This book really hit me close to the heart. As an immigrant from a latin country, I can relate to the things being mentioned in the story. Its hard to describe exactly how I feel at home reading it, but I think that is what is so distinctively south american. The descriptions of the dad’s birthday parties sound like my family’s birthday parties. That feeling of being around all of your family members and enjoying their company is something I miss profoundly. My family of 4 people is the only contact I get, as I have family all around the world but we never actually see each other at the same time. 

I have noticed that novels we read in this class are increasingly resembles something poignant to the one we read previously. The fragmented structure of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents is similar to Woman Hollering Creek and other stories but the vignettes of this novel explicitly state the perspective from which the story is told in the beginning of the chapter. Sometimes, all four of the girls are the protagonists of a story, offering multiple perspectives on life in the United States and Dominican Republic. Similar to Woman Hollering Creek and other stories whose characters straddle the line between the United States and Mexico, having one foot on each side, Alvarez’s novel (unlike Rivera) also names the characters of the story. Each of the sisters have a name and a pet name and the people around them are distinguished with unique names such as Illuminada and Altagracia. The names seemingly function as an indicator of class and the pet names of the girls, such as Yo for Yolanda explicitly refer to the first person.

Although each of the girls each have names, their mother confuses them and attempts to resolve the situation by assigning a particular color to them almost as like how the colors of a flag are representative of a nation. The attention to color seems to be an important aspect of this novel. It begins with visual descriptions of Yolanda’s coming home party.

That story also hints at a matriarchy, indicating that the widowed Tia Carmen was the head of the clan. I am interested to see if this turns out to be a feminist novel. One of its similarities to Cisneros’ novel is a daughter’s defiance to a father’s wishes. Sofia packs her things and flies to Germany after her father confronts her about the letters from her German boyfriend. One of the women in Cisneros’ novel also defied her father to be with her husband. Alvarez’s character more explicitly feels exiled. He only goes to her house to visit his grandchildren and although Sofia threw his seventieth birthday, he mentions all her sister’s names but fail to mention her’s during the games.

Although I don’t find her writing style quite as richly nuanced as Cisneros’, I do appreciate the story being told in this book, and the read has been flying by so far. I realize how fortunate I am to have been raised by hippies in a mostly open-minded society, but even still, it’s always helpful to be reminded of just how much intolerance and backwardness continue to haunt the world. It’s truly disturbing to see how inequality and closed-mindedness have been ingrained into a culture’s communal behaviour and thought processes. Now I wouldn’t be so naïve (or racist) as to believe that every Latin-American family out there goes through this, nor would I think for a minute that there aren’t millions of Americans (white and otherwise, and let’s not forget the rest of the world’s lovely inhabitants) who foment an equally disgusting attitude towards women and any incarnation of “the other”. For the purpose of this blog, however, I shall attempt to remain on task (always a challenge for me, as I just can’t help but tend towards idealism, as pretentious and annoying as I know it is. Sorry.).

In fact, although the father figure here is undoubtedly stuck in the past (somewhat hypocritically, since it was he who originally brought the family to America and wanted the girls to fit in), along with “the mother”, the family core is loving and compassionate, which is a lot more than can be said for most of the scenarios presented in Woman Hollering Creek. I am no proponent of religious zealotry (or extremism of any kind, for that matter), because its main purpose and result is to keep people’s minds glued to petty details and blind to the bigger issues, thus leaving a gaping hole for the higher-ups and what-have-you’s to do as they will. Gah, blasted ramblings again. Anyway, my point was that despite all this, I cannot deny the fact that tradition and moral stability can instil in a few good souls a beautiful and unwavering love. This is where I place the mother. And in spite of all their understandable moaning, it would appear thus far that the girls are going to come out on the other side pretty much unscathed and well adjusted, due to their strong character and the abundance of genuine affection in their lives. In the meantime, however, I am enjoying identifying with their struggles to strike a balance between old and new, Dominican and American, good and bad(ass). 

The title of this novel, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”, implies that this novel is about how the Garcia girls lost their most blatant foreign characteristic and became Americanized. In the beginning, they had accents; they were obviously from somewhere else and didn’t belong. But growing up in America, the forces of the overpowering culture upon teenagers who just wanted to fit in took over and the accents were lost. But to look deeper into the story is to realize that it was the girls’ father, the proud Dominican, who wanted them to lose their accents and therefore sent them to a fancy prep school for this reason. The story isn’t just an account of a loss of culture and identity at the hands of a new one. It’s more about looking for opportunities, and doing what’s necessary to succeed, and being unique. Each chapter is a clear mix of American and Latin influences, and Alvarez doesn’t favour one influence over the other, neither does she reject any elements of either culture. She celebrates the fact that each family, and beyond that each person, is a completely unique mix of everything they have ever experienced and everything that runs in their blood. There is no strict purity of culture; culture is a dynamic hybrid that constantly changes and adapts itself. Each of Alvarez’ characters is very unique, and their differences are celebrated in the end, despite some initial reluctance by other characters and themselves.
So the novel isn’t about a loss of culture. The only thing that’s lost is the girls’ accents, but in this process they find their identities and their directions in life.

    I’m rather happy that we’ve moved onto this wonderful book! Not that the others haven’t been thought/conversation provoking and enjoyable, but this one is my favorite thus far. It is the topic of my Wikipedi article and I finished reading it a couple of weeks ago. In terms of entertainment I find the book pleasureful and the kind of thing I would enjoy to read independently. This may have to do with the characters and modern setting, as a young woman I can relate to their experiences.  

