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

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Life Is for the Extraordinary Life is for the living not for the dead. There are people who come into this world and change it for the better. Julia Alvarez is one of these person through her work and her storytelling ability. She shares with the world the different cultures between Dominican Republic and New York. Alvarez is not the person she is today without what has happened in her life. By sharing her work with the world Alvarez opened her heart and shared her beliefs and how she came adulthood much quicker than most. Her novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents shares diversity, pain, strength, and courage to young adults around the world. Julia Alvarez What a time to be alive! Alvarez was born March 27, 1950. At 3 months old …show more content…

This is also where Alvarez’ storytelling ability really started and this was at a very young age. After being in the Dominican Republic for 10 years, Alvarez and her family had to flee the Dominican Republic due to her father's attempt to take out the military dictator Rafael Trujillo, which did not go as plan and they moved back to New York. This was a huge change for Alvarez who felt that she “lost almost everything: a homeland, a language, family connections, a way of understanding, and a warmth"(Sirias). Alvarez tried starting her new life but it was not as easy as she thought is was going to be, she started to become homesick. Even though she was not the only Latin American at her Catholic school Abbot Academy she was bullied by her classmates (Alvarez). This bullying caused her to withdraw from social things and she wanted to be more alone and this is when literature becomes her best friend. As Alvarez withdrew from the world, her writing, which many of her teachers encouraged her to do, became her connection to the Dominican Republic. Because of this, her relationship with her parents was negatively affected (Johnson). Alvarez continued her education at Connecticut College from 1967 to 1969, where she received the …show more content…

Rafael Trujillo was born october 24, 1891. This is not the first time you are going to be hearing his name for the next 7 decades, you will hear Trujillo name, not because he help change society or that he is famous. Trujillo had 10 siblings. Trujillo education was not the best it was not just in one place it was held in other people's home from the village he and his family lived. Some miracle happened and Trujillo got a job as a telegraph operator but at this time Trujillo was 16 and this is just the start of his long list of bad things he does to make history. It started with Trujillo joining a gang, then he started committing multiply crimes. I don't know how him joining a gang did not get him fired but what got him to lose his job was forging a check. The best thing that could've happened he become a dad, his first marriage in 1916 where they had two girls, this made Trujillo give up his life of gang and crimes and he got a steady job where he showed real leadership and was promoted higher position. This was just the little taste of power he needed to become the most hated man in the Dominican Republic. So when he sign himself up for presidential he create a secret police to kill people of power from the other team to make sure he won the elections. Trujillo “become president of the Dominican Republic in 1930 through political maneuvering and torture”(help). As Trujillo came into power he took advantage of his power

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Whether the books were fact or fiction Julia Alvarez expressed her life experiences of having to be constantly on the go and her struggles and a young Dominican

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Dominicans did not expect one of the bloodiest eras to happen when they elected the so called disciplined and obedient military leader Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina as president of Dominican Republic in February of 1930. Rafael Trujillo, also known as "El Jefe", was the most oppressive dictator in Latin America whose regime took place in Dominican Republic. Trujillo's first impression on the Dominicans was vigorous because he started as a strong military leader. After being elected as president though, the country's people began to see that Trujillo's intensions were spurious and conceited.

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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.

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With Trujillo being one of the most important presidents in the history of The Dominican Republic I decided to research the following questions. How Rafael Trujillo became a dictator? What were Trujillo's achievements? How did Trujillo journey as a president end? I decided to ask these questions because I’m interested

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In paragraph 27 it states ,”there were still old cronies of the dictator around who would love an excuse to go after my family after my father ,after her ,” the cronies were loyal servants to the dictator even when he was dead so alvarez's mother thought they were still in danger of being captured or killed ,because of the cronies the mother would live in fear unlike alvarez who didn't fully believe they would come after them . Alvarez wrote her novels knowing they may wreak havoc on her family members who were still in the dominican republic and maybe her parents and sisters. In paragraph 29 and 30 it talks about the last novel she wrote about the island and how her mother thought about it ,”I don't care what happens to us i'm so proud of you ,” her mother says ,alvarez wrote the novel at the risk of her family but her mother and her new the story had to be told and the things the people had to go through

