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Summary Of How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents By Julia Alvarez

714 Words3 Pages

Everyone has a story to write about. Julia Alvarez surely did. She was born on March 27, 1950, in New York City. When she was three months old her parents, both native Dominicans decided to go back home. While there her father got involved with a plan to overthrow the dictator Rafael Trujillo. He then got caught with the plan and a United States agent was able to bring the family back before he got in trouble with the law in the Dominican Republic. The Alvarez family decided to move to Brooklyn, New York. Alvarez was bullied in school which led her to writing stories in expressing how she felt. She became an English professor at Middlebury College and started writing collections of poetry. She loved the feeling of being respected. The Alvarez …show more content…

They were living the dream with having maids and gourmet meals every day. When their father got in trouble with the government for trying to overthrow the dictator they moved to New York and had the worst experience. They were not used to living middle class and being a nobody in their town. The girls were all misbehaving in their own ways and grew apart. (SparkNotes, Plot overview). This story is exactly what Julia Alvarez went through. It’s her life story. In the book Yolanda plays Julia’s role. The story relates accurately to how the family struggled having to adapt to the American culture. “As the only immigrant in my class, I was put in a special seat in the front row by the window, apart from the other children so that sister Zoe could tutor me without disturbing them” (“How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” 166). Julia or “Yolanda” was embarrassed and didn’t fit in with the rest of the kids at school which put more pressure on her shoulders.
In “Once Upon A Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA” literary criticism by Jennifer Ayala is totally what I agree with. Ayala states that in the book Alvarez wants to “Americanize” her quinceanera by taking out tradition. We both basically agreed that there is no point in having a quince if you’re not going to follow the traditions. Ayala did say that people tend to spend more than they can afford with giving their daughters the dreamy “princess fairytale” themed party. (Ayala, Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the

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