How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Whew. I have finished reading all of the LC Book Club books. This one was just a reread.

Interesting timing for this reread because we're about to read "The Story of my Body" and I can see all kinds of overlap (Yolanda wanting to be strong and also being perceived as an exotic person in college years, Carla being ashamed of her hairy legs and such, Sandi admiring the flamenco dancers, all 4 girls being called "spic").

Upon my rereading, I wondered why Fifi had such a small role in the book. We don't really learn anything about her as a young child except what is mentioned in the other girls' sections in a casual way. Julia Alvarez has admitted that Yolanda is a sort of autobiographical character, so it is clear why so much of the book is about her. Carla was just sort of boring, which (sad to say since I too am the oldest) is kind of the role of the oldest child. Sandi was really interesting to me but not a whole lot was done with her adult character.

As a lit person, I like to examine the structure of a book. There is a chapter that doesn't seem to fit-- the one on Chucha, the nanny/cook. She gets to wrap up the part where the family leaves to go to New York. As an outside observer, she gives the most inciteful comment about the girls: they will forever be affected by the things that have formed them in their homeland whether or not they realize it. This is so true. The problems that Yo and Sandi have can be traced to specific times on the island. Carla's insecurities are traced to more general familial role problems but also her transition to becoming American. Fifi-- we don't have enough on her childhood to know if her issues stem from that time, but I can't help but think there is something up with the different codes of behavior allowed for men and women and that double standard of men being congratulated for the "macho" behavior of sowing wild oats and passing their name on to boys instead of girls and the like while the young women are to be protected and chaperoned and are not allowed to enjoy their sexuality unless they are belong to a toss-away social level and even then, they are supposed to enjoy it in a subservient way (from the part with Vic, the American).

How did we end up with sex in all four of the book club novels?
Frank in Catch Me If You Can was always chasing a new girl. Garcia Girls had far too many penis references. No Telephone to Heaven had disturbing sexual behavior. She's Not There had the safest, tamest sexual references and it is about getting a sex change!

The Learning Community is covering gender right now. While we've briefly talked about the double standard that happens with men and women and housework, we haven't done much with other double standards. I think they are really changing right now. When I was in college, there were much different "rules" for guys and girls. Now, not so much.

Anyway...to draw this back in to How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, there seems to be such a difference between real identity that the girls have on the inside and the identity they show to the world. The parts with the SIM showed what was said and unsaid with just body language. The part with Yolanda and Rudolf something something the third (my favorite section of the book) showed how conflicted she was and seemingly confused about which codes of behavior to follow and which to toss out. Interesting stuff, well, to me anyway.