Garcia Girls Study Guide

What is SOAPStone? a.) A symbolic thing from "how the Garcia girls lost their accents" b.) type of stone c.) Reading strategy to encourage and strengthen readers' d.) A strategy for writing an essay What does the "A" stand for? a.) Author's purpose b.) Analyze c.) Audience d.) Actions What does to "Purpose" mean? A.) Why the author wrote the book. B.) the attitude of the author/Speaker c.) What the purpose is of writing essay

....

Which Garcia Girl was paired with their boy cousin Mundin's? a) Carla b) Sofia c) Yolanda When Yolanda gets caught in the shed, why does she say she was there? a) To hangout with Mundin b) Hiding from the secret police c) Hiding from Carla Which outfit did Mami think would encourage Yolanda's "tomboy" phase? a) Sweatpants b) Cowboy Outfit c) Police Officer's outfit

C, D, B

1) Who did Trujillo want to kill? a. The Hattians b. The Dominicans c. Americans d. Animals 2) What was Trujillo? a. A prince b. A famous actor c. A Dictator d. An American Citizen 3) What did the Garcia family do to escape Trujillo a. They dug themselves a home underground b. They moved to Japan c. They ate pie and hoped for the best d. They moved to America

A, C, D

1. What is the correct color code system Mami used and for what girls? a. Yellow (Carla) Blue(Sandra) Pink (Yolanda) White (Sofia) b. Blue(Sandra) Pink (Yolanda) Yellow (Carla) White (Sofia) c. White (Sofia) Yellow (Carla) White (Sofia) Blue(Sandra) 2. Who wanted red sneakers? a. Sandra b. Carla c. Yolanda d. Sofia 3. What does the phrase "Good bulls sire cows" mean? a. Cows cause chaos b. Having daughters makes Papi feel powerless c. Having daughters makes Papi feel more in control

ABC

1) Whose point of view is still lives told though A: four girls B: Yolanda C: Sandi D: Carla 2) What did Sandi want to draw A: cats B: Dogs C: tigers D: Ravens 3) Where was Dona Charito from A: DR B: Germany C: Spain D: France

Answers C,A,B

1. What does Yolanda's grandmother promise her if she is well behaved? A. A new drum B. Money C. To take a trip to the US to see FAO Schwarz and snow 2. What does the kitten symbolize? A. The daughters B. The mom C. The dad D. The grandmother 3. What does Yolanda's guilt about not letting the kitten grow foreshadow? A. Her family's assimilation B. The problems her and her sisters face growing up in a new country while still holding onto their past C. Her indecisiveness of leaving or staying in the DR D. Her expectations of people

C, A, B

1. What was Mrs. Garcia's initial reaction to finding the marijuana in the girl's room? a. The girls were sneaking drugs b. The girls were picking grass from the garden c. The girls were eating Oregano in the bedroom 2. What action did the girls not like that Sofia was doing? a. She was dating her cousin Manuel b. She was dating numerous guys c. Sofia being mean to her new boyfriend 3. What do the girls and Mundin end up doing when they discover Manuel and Sofia were going to have sex? a. They stay and keep an eye on her b. They went home and told their mom c. They simply ignored it

C, A, B

What point of view is the chapter written in? A. Third person limited B. Third person omniscient C. First person D. Second person What is the main reason Yolanda would not sleep with Rudy? A. She fears getting pregnant B. It conflicts with her religion C. She fears sexually transmitted diseases D. Rudy's choice of words when it comes to intercourse What does Yolanda do when Rudy comes back five years later and attempts to seduce her? A. Throws him out B. Sleeps with him C. Hits him d. None of the above

C, D, A

1 -What causes Sofia to run away and ask Otto to marry her? A . Trujillo was coming after her family B . Papi got extremely mad after he found their love letters C . Otto came out as gay D . Papi did not invite her to his annual birthday celebration Correct answer: B;.l1 -What causes Sofia to run away and ask Otto to marry her? A . Trujillo was coming after her family B . Papi got extremely mad after he found their love letters C . Otto came out as gay D . Papi did not invite her to his annual birthday celebration Correct answer: B 2 -What is NOT a reason Sofia was mad at her father? A . He did not buy her a birthday present B . She wanted to resolve problems with her father that he was unwilling to fix C . Papi did not include her in the daughter count during the kissing game D . He credited Otto for the party, even though Sofia did all the work 3 -Why did Sofia kiss Papi on the ear as revenge?A . She wants to please him B . Papi is a germaphobe C . Sofia is kinky D . If he thinks she is a *****, she is going to show him a ***** 2 -What is NOT a reason Sofia was mad at her father? A . He did not buy her a birthday present B . She wanted to resolve problems with her father that he was unwilling to fix C . Papi did not include her in the daughter count during the kissing game D . He credited Otto for the party, even though Sofia did all the work 3 -Why did Sofia kiss Papi on the ear as revenge? A . She wants to please him B . Papi is a germaphobe C . Sofia is kinky D . If he thinks she is a ****, she is going to show him a *****

