How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 05:02PM How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
This book is interesting to juxtapose and think about alongside the ideas of flexible, cultural, and social citizenship. These forms of citizenship expand the definition of citizenship or belonging to include belonging to more than one country (flexible), having a sense of being accepted for one’s everyday practices and ways of life (cultural), and social (being accepted due to how one is a member of a community-who is giving back as well as benefiting from living in a particular place). Certainly, Julia Alvarez describes an interesting relationship of children (four sisters-Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía) growing up in a family that has lived in and then left the Dominican Republic. The story even provides a different picture of the children holding back from adjusting due to the different stressors the children face and the parents (who had been directly harassed by the government in their original country) adapting to the new place. The family holds a small family party of the one year anniversary of the family’s quick departure from the Dominican Republic and the celebration of their arrival in the United States “one American year old” as the book states (p.150). The family even added candles to blow out and make a wish on a birthday cake. “What do you wish for on the first celebration of the day you lost everything? Carla wondered.” (p.150). This idea of flexible citizenship applies to this idea. Carla and her family remain rooted to their island home and at the same time live in the United States. Yolanda would return to the island at the beginning of the book. The book does not go in chronological order. This is interesting as it also presents a message about the circuitous routes of belonging that immigrants face. The family and each sister individually struggles for cultural and social citizenship and assert their flexible citizenship.
Reference
Alvarez, J. (1991). How the Garcia girls lost their accents. NY: Plume.
Reader Comments