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Julia AlvarezA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Julia Alvarez was born in 1951 in New York but lived in the Dominican Republic until she was 10. How the García Girls Lost Their Accents mirrors many of the events of Alvarez’s own life, especially via the character of Yolanda García. Alvarez was born into a large, affluent family in the Dominican Republic. Her family lived under the Trujillo dictatorship before being exiled from the Dominican Republic. Her father was involved in a failed plot to overthrow Trujillo, after which her family was granted permission to leave for the United States. In “An American Childhood in the Dominican Republic,” an essay narrating the experience of growing up between and within two places, Alvarez speaks of their time in the Dominican Republic with fondness and fear. She cites black Volkswagens in their driveway every night preventing her father from going to the hospital to perform emergency surgeries. The García family landed in Queens, New York, where her father received a fellowship to practice medicine.
Alvarez was 10 when she arrived in America speaking Spanish. Learning English became a priority for her, as she recognized that language would be the best, most immediate way to erase the cultural differences between her and her peers at school.
By Julia Alvarez
Before We Were Free
Before We Were Free
Julia Alvarez
Homecoming
Homecoming
Julia Alvarez
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Julia Alvarez
How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay
How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay
Julia Alvarez
In the Name of Salome
In the Name of Salome
Julia Alvarez
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the Time of the Butterflies
Julia Alvarez
Once Upon a Quinceanera
Once Upon a Quinceanera
Julia Alvarez
Return to Sender
Return to Sender
Julia Alvarez
Something to Declare: Essays
Something to Declare: Essays
Julia Alvarez
The Cemetery of Untold Stories
The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Julia Alvarez