How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Accents

NOTICES REQUIRED FOR COPYRIGHT WORKS

DISTRIBUTED IN THE UNITED STATES UNDER

17 U.s.c. child" 121

The information which follows is important since it describes the copyright ownership and legal restrictions on the use of this Bookshareddorg digital material which govern your lawful use of it.

Copyright Notices

The owner of the copyright on this digital material is Julia Alvarez and this edition was published during 1991. The title of this material is 'How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents", and the author is "Julia Alvarez".

This material may only be lawfully used and possessed in this form by Bookshareddorg individual or institutional members who have previously signed a Member Agreement and provided Bookshareddorg with satisfactory written proof of a print disability, within the meaning of 17 U.s.c. child"

121, and who qualify to receive books and other publications produced in specialized formats in compliance with the relevant copyright laws of the United States. If you are not in this class of persons, you are not authorized to access or use this material and should destroy this copy at once since possession or use of it is a violation of copyright law. Copyright owners agreed to this special exception to assist the blind and reading disabled, and their rights should be respected in return for this important exception.

This material is made available under 17

U.s.c. child" 121, which provides that: "it is not an infringement of copyright for an authorized entity to reproduce or to distribute copies of a previously published, nondramatic literary work if such copies are reproduced or distributed in specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities."

Bookshareddorg is an authorized entity under this law. This exception applies only to distribution within the United States, whether over the Internet or otherwise.

Your use of this special digital form of the material is subject to the Member Agreement you previously signed. For the full text of the current version of this Member Agreement, please visit www.bookshareddorg/agreements. This information does not in any way change the terms of your Agreement with Bookshareddorg; it is placed here to remind you of your obligations and those of persons who might subsequently obtain a copy of this digital form of the material.

Limitation of Liability; Indemnity by User By downloading and using this material, you agree that neither Bookshareddorg nor the authors or original publishers of the materials shall be financially responsible for any loss or damage to you or any third parties caused by the failure or malfunction of the Bookshareddorg Web Site

(www.bookshareddorg) or because of any inaccuracy or lack of completeness of any content that you download from the Web Site, including this material. Similarly, neither Bookshareddorg nor the authors and publishers of the content make any representations as to the accuracy, completeness, etc., of the materials available on the Web Site. The authors and publishers have no editorial control over this Web Site.

BOOKSHARE.ORG, AND THE AUTHORS,

PUBLISHERS AND COPYRIGHT OWNERS OF THE

MATERIALS, SHALL NOT IN ANY CASE BE

LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT,

SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL

DAMAGES, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY,

IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING OUT OF THE

FURNISHING OF CONTENT, THE FUNCTIONING OF

THE WEB SITE, OR ANY OTHER

ASPECT OF YOUR USE OF THE WEB

SITE AND THE CONTENTS PROVIDED HEREUNDER.

You agree to indemnify and hold Bookshareddorg and Benetech, the Web Site provider, harmless from any liability, loss, cost, damage or expense, including reasonable attorney's fees, that result from any claim made by any author, publisher or copyright owner that you, or any one acquiring copies of copyrighted materials downloaded from the Web Site through you, is not visually impaired, disabled or otherwise entitled to download and use the digital materials from the Bookshareddorg Web Site under the provisions of 17 U.s.c. s'121 and related laws. This indemnity includes any claims arising out of any breach of your obligations under your Member Agreement, whether by reason of misuse, negligence or otherwise.

Permitted Use; Limited Waiver of

Privacy Principles and Laws

You are permitted under the "Fair Use"

principles of the copyright laws to use this digital copy for your own personal use. However, any further reproduction, distribution, or any commercial usage requires the express, prior consent of the copyright holder.

This material contains digital watermarks and fingerprints designed to identify this material as a Bookshareddorg digital material that was specifically downloaded by you. It is illegal to delete or modify these watermarks and fingerprints under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Bookshareddorg has an active monitoring system in place to protect against this, which includes maintaining records of the identity of the persons downloading books and materials from the Web Site. We do so to protect this valuable exception in the copyright law that permits the Bookshareddorg and similar services. Your Member Agreement expressly authorizes us to include these security devices, solely for this use, as an express exception to current and future privacy laws relating to protection of personal information data. Should any future privacy law or regulation preclude the use of this personal data for purposes of tracking the downloading and use of these materials and enforcing the limitations of 17 U.s.c. child" 121, your right to use these materials will terminate on the effective date of any such law or regulation.

The Bookshareddorg id of this book is Bookshare-19646-1-2. This material was downloaded by Michael Mello (mike at mello.com) and is digitally fingerprinted in the manner described above.

Begin Content

"Tender, charming... the sharp humor and snappy perceptions of an outsider... the writing is charged with a poetic intensity that is truly original."

-

The Miami Herald

"Alvarez treats the subjects of immigration, exile, Hispanic culture and the American Dream with a sensitive and often irreverent touch."

