How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

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Summary: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Alvarez's unique stle of writing makes the book very interesting and gives you many different perspectives to see the situation in which they lived. Although this is a fiction book, Alvarez gives insight as to what the times were like in Dominican Republic when it was under the rule of Trujillo. In following the lives of these four sisters, you will see the hardships and joys of growing up. This book also does a great job of showing the how these girls were able to adapt to a new culture, and shows the different cycles they go through as they adapt to the United States. I recommend this book very highly. It's different, but enjoyable.

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Summary: Assimilation in America
Review: I found Julia Alvarez's book to be a perfect example of the struggle between whether or not to assimilate. By showing the hardships the Garcia girls go through in their new life in the United States, she shows how adopting a new language and starting a new life in a different culture can leave one afraid to resort to their old past and home language in order to be able to survive in a new life. Through each girl's memory, a new problem is presented,leaving the reader overwhelmed at all the complications moving to a new society can bring. I highly recommend this book to anyone who holds their heritage dear and to anyone who has moved to the United States to start their life anew.

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Summary: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Review: This is truly a magnificent book. This book tells the story of the Garcia family who moves from the Dominican Republic to the United States in the 1960's. Alvarez uses the four Garcia sisters to tell the story of this family. These stories are told backwards in time, and from a different sister's perspective. This is what I really enjoyed about the book. Alvarez's use of different perspectives allows the reader to understand how everyone is feeling. Alvarez also does an excellent job showing the transition this family must make while living in the United States. When reading this book Alverez makes it so that one can feel what these people are going through. One can see the difficulty of these girls trying to fit into the United States mainstream culture and remaining caught in their old culture. I would strongly suggest this book to anyone, for it is a powerful book.

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Summary: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very interesting to learn about and hear about the experiences that these 4 girls went through in their transition from living in the Dominican Republic to living in the United States. I really liked the way that at some point in the book, every girl told a story so we got to hear from each of Carla, Sandi, Yolanda, and Sofia's point of view. I could better understand and relate to each daughter this way. The book was very different from other books that I have read because of the fact that each story went forward in time, however each section and order of the chapters traveled back through time. It helps a person who has never experienced having to be forced to live somewhere else where everything is different, start to understand what it is truely like. I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to follow at some times, because of the way it travels through time and how it jumps around from story to story and daughter to daughter, but that just makes you pay more attention to what is happening and the message it is trying to get across. This book was very enjoyable and I would recommend it everyone.

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Summary: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Review: I thought that this book was very good. The book showed the lives of four girls growing up and being exiled from the Dominican Republic to the United States. The only part about the book that I thought was confusing was the way the author used time. The book changes between different periods of time and does this often. The book starts when the girls are in America and goes to the past. I have never read a book that has done that before. Most books start in the past and continue into the future. This did not hurt the story once you figured out how she wrote it. I thought that it made the story more interesting because as I read the book I kept wondering what happened to make the family come to America. I think that this is a very good book to read. It shows a family trying to hold on and let go to the cultures that surround them at the same time.

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Summary: How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Review: I was drawn to this book not only because it was by a woman author, but a Latin American writer. She writes of the story of four girls and their parents through their time in the Dominican Republic and the United States. Their father has to immigrate to the U.S. after only escaping death on the island becuase of his part in a conspiricay against the government. While having to grow up in the U.S., they change from their family back on the island. They had to deal with prejudice, their culture, and the U.S. culture. During the entire book, it skips from one flashback to another. There are different points of view in the chapters and details about each person and why they are the way that they are. There was a certain uniqueness about each character as the book went into each one with depth. I found this book to be very insightful and it deals well with the tribulations of immigration.

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Summary: Lost Accents, but Found Hope
Review: From peace to commotion, the Garcia Girls had to embrace a new world. These four sisters, Yolanda, Sofia, Sandra, and Carla arrive in New York unknowing what they were about to encounter. Leaving their country for political reasons, the Garcia Girls tried to remain cultural and to remember the things they learned back in their country. These four women were very intelligent. Their parents immediatelly put them into school. They all recieved degrees except for Sofia. Sofia resisted her fathers authority because of love. She name her new born son after her father. Each sister deals with common issues of womanhood. Sandra deals with a eating disorder, Yolanda and Carla desperately want to find their own identity. Through the eyes of Yolanda, the story of her life and her sisters are told. This entire story involves,pain, hope, prosperity,desire, and happiness. Through marriage, abandonment, loneliness, self fullfiment, and true identity, the Garcia Girls finds their accents (culture and peace)

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Summary: "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Acents"
Review: This book was entertaining and interesting. Laura and Carlos represents what Americans think of parents in Latin America. Carlos and Laura has four daughters Carla, Sandi, Yolanda, and Sofia. Carla is the oldest of the four girls, therefore beinging somewhat of a mother figure. Carla seems to be the strongest and more independant of the four girls because she does not require much attention. Sandi is the second oldest with lighter skin than the others and has an eating disorder. Yolanda is the daughter most talked about in the book. She's a school teacher and poet. Sofia is the youngest and does not get along with Carlos(the Dad) because she left home to study abroad and fell in love with Auto. When she returned home her and Auto wrote each other and Carlos found them and learned that his daughter was not as "pure" as she was suppose to be. In this book both parents are dominating in some way. Each parent express there power in a different way. The mother shows her power by calling the girls by different names depending on her mood. One way Carlos expresses his power is by not ingoreing Sofia because she ran off to be with Auto. This book also describes the problems that can arise from being bi-cultural and trying to adjust.

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Summary: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Review: This book I had found to be very good. It was a delightful book that takes you through the lives of four girls. Their journey begins in the Dominican Republic and as children they find themselves living in America. All of their troubles they endure both from living in America and no longer living on the island are discussed by each girl. This helps you understand how each girl stand out from the other. This books relates to so many people going through similar situations. Whether it is moving somewhere new or having to leave your family behind, this book helps people understand this story so much more. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. This story spoke to me because I went through something similar. Moving to somewhere completely different then from where you are used to isn't easy for anyone. Reading about what it was like for them, I feel can help ease anyone who is going through the same thing.

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Summary: Bititas Diary
Review: Bitias Diary is a very interesting book. This book is categorized as a testimonial so it is very interesting to see how this girl grows into a woman and the challenges she goes through. Bitia is an African American child in 1915. She later in her childhood becomes educated. Through out her childhood she is not seen as a normal girl. She asks a lot of questions and demands respect from white kids. As a woman she goes to different houses and cleans to make a living. At one point she was working at a convent. She ended up leaving to find her self and to act her age as a young adult not wanting to be grown up yet. This book gives the reader a good idea of what African Americans at that time went through and the challenges that she went through can be generalized to all people.