How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay

The characters’ need to adapt to new environments forms the central tension of Alvarez’s narrative. At the beginning of the story, Miguel moves from New York City to a “quaint New England town” with his mother and sister (98), and struggles with the loss of the city’s familiarity and diversity: “[H]ere in Vermont, his black hair and brown skin stand out. He feels so different from everybody” (5). Miguel’s sense of isolation increases due to racist bullying and microaggressions from his classmates, and he struggles to make friends. Miguel’s emotions toward his new environment are further complicated by his parents’ divorce. As a result, the 10-year-old must adjust not only to a new town but also to living in a different state from his father and grieving the loss of his family as it once was. Over the course of the story, Alvarez depicts the process of adaptation by showing how Miguel gradually goes from wishing for his parents to reunite to realizing that “[s]ome things, like his parents’ divorce, he just has to learn to accept” (120). The author uses Miguel’s new friendships and his teammates’ decision to make him captain, both of which demonstrate his ability to establish connections, to signal the progress he’s making in embracing both self-acceptance and his new life. By Chapter 7, Miguel has put down roots in the old farmhouse that once seemed forbidding to him: “He doesn’t want to move from the house that has finally become a home to him” (102). Although Miguel initially struggles to accept his new environment, he adapts and grows to love his new home.

Tía Lola begins her own process of adaptation when she leaves the Dominican Republic to join her relatives in Vermont. She has never been to the US before, so she experiences an even greater change in her environment than her great-nephew. Alvarez illustrates Tía Lola’s fish-out-of-water journey by having the titular character arrive in a Vermont winter dressed for Dominican summer: “On her colorful summer dress, parrots fly toward palm trees, and flowers look ready to burst from the fabric if they can only figure out how” (12). While Tía Lola’s wardrobe makes her look out of place in Miguel’s eyes, her bright clothing reflects one of her main strategies to adapt to her environment, sharing herself with her family and neighbors and making the quiet Vermont town more like the colorful, close-knit community of her beloved island. Tía Lola cultivates a sense of belonging by befriending neighbors like Rud and bringing pieces of her beloved island to Vermont by pruning bushes into tropical birds. In painting the dreary white farmhouse purple, Tía Lola literally transforms their Vermont home to reflect her Dominican culture. As she asks Mami, “Don’t the colors remind her of the island? ‘La casita de tu niñez.’ The house where Mami spent her childhood” (96). Although Tía Lola transforms the lonely farmhouse into a warm and welcoming home for Miguel, Juanita, and Mami, she still suffers from homesickness, highlighting the complex emotions involved in adapting to a new environment or situation. In Chapter 9, Tía Lola tells Miguel, “Of course I miss the island [...] But I wouldn’t want to miss being here with all of you” (127). This reveals that Tía Lola’s love for her family gives her the strength to endure major changes in her life. By showing how Miguel and Tía Lola adapt to their new environments, Alvarez encourages her young audience to embrace similar resilience during times of change.