Name: Claudia Arevalo-Lowe

Date: November 5, 1998

The story of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez presents a series of examples of clashing cultures, clashing ideas, the results of tyranny, and consequences of actions. The book portraits the four Garcia girls as the focal point. However, a look at their parents is necessary in order to complete the contrasts that exist between all of them.

It is somewhat an easy story to identify with as people have experienced some of the situations found in the book. Moreover, those experiences that are not personal have been witnessed through the lives of friends, or different individuals placed in those situations by means of nationality, ideology or parentage. The experience the Garcia girls went through when they have to leave the island has also happened to millions of people that have immigrated to the United States. The girls’ lives before they arrived in the U.S. is an experience that only a fraction of those who have come here looking for protection have experienced. The situation in itself creates a different way of life, and thinking, between the affluent that are forced to leave their countries and the poor who are seeking a better way of life.

While examining the Garcia’s family before they arrived in the United States, it becomes obvious that not only they were in a position of power (given by money and social status) but also that the entire family is affluent. It is good to see that the doors of all family members were open to each other and everyone took care of everybody else. It is very obvious also, that the care of the children were entirely left to the females and that the males were more concerned with political issues than their own families. The open door policy of the family is a very refreshing one as it brought back memories of my childhood. As the Garcia girls, my care was entrusted to another person, and even though my parents were around, my dependency on the service was great. However, my nanny was not as weird as Laura’s and mine had a great influence in my life. For her, I was more of a daughter than a job.

I can also relate and understand what growing up in that environment is and how much one can learn from the contact with so many people from so many different walks of live. One marked difference is that my family did not try to depose the government and my transition to a new life in the U.S. was not as traumatic as the Garcia girls’ was. It is a well-known fact that a group of private citizens will not succeed on a coup. It takes the armed forces to execute one. The reasoning behind it is that a good portion of the armed forces will back the coup up and therefore, make it successful. Time and time again, it has been proven throughout history that civilians will not succeed on such tactical maneuvers.

Another striking point made by Julia Alvarez in the story, however subtle, is the United States participation in political changes around the world. It is a fact that the government has used small groups of civilians in trying to depose governments. It may be due to tyranny or simply that the government of a particular country is not giving the U.S. what it wants, but the results and the interventions are the same. Examples of this are the group of Cuban Americans sent to Cuba in a failed attempt to depose Castro and the change of the Guatemalan presidency in the 1950s. Both cases backfired.

Even though the relationship between the parents and the girls seem simple, is somewhat complicated. We see the father exposing the oldest of the daughters, more than the other three, to a danger which could have had very unfortunate consequences by constantly having to hide and leaving his family to face, deal with, and go through handling a group of abusive secret police officials. This type of situation is bound to have repercussions for the entire family. The mother’s involvement is equally dangerous as she is the intermediary between the safety of the family, the police, and the CIA agent. Except for one time, Laura does not show any other emotion but that of complaisance. The father not only unwittingly exposes his daughters to danger, but also is the typical man who leaves the raising of the daughters entirely to the mother. The only things he enforces are his fears and a deep respect for the nuns.

As a consequence of the parents’ involvement on a failed coup, the family is forced to move to the United States overnight and the girls found themselves in a completely unfriendly environment. It is not explained how the father found, and funded, a house and a business as soon as he arrived in the U.S. It is easy to assume that the government facilitated the acquisition of both. It is also implied that the family did not go through any financial burdens and those fact alone sets them apart from the majority of immigrants. However, the price to be paid for the parents’ actions fell upon the daughters as all of them, at one point in time, went through hard experiences and thought that the solution to their problems was to seek psychiatric help. After going through the entire story, it is not seen any positive result from the psychiatric treatment they received. At the end of the book, not one of them seem to have a career, and besides Sofia, not one of them appears to be happy,

All of the above arguments make up for a very interesting relationship. However, the one that provoked a negative reaction on my part is the relationship between Sofia and Manuel. It paints a sad picture of our actions and reactions. Even though Manuel portraits the typical macho, he becomes secondary, and almost invisible, to the fact that they are cousins and have an intimate relationship. It raises the question as to how come such a protective family did not notice that this was going on, and if they did, why it was acceptable.

After the tyrant was deposed, the family could go back to the island and be as free as they have ever been. It is good to know that even though they participated in a failed coup, they and their families did not lose their wealth. In the majority of the countries where a coup is attempted, the government would have taken the wealth and some truly poor individual would have been given the wealth as a reward for whatever they did after brown-nosing a particular government official.

It is impossible to ignore the clash of cultures and how the family deals with it. The fact that the neighbor treats them so poorly and does her best to degrade them is a situation that still exists today. This intolerance of others is as old as the world and we have not found a way to stop it. This sentiment is so strong that has destroyed empires.

Another excellent example of culture clash is when Yolanda thinks that snow is the fall-out of the bomb. A situation which none of us have been exposed while at our home countries. In Latin America the dropping of bombs are not thought about. The 50s were a time when all the people in the U.S. became afraid of nuclear war and it has taken several decades to get the population unafraid and focusing on other important issues.

I know I am violating the first rule of Essays, do not write in the first person, but it I found it impossible not to do so with this book. It is a wonderful story that made me think of several issues that are not only personal but I have seen first hand. One of them is when my best friends’ father was accused of killing a young person who was the son of another very influential family. The experiences she went through as a result of the outcome were hard and left their mark, not only on her but on me as well. Not only did I lose a best friend but by association had to be careful myself. Unfortunately for me, I knew both parties and their families, and it was a very difficult time as I was expected to choose between the two families and that, in it self, is a very difficult position to be placed in.

As for the rest of the situations depicted in the book, some of them have been personal, some of them I have seen others go through. The results have not always been the same and the responses to them have been according to the person’s background and experiences.