'How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents' By Julia Alvarez

“How the Garcia girls lost their accents” is a narrative written by Julia Alvarez describing her childhood and adult life while transitioning from one culture and country to another unwillingly. The book bounces from year to year and from childhood and adult hood by the chapter and can be confusing to follow in the beginning. Some chapters could have been moved around and placed in a different order with little effect to the story as a whole but there is one chapter that is critical based on where it is placed, “ The Drum”. This chapter is placed last because it contains extreme imagery about the entirety of what we just read. It may just seem like a random story about a drum set and some cats but if we delve deeper into the significance of

Just as the kitten was forced away form its mother too soon, so too was Yolanda forced to leave her homeland and culture and too young of an age. Yolanda was too young to make such a drastic move which lead to her having difficulties later in life. Her cultural guidelines of how to act were no longer there and eventually when she got a little older she was free to become whoever she wanted. Even she was free to be whoever she chose they would never truly assimilate with the average American. For instance when Yolanda was in boarding school she met a boy name Rudy Elmhurst who she started seeing for quite a while. Their relationship ended in frustration however because Yolanda refused to have sex with him for months. Sex which was seen as taboo in Dominican culture was a cultural norm in the 60’s for Americans. This clash of culture and Yolanda not truly being able to fit in with one specific culture ruined her chances at what could have been a wonderful relationship. Also when Yolanda returns to the island 20 years after her family originally moved she is teased by her aunts and cousins about the way she looks. “ You look terrible, too thin and the hair needs a cut.” (49), her cousins Lucinda said to her upon her visit. Also on the same trip she had a hard time acting like the dominican elite. Yolanda decided to take a trip up the coast to pick fresh guava. On the war she had a flat tire and is approached by two men with machetes. Terrified of the men she froze and replied to them in english not spanish causing the men to think that she is a tourist so they help her. Yolanda forgetting what her name on the island meant had nothing to fear but because she was not accustomed to being Dominican elite she was seen as an