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

They way a person reads is greatly influenced by their personal background; their story, their culture, anything that led them to who they are today. When reading How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents written by Dominican-American Julia Alvarez, many controversial points are brought up that can be interpreted in many different ways depending on who is reading. In many scenarios, it’s the matter of where the reader comes from, in this case the Dominican Republic, or the United States. By having written from both Dominican and American perspectives, Alvarez teaches how a character’s sexuality or sexual tendencies can be perceived differently depending on the reader's personal background.
One of the interpretations that could be had, based

In the eyes of a young dominican girl, Americans are easily seen as disloyal and often have no mutual trust in their relationships. One clear example of this point of view is when the Garcias are invited to a dinner with their American friends the Fannings. As Papi, Mrs. Fanning and Sandi make a trip to the restroom, Mrs. Fanning “ … leaned forward towards Sandi’s father and brushed her lips on his… A married American woman kissing her father!” (181). A married American woman kissing her father is a sign of betrayal to both her own husband, and the friendship of Papi and Mrs. Fanning. When Sandi sees the woman take advantage of the friendship, she is instantly turned against her and American women. At the table, mistrust is demonstrated between the American couple. Cutting off his wife from more alcohol, “Dr. Fanning hissed at his wife. ‘That’s enough, Sylvia.’” (185). Relationships should have mutual respect and trust and seeing an individual in the relationship needing redirection from their partner, depicts lack of trust between the two. Once again, we are only able to view the scene from Sandi’s eyes, however she is not used to seeing one individual having control over another. She knows relationships as each person having equal part in the relationship. Dominican readers are not the only ones that interpret a way of life based on what they

When the story switches settings back to the Dominican Republic we see a side of the Garcia’s culture that isn’t as visible in the United States. “... she has no contraception… and Manuel won’t wear rubber… ‘He thinks it might cause impotence’” (123). It is obvious that contraceptives like condoms do not cause a man to become steryl. Americans know this because it is part of their basic education to know what safe sex is. Because americans are taught at a young age the possible outcomes of unsafe sex, they look at people who are not provided with this education as uneducated as well as unmotivated to learn. In addition to the American perspective of Dominicans lacking knowledge in contraceptives, there is evidence in the text of Americans finding the sexual relationships of dominicans to be cavalier and