Alvarez, Julia. (1992). How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents. New York: Plume. 290pp.

Grade range: 10-12

Genre: contemporary fiction

Summary and Critique

Julia Alvarez's semiautobiographical book, How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, chronicles the Garcia Family's immigration to the United States from the Dominican Republic. While on the Latin American island, the four Garica children, all girls, enjoyed the luxurious life of Dominican aristocracy. Their father's involvement in an attempt to overthrow the Dominican dictator Generalissimo Trujillo forces the family to flee the country into the foreign land of the United States. Once in New York, the Garcia girls must mature into womanhood amid an intolerant culture that rejects their dark skin and their native Spanish. The girl's heritage clashes with the social and sexual revolution of the 1960s, thereby delivering them into perfectionism, mental illness, and divorce.

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents offers students insights about the Dominican Republic's history and culture, as well as insight about racial and gender issues of the 1960s. More importantly, Alvarez gives voice to the many bicultural members of the United States community. She shows the Garcia girls'lives as intricate, complex, tragic, and triumphant.

Themes/Topics

Families

Friends and enemies

Generations

Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Challenges and Triumphs

War and Peace

The Individual vs. Society

Love, Sex, and Romance

Author Information

Having been born in New York City and raised in both the Dominican Republic and New York City, Julia Alvarez's experiences provided some inspiration for How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents. She has been a storyteller (or as her family says, a liar) since she was a young child, and she began writing in high school. In addition to writing, Alvarez has also taught high school and college courses, and she and her husband own a farm-literacy center in the Dominican Republic.

For more information on Julia Alvarez:

http://www.alvarezjulia.com/ Alvarez's official home page, with a biography, a bibliography, images, and contact information.

http://voices.cla.umn.edu/newsite/index.htm Visit the "Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color" Web site at to obtain a biography, pictures, critiques, bibliography, and links to other sites featuring information about the author and her works.

www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-alvarez-julia.asp A biography of and an interview with Alvarez.

Media Connections

Movies

Immigration: Who has Access to the American Dream? (1997) This documentary explores issues related to immigration into the United States.

Arab Diaries, Part 2: Youth (2001) Looks at the dilemmas of young women in three Arab countries.

Becoming American: The Chinese Experience (2003) A three-part PBS special hosted by Bill Moyers about Chinese immigration to America.

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) Three daughters experience the trials and tribulations of being young adults while living with their father, a retired chef. Regardless of their daily crises, Sunday dinners bring the family together and help them realize what is truly important in life.

El Norte (1983) The story of a brother and sister pair who leave their Guatemalan village to make a new life in Los Angeles.

In the Time of Butterflies. (2001). Inspired by Alvarez's novel of the same title. In 1960, two sisters attempted to bring down the Dominican Republic government and were murdered as a result.

The Joy Luck Club (1993) Explores the lives of four Chinese women and their relationships with their four Chinese-American daughters.

The Shadow of Hate: History of Intolerance in America (1995) Explores the history of prejudice in America.

Soul Food (1997) Explores such issues as modern life versus tradition, a matriarchal family, loss of loved ones, and the African American experience.

Dreams Ensnared: The Dominican Migration to New York (1994) This documentary explores the reasons behind the emigration of people from Dominican Republic to the United States and their experiences upon their arrivals in the U.S.

The Status of Latina Women This documentary compares and contrasts attitudes and roles of American and Latin American women.

Online Resources

http://www.dominicanrepublic.com/ Provides information about Dominican Republic. Topics include history, geography, politics, travel, art, culture, etc.

http://www.domrep.org/home.htm The Web site for the Dominican Republic embassy in the United States. It provides myriad information about the Dominican Republic.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/t/trujillo.asp Provides brief information about the dictator Generalissimo Trujillo.

http://www.coloredgirls.org/ The Women of Color Resource Center's goal is to educate the public, especially women, about social injustices against women.

http://www.us-immigration.com/ The American Immigration Center Web site provides information for people who desire to immigrate to America or who desire to become U.S. citizens.

Related Texts

Cisneros, Sandra. (1983). House on Mango Street. Houston: Arte Publico Press. 103pp. Details the lives of the members of a Latino community in Chicago.

Serros, Michelle. (1998). Chicana Falsa, and other Stories of Death, Identity, and Oxnard. New York: Riverhead Books. 79pp. Autobiographical poetry detailing the author's experiences growing up in the United States as the child of Mexican immigrants.

Alvarez, Julia. (1994). In the Time of the Butterflies. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 325pp. In 1960, three sisters attempted to bring down the Dominican Republic government and were murdered as a result.

Morrison, Toni. (1970). The Bluest Eye: a Novel. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 164pp. Addresses the hierarchy of color in the African-American culture as perceived by some African-Americans.

Rosario, Nelly. (2002). Song of the Water Saints. New York: Pantheon. 245pp. The tale of girl stuck in the Dominican Republic in the time of political oppression.

Alarcon, Francisco X. Laughing Tomatoes and Other Poems/Jitomates Risuenos y Otro Poemas de Primavera. Children's Press. 32 pp. Short poems presented in both English and Spanish.

Teaching Ideas

(1) "Culture Sharing" Ask students to bring in one item, non-fragile, that represents their culture. Put all the items in a bag. Distribute the items in the bag to the students, making sure that no student receives the item that they brought. If the student thinks that he or she is familiar with the item, then they must write a paragraph discussing what they feel is the item's cultural significance. If the student is unfamiliar with the object, then he or she must generate three questions to ask about the item and compose a speculative paragraph as to what the item's cultural significance might be. Then, students share their items and their writings, misconceptions are righted, and categories of items (lucky charms, tokens of affection, holiday symbols, etc.) are listed on the board. To conclude, students can compose paragraphs about the items'true significances and then use those to create a display for the school or classroom.

[Summarized/adapted from "Writing to Share Cultures" by Rose Reissman in Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. December 1997. pp. 1-3.]

(2) "Newspaper Cutouts" Ask students to cut out a newspaper or magazine article that reminds them of something in the b4teens_book. Students then paste the article onto a piece of paper leaving room to detail its connection to their reading below.

[Summarized/adapted from "Literature Meets Life" by Marcia Fisher in Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. January 1997. pp. 1-2.]

(3) "Objects and Memories" Many of Alvarez's chapters begin with the memory of a particular object from the Garcia girls'childhood. Ask students to bring in an item from their childhood that renders such a vivid memory. Students will then write the memories rendered by their objects, taking them through the writing process, and then share both article and memoir with the class.

[Summarized/adapted from "Turning Childhood Keepsakes into Polished Stories" by Gillian R. Hettinger in Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. March 1996. pp. 2-3.]

(Review written by Leslie Meyers and Jennifer E. Moore and edited by Jennifer E. Moore)