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents is by far my favourite novel so far, and somehow I think I won’t be the only one in saying that. As the story is narrated backwards, the first half of the novel shows us the life of a Dominican family in the New York after fleeing the Trujillo revolution. I actually enjoyed the first stories the most out of the entire novel, as I feel they gave us the best opportunity to get to know and connect with the characters on a deeper level. Since the stories are narrated in a backward chronological order, the first I believe are the most impactful.

In the first story, “Antojos” we see Julia Alvarez’s alter ego, Yolanda return to her birthplace on “the Island” and revisit her heritage. Although when I read this story for the first time, I really didn’t know what direction the book was going in. I do feel like it gives us a great intro to the writing style of Julia Alvarez, as she certainly portrays a strong personal connection towards it. It shows us how her Spanish has deteriorated over her years spent in the United States, and really shows how she “lost her accent”. This story is an example of the personal connection one feels towards their country of birth no matter how their live after that was shaped, or where it was lived. Although Yolanda was raised in the United States, and truly became a somewhat typical American girl, she still feels a strong connection to the Dominican Republic and her roots which are still on the Island.

The other story which I enjoyed the most was the Rudy Elmherst story. It was super juicy and fun to read, in comparison with some of the others. I found all of the stories in the book enjoyable, but this one had something different. I think Alvarez put it in to show the integration of the girls into American society and how they adjusted to life in boarding school and the challenges, peer pressures and temptations that face any teenage girl. Their time spent there seems to be where they did a majority of their “growing up” and thus distancing themselves from their Hispanic roots. It was their chance to rebel from their parents, they could break the rules safely thanks to the freedom they didn’t have at home. Overall an amusing and entertaining story to read.

I am enjoying this book so far, the way it is written, although different from Cisneros, is also a style that for me is easy to read and keeps my attention with its telenovela-style melodramas. When I first read the synopsis on the inside cover of the novel I thought “oooh how West Side Story!” but then I quickly realized that this is nothing like West Side Story, well except maybe that one chapter where Yolanda is “on the island” and the family discusses the differences between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. “I like to be in America…everything free in America!” Does anyone else feel like singing that song throughout this book?

I’m intrigued by the reverse chronological/random chronological order in which Alvarez tells the stories of the four girls. I also like the chapter titles, and the declaration of whom the chapter is about, proving the confusing nature of stories about 4 sisters and people’s inability to remember who is who. I also noticed that sometimes Alvarez writes in the third person and sometimes it’s first person. This creates a real emotional divide between the writings, those in the third person (or better yet, those that refer to the characters as “the third daughter”, or my favourite “the mother”) are more impersonal, giving us less insight into the life and mind of the character. Whereas a chapter that is written in the first person, gives more of a sense of a character opening up and allowing the reader into their thoughts. The most interesting use of this was the two chapters that feature Yolanda, one after the other. The first, “Joe”, about Yolanda’s relationship with her ex-husband, John, was written in the third person whereas the following chapter “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story” was written in the first person. I haven’t quite figured out why Alvarez wrote these two stories so differently…maybe it will come with more insight into the character of Yolanda. I feel like so far Yolanda has been featured the most out of the 4 daughters.

This book deals with a lot of the themes that we’ve seen in some of the other literature in this class such as race, class, gender, immigration/migration, culture, identity, and probably many more common issues…but I think it deals with them in a different way.

I think “the mother” is an interesting character…so wrapped up in righteousness and the reputation of their family. It makes me think of the stories of immigrant families where the children do not understand the struggles of their parents in their home country. However it seems that when it comes to Dominican society, this family is pretty secure and is definitely upper class, despite the mother’s declaration of their poverty. I also find it interesting that we don’t learn much about her until the chapter entitles “Daughter of Invention” when we learn that her name is Laura and that she aspired to invent things that would make the life of a housewife easier, and that she often mixes up English sayings (that was kinda funny).

“How the García Girls Lost Their Accents” has been my favourite novel thus far! I have laughed out loud so many times, and have also been close to tears. Even though I was born and raised in the same country, I feel like I can still relate to the four sisters with some of the different victories and failures that they experienced while growing up in two different nations. I am really enjoying how each chapter zooms in on a different character. Sometimes the chapters include all four of the García sisters and other times they revolve around one. Anyways I think it’s a fantastic way for the author to provide insight into the characters’ lives both individually and together as a family.

In one of my favourite chapters called “Daughter of Invention”, Yolanda has to write a speech for “Teacher’s Day” at her school, and after toiling for hours over this project she is finally able to write a speech that is both intelligent and thought provoking…something that, in her father’s eyes, crosses the boundaries of the American “freedom of speech”. And so, the protagonist of this chapter proudly practices her speech in front of her parents, only to have her appalled father rip up her sole copy. The author provides us with such vivid imagery of a daughter and father who, within a matter of seconds, are filled with such animosity towards each other, which provoke them to say and do some hurtful things contrary to each one’s character. However, following this episode is a scene with such a beautiful reconciliation that I almost cried! After reacting so violently, her father tries desperately to make amends, explaining that it was only out of love and out of his desire to protect her honour that he didn’t want her to make that speech. He feared the negative reaction she would get from her teachers. Anyways, he ends up coaxing her out of her room by telling her how much he loves her, and then he seals the reconciliation with a gift that he has bought for her, an electric typewriter; something she has wanted for a long time.

On a side note….I have often thought that when people buy gifts as a means to reconcile, that they’re trying to figuratively “buy back” that person’s love and acceptance. However, I’ve come to realise that when a father does this out of love it is not because he is trying to buy back his child’s love, it is because he loves his child so much that he wants to demonstrate it by doing whatever he can to make it up. So, sometimes he does this with an apology and a gift… (just some food for thought!) This story brought me near to tears because it really captured the protective yet desperate love that a father can have for his child.

Anyways I am excited to see where this book goes and I’m hoping that the author will provide the reader with some sort of resolution for these girls who feel so out of place living in America