Essay!

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents is a novel written by Julia Alvarez. The book allows us into the lives of the Garcia Family as they assimilate into American culture and abandon the old-fashioned, Dominican, culture that their elders desperately try to conserve while in the states.
The Garcia Girls tells a fictional story that has become a reality of many American citizens today.   The Garcia family is thrown into American culture during a time when American culture was radical, feminist, artistic and progressing into new thoughts and ideas. The sisters: Yolanda, Sofia, Carla, and Sandra have come from the Dominican Republic where Latin culture and catholic values are the societal norm. Latin culture is very much patriarchal and this mindset has been instilled in the Garcia girls even from a young age.  When they arrive in the United States they are intrigued and sucked in by the American culture. The girls participated in activities that extremely taboo in the Dominican-Catholic culture.
Alvarez’s purpose was to show the vast differences in the two cultures and psychological “tug-a-war“ game that leaves many young immigrants conflicted. She shows these in situations where the sisters struggle to find a balance between their Dominican culture and their new American culture. The girls were smoking, experimenting with their sexuality and dressing in American fashions.  The girls’ actions deeply concerned their traditional parents in ways as such:
"I don't want loose women in my family," he had cautioned all his daughters. Warnings were delivered communally, for even though there was usually the offending daughter of the moment, every woman's character could use extra scolding. The daughters had had to put up with this kind of attitude in an unsympathetic era. They grew up in the late sixties. Those were the days when wearing jeans and hoop earrings, smoking a little dope, and sleeping with their classmates were considered political acts against the military-industrial complex. But standing up to their father was a different matter altogether. Even as grown women, they lowered their voices in their father’s earshot when alluding to their bodies' pleasure (pg. 28).”

Many of the numerous stories told from points of view of all four of the Garcia sisters reflect the excerpt quoted above. The girls attempt to balance both cultures in order to please their family. Although they have all become very American in their actions, they understand that they must maintain certain amount of respect for Dominican culture for their parent’s sake.
This conflict of culture also effects the girls when they first arrive in America because they desperately wish to be a part of the culture and doing what others were doing rather than being tied down to their strict Dominican culture that they family wished to preserve so greatly. One example of this is the feelings that Yolanda experienced while in an American college and harboring feelings of separation between she and her peers:
Our next workshop, no one understood what my sublimated love sonnet was all about, but Rudy's brought down the house. Suddenly, it seemed to me, not only that the world was full of English majors, but of people with a lot more experience than I had. For the hundredth time, I cursed my immigrant origins. If only I too had been born in Connecticut or Virginia, I too would understand the jokes everyone was making on the last two digits of the year, 1969; I too would be having sex and smoking dope; I too would have suntanned parents who took me skiing in Colorado over Christmas break, and I would say things like "no shit," without feeling like I was imitating someone else (pg. 95)”
Alvarez uses this theme of conflicting cultures throughout the entire book, allowing the reader to find patterns within the vignettes that are told throughout the book.  Her story is very relatable and many young people in America because a lot of first-generation immigrants who are adolescents are forced with the option of pleasing their family and staying closely tied with their culture or to fit in with their American peers.
Often times AMERICAN WAYS ARE SEEN AS WRONG FOR NEW IMMIGRANTS TO PARTICIPATE IN ESPECIALLY IN MATTERS THAT HAVE TO DO WITH MIXING WITH PEOPLE OF OTHER CUTURES WHO THEY OFTEN DO NOT ENCOUNTERED IN THEIR HOME COUNTRY.
WE SEEN MANY EXAMPLES OF THIS IN THE GARCIA GIRLS AS THEY ATTEMPT TO DIVE INTO AMERICAN CULTURE WHILE STILL PRESERVING THEIR DOMINICAN WAYS.







* Mr. Sutherland, for some reason my caps lock button had a nervous breakdown, hence the all caps lock.

DONE!

The story of the Garcia Girls is one that many described as boring or having no climax. Although I identify and agree with many of these readers I think that there is a lot to be said about the book, in particular, it's ending.

When I got to the ending I was dissatisfied, confused, and upset with how the book ended. All I could think was, "a cat...seriously? Is this a joke?" yet I think that a large portion of the story is missing which is something that I have not encountered in other books. This story is not laid out for it's reader which caused a lot of confusion while reading it because I think that the vignettes were very choppy and scattered and left a lot tomthe imagination.

When reading the first portion of the book I expected a lot of explanation in the parts to come. Explanation as to why the Garcia De La Torre family left the Dominican Republic, why Yolanda had returned after so many years, how have the relationships between the characters formed, and what are some traits of the characters. Now that I have finally read all of the story I still feel that these questions of mine have not been answered which leaves me in a position to create stories for when Alvarez lacks explanation. Alvarez's form of writing is one that is definitely interesting yet it is very hard to analyze, in this situation, the mystery of the story has left us confused and irritated rather than inquirous.

Garcia Girls

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: Part 2 Review

In the second portion of the Garcia Girls we are able to become more in tune with the characters that the first part is finally starting to make some sense. In the first part of Garcia Girls the sisters are introduced to us as adults who are settled and set in their own lives. In the first portion of the book we are able to see some of the the effects that their experiences during their younger years has effected them but we are not sure of what those experiences where.
In the second part of the book we are able to see the Garcia sisters as a lively group of young women who are caught between cultures. They have become Americanized in every sense of the word and seem to be very distant for the tradition, customs, and values of the Dominican Republic.
The sisters view the actions of their family in the Dominican Republic as ancient and counter-progressive. A good example of this is the way that they see men treat women in Dominican Republic in contrast to the way that they feel women should be treated. They feel that women should be free and independent beings who do not have to answer to a man; whereas, in the Dominican Republic men were obligated to be dominant over their women in order to show that they were powerful. The Garcia sisters are forced to juggle the pressures of their Dominican family and also assimilate into American culture and that has caused a lot of different accounts of conflict withing their family.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: Part 1 Review

The Part 1 of Garcia Girls has been vividly descriptive, eventful; and overall, really confusing. one key thing that I have been able to get out of the first portion of this book is their family dynamic. In Part 1 the reader receives a strong sense of tradition and family values. Although the traditional Dominican parents of the Garcia girls try to instill these same values in their very Americanized daughters it seems not to be working.
In families where the children are first or second generation there is often conflict between the parents and their children. When an individual is the child of a person who is originally from another country they usually participate in practices from both cultures: new and old. In the case of the Garcia girls they are moving from the Dominican republic to the United States of America. Latino heritage is deeply based on culture and when Latinos go to America they are often accused for becoming Americanized or losing their culture. I think that in many cases people who immigrate to America are ridiculed for not staying true to their heritage which I think is completely incorrect. I feel that you can have many cultures and feel as deeply connected to one as you do the other. I also think that if you do move to America you should still try as hard as you can to participate in your culture as much as possible. I think that parents of children who are first-generation Americans also need to understand that their children are going to wish to participate in American culture because they wish to adapt and fit in with their peers.