Wednesday, November 10, 2010

How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Part 2

In the second part of the book, we now read their lives as young ladies growing up to become women. I find it interesting that the book is in the structure the way it is. In the beginning, we get to find out how they are as older Dominican women dealing with their own  problems whether it is about reputation or their culture. I think the first vignette really related to the purpose of the book and was one of the most important ones.

In Regular Revolution, each of the four young girls have experiences that change their lives.  When they first go to school, they feel like outsiders because the kids are rich and do not respect their culture. The girls are taken out of this school and are sent to American boarding school. To the mother and father, this will help the girls not be involved with those type of issues.The innocence that the mother and father hope the girls keep while being in America does not last very long. The girls decide that they want freedom and to experience things they wouldn't in Dominican Republic. Not every experience gives good results for theses sisters. The girls start kissing boys and smoking marijuana - which is what the mother found out about. Youngest daughter Sofia takes the blame and is sent back to the Dominican Republic.

This does not change the way she acted in America. When Sofia goes to Dominican Republic, she meets Manuel ,who is not a good influence on her. He is sexist and possessive and is practically related to her. When Sofia has sex with Manuel , this upsets Yolanda, Carla, and Sandra. They set her up only to make her realize the bad choices that she has made. Sofia returns to the United States, learning how she upsetted her family and what a scandal is.

There are other vignettes that do talk about their culture and how their loss of innocence impacted them and the people around them. However, I felt that the girls start to lose their innocence and  culutre when they are introduced to new culutres that do not make them feel like outsiders.

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