BAD

1. Why did Yolanda feel that her and john would not work out? a. They didn't speak the same language b. Her name didn't rhyme c. she was in love with someone else 2. When Yolanda first started to act differently what were the signs? a. She was sleeping too much b. she talked in comparisons and riddle c. she was allergic to certain words 3. What type of bird does is Yolanda imagining? Pigeon b. raven c. flamingo

BBB

1. Why does the Fanning's host the Garcia family this luxurious dinner? a) To show how wealthy they are b) To persuade the Garcia family to move in with them for the time being as they are struggling financially c) To welcome the family to the United States as they performed a similar gesture in the Dominican Republic d) To invite Papi to join another secret political group 2. Why doesn't Mami and Papi want the Fanning couple to pay for the toy dolls that the waitress is selling? a) The sisters don't like the dolls b) They feel embarrassed that they can't afford them c) The dolls are offensive to their culture d) The Fanning couple aren't friends with the Garcia family 3. What outrageous action does Mrs. Fanning commit? a) She kisses Papi on the lips b) She doesn't pay for the expensive meal c) She decides to dump Mr. Fanning d) She is extremely rude to the Garcia sisters

C, B, A

1. What is Vic's secret CIA code for trouble? a. "Where's the bathroom" b. "Houston we have a problem" c. "Get your tennis shoes" d. "Hasta Luego" 2. Where does Carlos hide when the secret policemen approach his house? a. Basement b. A shed c. Vent in the bathroom d. In a closet 3. Why did the secret police come? a. To protect Carlos b. Give him money c. Kill Vic d. Report Carlos' comings and goings

C, C, D

1. Where did Papi return from in the beginning of the chapter? A) Dominican Republic B) New York C) California D) Berlin; Germany 2. Which maid loves to sing in a high, sweet voice? A) Gladys B) Chucha C) Nivea 3. What does Mami refer the maids as? A) Dogs B) Children C) Demons D) Snakes

D, A, B

What happens to young Carla when she is walking home from school? a. She breaks her arm b. She has a mental breakdown c. She goes to the Dominican Republic d. She encounters a weird man Who is the teacher that Yolanda looks up to? a. Sister Zoe b. Chucha c. Sister Beatrice d. Lucinda What does the Snow symbolize? a. A bomb b. Hope for future and American dream, as well as the terrifying unknown c. The cold and bad experiences the Garcia girls have in America Sadness that the whole family feels for having to leave their country

D, A, B

1. Where did the people that were affected by the Massacre escape to? - America - Mexico - Dominican Republic - Russia 2. Which maid escaped from the Parsley Massacre? - Gladys - Chucha - Chucho - Mundo 3. Why is it called the Parsley Massacre? - It was in Parsley, Haiti - Soldiers killed more than 20,000 people - Soldiers asked civilians to say the word "Parsley" in Spanish, and If they did not say it correctly, they would get killed. The dictator Trujillo wanted it to be called the "Parsley Massacre"

DR, Chucha, Soliders asked to say word "Parsley"

1. What does Yolanda have an "antojo" for? a. Apples b. Oranges c. Bananas d. Guavas 2. What is Yolanda's initial reaction to the men she finds? a. Fear b. Happiness c. Anger d. Neutral 3. Where does Yolanda consider her home in this chapter? a. The United States b. Dominican Republic c. Stuck between both Canada

