Garcia Girls Essay

The experiences people face in life shape their personal identity. In “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez, the four Garcia girls lives are shaped by the influences they have faced throughout their lives from the cultures and societies they lived in. Their lives are constantly altered by the surrounding influences in their lives.

The Garcia girls first grew up in the Dominican Republic. They lived a very sheltered and luxurious lifestyle. They grew up as ordinary girls, exploring their lives and culture. As they grew older, they found talents within themselves that they felt compelled to peruse in their future lives. The Dominican Republic culturally shaped their current lives.  

"It seemed with so much protocol, I would never get to draw the brilliant and lush and wild world brimming over inside me. I tried to keep my mind on the demonstration, but something began to paw the inside of my drawing arm. It clawed at the doors of my will, and I had to let it out. I took my soaking brush in hand, stroked my gold cake, and a cat streaked out on my paper in one lightning stroke, whiskers, tail, meow and all!"(247).

The four girls discovered themselves in their culture. They began to shape their future lives in the Dominican Republic. In the quote about for example, Sandra describes her compulsion to draw and explore her artistic talents. These talents are shaped by surrounding society the are influenced by. Sandra represents the Garcia girls cultural development in the Dominican Republic. 


Unfortunately, the Garcia girls were forced to leave when their father, Carlos, gets in trouble with the secret police for agitating against the military dictatorship. They are forced to leave the Dominican Republic and flee to the United States. There, they are obligated to shape their lives based on United States culture and society. This sudden cultural change in the girls lives brings about many issues, unforeseen to the family at first.

"Our next workshop, no one understood what my sublimated love sonnet was all about, but Rudy's brought down the house. Suddenly, it seemed to me, not only that the world was full of English majors, but of people with a lot more experience than I had. For the hundredth time, I cursed my immigrant origins. If only I too had been born in Connecticut or Virginia, I too would understand the jokes everyone was making on the last two digits of the year, 1969; I too would be having sex and smoking dope; I too would have suntanned parents who took me skiing in Colorado over Christmas break, and I would say things like "no shit," without feeling like I was imitating someone else."(94-95).

The girls soon became lost in the American culture. As life went on in America for them, they became exposed to the unforeseen part of the American culture. America became a place more than just where to find your dream. These troubles came from their old Dominican Republic cultural heritage. They were trying to adjust and expose themselves to American culture, while trying to keep their old heritage. In a sense, they became "lost in translation;" they were forced to find a mid ground between old and new cultures. The girls had difficult times adjusting and found trouble in this; an example of this is the quote above. Yolanda felt inferior to other Americans based on her cultural status and her inexperience in life. This inner turmoil caused a traumatic episode in her life in which she came to a realization of what a lonely life she would live in the future. She knew no one would be able to understand her mix of cultures (Hispanic and American styles). Also, people looked down on their old culture and heritage, which reinforced this idea in all the sisters. 


As their lives progressed, two of the sisters, Yolanda and Sandra, have mental breakdowns. I feel this is because of the cultural loss they experienced throughout their lives and the hardships they faced trying to transition into American culture.  They did not have a solid culture and were lost in their lives as a result. For them, life went on painfully. They were constantly haunted by their past and the memories of their old culture. 

"I grew up, a curious woman, a woman of story ghosts and story devils, a woman prone to bad dreams and bad insomnia. There are still times I wake up at three o'clock in the morning and peer into the darkness. At that hour and in that loneliness, I hear her, a black furred thing lurking in the corners of my life, her magenta mouth opening, wailing over some violation that lies at the center of my art."(289-290).

The cat Schwarz was a big part of the book because it is a representation of the girls childhood and their loss of culture. Memories like these are important to the girls because they can revisit them in an attempt to make sense of their present day life.

Yolanda tried to revisit the Dominican Republic in her later life. She wants to reconnect with her cultural roots and heritage. When she arrives, many of the family thinks she is crazy because she is so much more different than them. When she goes driving alone and is confronted by two men, she panicked and spoke in English instead of Spanish because she felt more comfortable. This is a sign that she had lost her Spanish culture and could never regain it. The shift in cultures during her younger life permanently changed who she was as a person. 

The Garcia girl's lives had been permanently changed by the cultural change in their younger lives. They became lost in two different cultures. They became unsure of themselves and saw themselves as inadequate and inferior to others. This cultural change reflects immigrants in the United States. Many new immigrants coming to different countries go through these troubles and faced with similar feelings throughout their lives.