When I Finished reading the book “How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez, I realized that the story is similar to many of those I have heard from other immigrants. It reminded me of my dad, who always tells us stories about immigrants at the table during dinner time. My dad is an Immigration attorney and he works for the government, and he always tells me and my family about his cases. The one reason I hear my dad always talk about why people come to the United States is for shelter because their country is not safe enough for them. That is what happens in this book.
It initially begins with one of the members of the Garcia family. Carlos is the first person of the family to come to the United Sates trying to escape from danger. The SIM or The Secret Police from the Dominican Republic are looking for him because he had a gun under his possession and he plotted against the Dominican government. He had to come to the United States because he did not feel safe in the Dominican Republic by being wanted by the Dominican Secret Police. He comes to the United States safely and then once immigrants get here, they usually say that their families are not safe back home either so they bring them too.
After Carlos comes, his family follows and that is normally how immigration works. After the family adjusts to the American culture, their lives change, as well as their personalities. The Dominican culture is greatly different from the American culture. In the book, it seems that when the Garcia girls come and get used to living in the United States, they lose their innocence. In the Dominican Republic they were these humble people and innocent, hidden from sins, but when they come, that changes. They lose their innocence in different ways; some of them start thinking of sexual activities as a game and also that they forget about where they come from. One of the most important things an immigrant should always consider is not forgetting the place they come from.
Me for example, as an immigrant coming from a total different place, I know exactly where I come from and what the differences of here and there are. I know what the two cultures are about and I know that I cannot leave either one behind. The two cultures are what shape me now.
This book seems to be written in a way that mostly interests Latin American people or Hispanics. The title captures the readers’ minds and especially for those who speak Spanish. Just by reading the title, “How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”, the reader can say that it might be about Latin Americans because it includes the words, “Garcia” and “Accent”. When I read the title, I instantly knew that it would be about Latin Americans. The title absorbs a great number of Spanish speaking audience.
The actual book is written in a way a Spanish speaking person would understand much more than a person who does not speak Spanish would. The book contains little words or phrases that are written in Spanish and that may confuse a reader that does not understand them. That can change the meaning of the book for different people. For example, for Spanish Speakers, who might have a deeper understanding of the book, it could mean something and for those that do not speak Spanish might understand a different meaning. This might be a cause why the most part of the number of people that read books like this one are Spanish speakers. Also, the topic of “immigration” is interesting for immigrants and might not be as interesting for others that are not immigrants.
Another thing that might change the meaning of the book might be the fact that not all the audiences are immigrants. Julia Alvarez might have written this book from an immigrant’s point of view. It is easier for those that are immigrants to understand or to get what the meaning behind this story is, especially for those who immigrated to the United States for the same reason this family did, or for a similar reason; they might feel connected to the story. On the other hand, those readers that are not immigrants try to understand a little more while the immigrants just hear a similar story to theirs. That is another disadvantage of this book.
The meaning of the book can be determined depending on the reader’s own experience or knowledge about the subject.
Another weakness is that it is not written in the order of the events; it begins with the present and it ends with the beginning. That causes confusion for the readers. The reader gets lost in the beginning of the book, is not until they read the middle part of the book that things start to become more clear. At the beginning, everything is confusing and a lot of questions pop up in the reader’s mind, questions such as, “why are they there?” or “how did they end up being like this?”. Questions that are not answered until the middle and end parts are read.
What if the book had been written in the order of the events, from the beginning to the present? Had that changed the meaning of the book? Maybe Julia Alvarez wanted to write the book the way she did to give it a specific meaning different from the meaning or meanings it would have if it was written in order of events. Everything from this book must have its purpose.
Julia Alvarez wrote this book to share with her Hispanic community and the rest of the world a story that happens to many immigrants from all around the world. She expresses herself in a way that her community can understand better than other readers, and she organizes her book in a confusing way that becomes clear until it is completely read. The book itself has or can have different meanings depending on the reader and that is one of the things Alvarez
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