Garcia Girls

Stereotypes of Hispanics

Stereotypes have existed in different forms throughout history. Although they are prevalent in all areas of the world, most countries have overcome name calling various ethnic groups to a degree better than the past. However, people in America still place several racist connotations on minorities. This is ironic because the United States is considered to be a giant "melting pot" of different cultures, and Americans still are racist toward diverse ethnic groups. Hispanics are one minority Americans constantly categorize and even degrade with derogatory names. Julia Alvarez shows the stereotypes of Hispanic men and women in her narrative How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.

First, Alvarez presents the stereotypes given to Hispanic males. She does this through her father, Carlos. He has been raising a family of four girls in the Dominican Republic, but in the sixties he is forced to move his family to America to escape cruel dictator forces. Being Hispanic makes him patriarchal over the family, which means he controls family decisions and the upbringing of his girls. For example, he does not want his girls to be sleeping around or portraying themselves in a sexual manner because he feels it puts shame to his name. This is very common in Hispanic culture, but not in America which raises several issues throughout the novel. Another example is when his youngest, rebellious daughter, Sofia, goes to Columbia and meets a German man named Otto, falls in love and sleeps with him. Back home Carlos finds love letters from Otto and becomes very angry to the point where Sofia packs up and leaves to go to Germany and marry the man. This is a common reaction for a Hispanic male because in their culture the father is suppose to control his daughters and sex is meant to be kept private. Another one of his daughters, Yolanda, who is a writer, has another conflict with her father when writing a speech to deliver to her class on Teacher's day. The speech is derived from Walt Whitman and focuses on individualism. Carlos becomes outraged after hearing the speech and say, "It show no gratitude. It is boastful. 'I celebrate myself?'...He mocked Yoyo's plagiarized words. That is insubordinate. It is improper. It is disrespecting of her teachers" (Alvarez 145). In the Spanish culture a person is expected to respect and praise their teachers and never focus on one's individual self, which is why Carlos is furious for her writing such a speech. To him it is not the words from his Dominican Republican daughter, and he is outraged how Americanized his daughter has become to forget her upbringing. These are just a few of the many examples of Carlos acting like the Hispanic stereotype of a patriarchal father in the novel.

Although being patriarchal is not necessarily a bad stereotype, Yolanda experiences a much worse degrading name often characterized to Hispanic women. Because sex is meant to be private and serious in the Spanish culture, Yolanda has a lot of problems in college because in America it is so much more exposed and corrupt. This upsets Yolanda and she says, "For the hundredth time, I cursed my immigrant origins. If only I too had been born in Connecticut or Virginia, I too would understand the jokes everyone was making on the last two digits of the year, 1969; I too would be having sex and smoking dope..." (94-5). It is sad to see Yolanda does not fit in with the rest of her class mates, and feels like she must have sex and do drugs to really fit in with the American culture.

After meeting a boy named Rudy, Yolanda tries to open up to him since they are dating and show sexual attraction, but has trouble just because it is so