27 pages • 54 minutes read
Julia AlvarezThe Daughter of Invention
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez was born in 1951 in New York but lived in the Dominican Republic until she was 10. How the García Girls Lost Their Accents mirrors many of the events of Alvarez’s own life, especially via the character of Yolanda García. Alvarez was born into a large, affluent family in the Dominican Republic. Her family lived under the Trujillo dictatorship before being exiled from the Dominican Republic. Her father was involved in a failed plot to overthrow Trujillo, after which her family was granted permission to leave for the United States. In “An American Childhood in the Dominican Republic,” an essay narrating the experience of growing up between and within two places, Alvarez speaks of their time in the Dominican Republic with fondness and fear. She cites black Volkswagens in their driveway every night preventing her father from going to the hospital to perform emergency surgeries. The García family landed in Queens, New York, where her father received a fellowship to practice medicine.
Alvarez was 10 when she arrived in America speaking Spanish. Learning English became a priority for her, as she recognized that language would be the best, most immediate way to erase the cultural differences between her and her peers at school. Before long, Alvarez lost much of her native tongue and began mastering English. How the García Girls Lost Their Accents reflects circumstances and themes from Alvarez’s adolescence, including an early passion for writing and attempting to assimilate through English. Alvarez published the novel in 1991, just after her 41st birthday, to much acclaim.
In 1997, Alvarez published Yo!, a continuation of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents that follows Yolanda García’s journey to becoming a professional writer. Alvarez has published several novels across her writing and teaching career, including In the Time of the Butterflies, a historical novel about the Mirabal sisters, three Dominican anti-Trujillo activists who were assassinated. Alvarez’s work is often informed by her experiences of assimilation, and she is known for interrogating the cultural expectations of women in both the Dominican Republic and the United States.
Historical Context: The Trujillo Dictatorship
In How the García Girls Lost their Accents, the García family immigrated to the United States during Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship, a period from 1930 to 1961 that was characterized by bloody violence, oppression, instability, and corruption. Trujillo’s secret security forces, SIM, were responsible for mass murder and used fear and intimidation tactics to maintain control. The Trujillo Era was also characterized by anti-Haitian violence; Dominican soldiers killed tens of thousands of Haitians in the 1937 Parsley Massacre.
In the novel, Carlos García has an enduring fear of black cars and anyone in uniform from his time in the Dominican Republic because he was targeted by the regime. During “Daughter of Invention,” Carlos often reads Dominican newspapers at night and keeps up with news from his homeland. He even considers the idea of returning with his family when hearing the news that Trujillo was assassinated. Carlos sees hope and potential in the first free elections held by the interim government. The hope of return felt by Carlos, though, is challenged by the ways his wife and daughters are becoming accustomed to American life. After Trujillo’s assassination, the Dominican Republic remained under military rule until 1970, further complicating Carlos’s dreams of repatriating.
The historical relevance of the Trujillo dictatorship follows the García family in the form of their father’s fear of rebellion. To rebel under Trujillo in any way would invite peril, and to Carlos, reverence of authority, even if fake, is an essential part of surviving in their new lives. The tension between the old ways and the new ways in “Daughter of Invention” signifies the effects of displacement on those who experience it. Carlos, for instance, remains committed to speaking Spanish and keeping up with news from home. Laura, on the other hand, reads the New York Times and speaks English to her daughters. The story represents the tension between embracing the difficulty of assimilation and holding onto the ways of before.
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