-

Washington Post

"Like Amy Tan, Julia Alvarez uses her rich storytellingskills to convey a disturbing message about the ever-widening gap between native and ethnic cultures inour country."-

Albany Metroland

"A TUMULTUOUS FAMILY GET-TOGETHER, full of warmth, laughter and bickering."

-St.

Petersburg Times

JULIA ALVAREZ was raised in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to the United States in 1960. After receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees in literature and writing, she taught poetry for many years and published her first collection of poems,

Homecoming,

in 1984. Alvarez has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Ingram Merrill Foundation.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents was the winner of the 1991 PEN Oakland/josephine Miles Book Award for works which present a multicultural viewpoint. Alvarez is currently professor of English at Middlebury College.

"A LYRICAL RENDITION OF A FAMILIAR

STORY- the American immigrant's search for identity... told in vivid, poetic language." -

Philadelphia Inquirer

"DEFT AND MAGICAL... brings

to attention manyof the issues-serious and light-that immigrantfamilies face, portraying them with sensitivity and anenjoyable, mischievous sense."-

Kirkus Reviews

"ALVAREZ MAKES MAGIC AND ART OF

THE HUMAN ODYSSEY... A PLEASURE

TO READ."

-

The Virginian-Pilot and the Ledger-Star

"ROLLICKING, HIGHLY ORIGINAL ...

Alvarez is a gifted, evocative storyteller of promise."

-

Library Journal

"A spicy, zestful novel of distinctive Spanish flavor... enchants the reader while spinning a web of wonder."

-

Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Wonderfully fresh... experiences ranging from wildly funny to genuinely poignant...

irresistible."

-

Sunday Rutland Herald

"A DELIGHTFUL BOOK."

-Cosmopolitan

"A remarkable climb up a family tree...

written with the conviction and unique perspective of specificvoices at specific times."-

Baltimore City Paper

"Vivid... many parallels may be drawn between these stories and Amy Tan's

The Joy Luck Club."

-Publishers Vfeekly

"LOVELY AND INTIMATE."

-The Houston Post

"New spice in the melting pot... Alvarez's touch is the poignancy and sensitivity with which she recounts the process of how the Garcia girls come to feel at home in America,.. warm and enjoyable."

-

Ashville Citizen-Times

"Vulnerable characters... capricious, daring andclever."-

Greensboro News and Record

"In a subtle but powerful way it reveals the intricacies of family, the impact of culture and place, and the profound power of language."

-San

Diego Tribune

"COMPELLING!"

-Mirabella

xooa

vijnj[Aq

AT AT AT AT AT AT AT AT

AT AT AT AT AT AT AT AT

Alll AT AT A

SXNH3OV HI3HX XSO1

VIOID*RIGHT-BRACE

HHX MOH

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.s.a.

Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcom Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M4V 3B2

Penguin Books bar N.z.) Ltd, 182-190

Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Published by Plume, an imprint of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. This is an authorized reprint of a hardcover edition published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

First Plume Printing, June, 1992 16 15

14 13 12 11

Copyright [*copygg'Julia Alvarez, 1991

All rights reserved. For information address Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of VK-NKMAN Publishing Company, Inc., 708 Broadway, New York, New York 10003.

Some of these stories have appeared, in slightly different versions, in

The Caribbean Writes The Greensboro Review, Third Woman, The Syracuse Scholar, Outlooks and Insights

(st. Martin's Press, 1983),

Unholy Alliances

(cleis Press, 1989),

The Writer's Craft

(scott, rbresman Co. 1986, 1989), Heresies, the newrenaissasnce, An American Christmas

(peachtree, 1986), AfSS.

(f right-brace Just

REGISTERED TRADEMARK-MAHCA RECISTRADA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

CATALOCINC-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Alvarez, Julia.

How the Carcia girls lost their accents still by Julia Alvarez.

people. cm.

ISBN 0-452-26806-0 I. Title.

(Pr3551.l845H66 1992]

813-.54-dc2091-45863

CIP

Printed in the United States of America Original hardcover design by Molly Renda Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

publisher's note

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY

DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. POR INFORMATION

PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING

DIVISION, PENGUIN BOOKS USA INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK,

NEW YORK 10014.

For

Bob Pack

and, of course,

the sisters

9@ddment

asudms uvoimay uy

6@lr

s9Arj ftps

Srz

Jipog uvum

S6i

ra

891

oSi *@li Zoi oopnfCM-SY

ivpiSax y

n

foots ismquawiz Apny sift

89 aost

ot s[jif) jno-f aqj;

@l

sotoiuy I

AT AT AT AT AT AT AT AT

AT AT AT AT AT AT AT AT

Alll AT AT A

Special thanks to

Judy Yamall

Shannon Ravenel

Susan Bergholz

Judy Liskin-Gasparro

TATIIITAT

The National Endowment for the Arts Research Board at the University of Illinois

Ingram Merrill Foundation

Altos de Chavon

Bill

companeio

through all these pages in

I I

The Garcf a Family

Yolanda

, Yoyo, or, in

the States, Joe)

Sofia

(fift)