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Lee 1 Breann Lee Period 3 22 September 2014 Compare and Contrast Paper The books “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”, by Julia Alvarez and “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson are very similar novels. The main characters share similar experiences growing up in their New York setting that shapes them throughout the book. Both Melinda and Yolanda feel like outcasts because of their low self-esteem and their problems communicating. In “Speak” on Melinda's first day of school Anderson writes “I am clanless…I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, and definitely the wrong attitude.

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But their fear did not prevail their determination to illuminate their intention to bring down the regime. They faced their death because they knew they couldn’t give up easily. Although Trujillo did not lose his power right away, the death of the Mirabel’s sister did illuminate their cause. The determination and their gender was the main reason why Trujillo, felt

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It provides a role in character development shown predominantly in Patrias character. It shows the extent of Trujillo’s actions against the Dominican people by showing Patrias desperateness for her son. These examples depicted in the book show how the theme of religion has an impact on In the Time of the

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In How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, everyone starts out in a very prosperous and well off environment. Yolanda, Sofia, Sandra and Carla have their lives set for them with all of their possessions at hand. They have everything made for them and do not have to worry about

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I knew the father of the Mirabal sisters got in prison after I read chapter 6. The reason why Papa got in prison was he left the communist party before Trujillo; that was an action that against the laws in the Dominican Republic. The proofs of that from the book are: “We already know from Dedé and Patria’s searches that Papa has been in the prison hospital”(Alvarez, 1994, page 63); “ ‘Trujillo is the law,’ Papa whispered, as we all did nowadays when we pronounced the dreaded name”(Alvarez, 1994, page 49). These sentences show that Trujillo had all the power and anyone who was against him would be

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From the moment that the Dominican republic was free from Trujillo’s dictatorship, contrasting viewpoints have come up regarding the sacrifices of the Mirabal sisters. While some argue that the Mirabal sisters sacrifices were not beneficial and worthwhile to the revolution because it resulted in the orphaning of their children and three young lives were lost. Others argue that the Mirabal sisters sacrifices were effective for the revolution since it changed the future of their country. I deem the sisters sacrifices are justifiable because their sacrifices had an important purpose. Isn’t it true that Trujillo's was absolutely in power for 31 years however, because of the three young sisters his cruel regime ended.

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Trujillo established absolute political control and severe violations of human rights, like Lilies at the time was concerned with the economic development of the close and benefited, Trujillo used his political party, the Dominican Party, a seal of their decisions. But the real power was in the National Guard, the largest institution, better armed, and more centrally controlled than any military force in the history of the nation in the National Guard becoming a virtual monopoly on power. Trujillo's regime worried about expanding the National Guard as one of the largest military forces in Latin America, by 1940, the Dominican military spending was 21% of the national budget. All citizens were signed to identification cards and passes good behavior of the secret police.

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He abuses his power in many ways in the novel. He most definitely proven to be a very bad dictator. The theme power once again was shown in many was in the novel “in the time of the butterflies” it was shown in trujillo's controlling ways,how He kills all the people who oppose him, and how he spies on people's every

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Her father’s absence is what formed her mistrust of men which is heavily portrayed in her books. After he left Allende and her family moved back to Chile to live with her grandmother (McCann). Living with her grandparents is what made Allende so close to all of her family, which is another theme often portrayed in her literature. Although Isabel Allende had a

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In search for a better life outside of the Dominican Republic, Anita’s whole family tries to move to America. One day sitting in her room, Anita look out her window to see no one left on the compound. Anita explains, “I look out the door and down the dark driveway. The whole flock of our family has fled. Only Mami and Chucha and I are left (pg.100 p.9).”Her whole family has gone to America to be free, leaving everything behind.

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