner; that is the story, or was as a freshmen in college, at school. So many times we go to dinner and stay there till we are kicked out, or go to brunch and leave hours later, it is the best place to catch up!
One of the girls faced perverted-ness, a man driving up to her naked asking her to get in, broken bones, tears, or a man who wanted to have sex with one of them in college, meet up five years later and he still wants to (pig), and all the stories later in the novel explained why each of the daughters were who they were in present time, which helps…but only makes sense towards the end. For instance, one of the daughters kind of ran away and in a way forced a man to marry her that lived in Europe; or another daughter having a divorce or two, and one of them was a really good writer, but then things stopped...why? The daughters had to witness hardships, back home they were a well-respected wealthy family, not so much in NYC, so one can imagine the changes they had to face. Their father was a Doctor back home but in the U.S was having a hard time obtaining his Doctor’s license, but the girls were eventually sent to prep school and college.
College. Now you know by the time they got here these Dominican Republicans were becoming Americanized. That is why while they were in prep school their mother took them back to their homeland every summer, for the full summer, so that they would never forget their accent, roots, etc. This was one of the main issue the book tackled, becoming Americanized. The girls were always told though, they would fall in love in the language that they feel most comfortable in, and this idea was reinforced a few times. For instance, the reason why one of the girls left her husband was because they no longer spoke the same language; it is a pretty deep concept if you ponder on it.
All in all, an OKAY book, I’d recommend it if you enjoyed the kinds of topics I wrote about. Basically, the parents were scared to lose their daughters to America, they feared the girls would marry an American, meaning and American baby, signifying the child would only know English. They did not want their daughters to think of their homeland as a place to go get a tan. Over time though, I do not think they lost the concept their parents wanted them to treasure. No matter how much we say we hate our parents, or even our culture, it is how we are raised and something never go away. I for one, even if I marry an American, will definitely teach my child Spanish, times do change though. While I never been to my “homeland” it’ll always be a great experience I am sure, it’s important to know where we came from, and not just learn about the stereotypical customs that Americans give Latin American Countries. The four girls kind of grew up back home they know more then what an American may assume, that cannot be forgotten. Memories, rather good or bad, from childhood can be remembered. Hey, their parents took them back every summer how could they forget. So they lost their accents, it happens. As long as they are happy, with themselves despite the hardships, that is all that matters.