Guavas, fear, both

The Kiss

POV Third Person The four Garcia daughters traditionally gathered every year for their father's birthday. They came alone, leaving behind husbands, boyfriends, and work. Their father Carlos would greet them, they would eat cake, and then he would give them envelopes filled with hundreds of dollars in small bills. The daughters always wondered why he does not simply write checks instead. For her father's seventieth birthday, however, Sofia wanted to break the tradition and have the party at her house, including the husbands and children. Sofia and her father were finally speaking to each other again, after she had run away to get married. Her second child had just been born, and was named Carlos, after her father. He treated his namesake better than his granddaughter because he was a boy. His macho attitude bothered Sofia. When she was younger, she was the sister with "non-stop boyfriends." Because her father had forbidden her to spend the night with her boyfriend, she had to go on vacation to enjoy any intimacy. She went on vacation to Colombia with a boyfriend, but after having sex, broke up with him. While in Colombia, she fell in love with Otto, a German tourist. After she returned home, her father snooped in her drawers and found sexually graphic letters from the German man. They had a terrible argument in which her father accused Sofia of trying to ruin his good name and reputation by sleeping around. Sofia became so angry and hurt during this fight that she ran away from home. She went to Germany to get the man to marry her, which he did. She sent her family postcards from their honeymoon, and invited them to visit her and her husband in their new home in Michigan. When their first child was born, Sofia's mother Laura did visit, but her father swore he would never set foot in her house. Because she wanted to make up with her father, Sofia brought the baby to see him for a birthday visit. Sofia and her father gradually forgave each other, but she hoped the birthday party would be their big reconciliation. At the party, Carlos was pleased with his gifts and the band, but as the evening progressed he became more withdrawn and depressed that he was so old. The other guests continued drinking, eating, and playing raucous party games. They decided to play a party game that would amuse him. He was blindfolded and one of the women gave him a kiss on the cheek. He was supposed to guess which one it was. He began by guessing his wife and then his three oldest daughters. He never guessed Sofia's name and she felt hurt. She also felt that he did not appreciate the work she put into organizing his party. After most of the other female guests had given their pecks on the cheek, Sofia wanted him to know without a doubt that she was the one kissing him. She gave him a big wet kiss in his ear, using her tongue and biting his ear lobe. This angered and humiliated him. He tore off the blindfold and declared that the game was over. Analysis Sofia's ongoing conflict with her father represents a struggle for control of her sexuality. Their arguments also illustrate the cultural differences between the United States and the Dominican Republic. In traditional Dominican culture, a man's honor is determined in part by his ability to protect and guard the chastity of his female relatives. In contemporary American culture, however, a woman expects to be able to control her own sexuality once she has reached adulthood. The conflict between Sofia and her father grows out of the gap between these two cultural perspectives. Sofia feels that it is her right to explore her sexuality however she pleases while also enjoying the privacy and independence of adulthood. Her father, on the other hand, feels that the presence of loose women in his house disrespects his parental and male authority. His definition of loose turns on Sofia's status as a single woman, since Catholic ideology does not condone a woman having sex before marriage. Sofia's flight from her father's house represents her desire to assert her own independent authority as a woman and as an adult. It is key to note, however, that she does not pursue an independent lifestyle, but goes straight to Germany to search for Otto. She trades her father's protection and authority for that of a husband. This act is meant to highlight her father's impotence to exert future influence over her sexuality. The kiss is significant because Sofia reveals to her father in a very physical way the extent and nature of her sensuality. She also publicly humiliates him as she flaunts her sexuality in front of their guests. Because sexual contact between a father and daughter is considered incest, she also flirts with breaking this taboo when she arouses his desires with the kiss. Even though she is a married woman with two children, she still feels compelled to draw attention to his inability to control her sexual behavior. Despite their mutual efforts to leave behind their turbulent past, Sofia cannot forgive her father for his insulting and overbearing attitudes, and her father cannot tolerate her overt expression of her sexuality as a mature woman.

An American Surprise

POV: Carla Carlos returned from a trip to New York City with a surprise for his daughters. He promised he would show them the surprise if they finished their dinners first. Carla wanted a clue what the surprise might be, but she had to wait. Gladys, their maid, began singing a song about going to New York. Carla liked to hear her sing, though her mother thought she was just a poor ignorant black girl. Gladys set the table and invited Carla into the maids' room. Chucha and Gladys bickered for a moment, until Gladys started daydreaming about going to New York. She thought that the Statue of Liberty was an American version of the Virgin Mary, so she prayed to her every day. The black maids complained about their work and the endless presents the girls received. Carla did not mind having to clean her plate if she got to eat spaghetti and meatballs, and waited impatiently to learn about their surprises. Their mother got a bottle of her favorite perfume, and the girls got small iron statues. They didn't understand what they were for, but Yolanda's was a man in a boat next to a whale, Sandra's was a girl jumping rope, and Carla's was a girl staring at clouds. Their father said they were all the rage at FAO Schwarz. Then they realized that they were mechanical banks that moved when a coin was put into a slot. Gladys was allowed to put a coin into Carla's bank, making Mary rise toward the clouds with her arms uplifted. Carla brought the bank to school and got almost a dollar in pennies from other children. Her mother's friends and Gladys also often put pennies into the bank. Eventually it was forgotten and put away on a toy shelf. Christmas decorations and preparations then held everyone's attention, and Gladys began singing Christmas carols instead of radio merengues. Carla got the baby doll she had wanted for Christmas, as well as other toys. The maids each got a wallet with a little money as a gift. Gladys offered to buy the bank with her Christmas money, but Carla thought she might get in trouble for selling a gift her father had brought her. Gladys offered to throw in the wallet she had gotten, and Carla felt sorry for her. Carla said she could keep the bank for free, and Gladys thanked her before bringing the bank to her room. A few weeks later, her mother noticed the bank was missing from Carla's room. Carla told her mother she did not know where it was, and her mother decided to search the maids' room. Her employers interrogated Gladys, and then Carla admitted that she had given the bank away voluntarily. Her parents still felt that they could not trust Gladys, and she was pressured to leave the family. As Gladys left the house crying, Carla put a penny into the bank and it jammed, leaving Mary stuck between heaven and earth.

Still Lives

POV: Sandi Dona Charito was a German artist who married a Dominican man and taught the Garcia sisters art when they were children. They called her house, where she lived with her husband, Don Jose, the Hansel and Gretel house. The couple had met in Spain while sketching at the Prado. As a girl, Sandra was recognized to be talented at art, and drew pictures of the servant's baby or the cat. The baby's mother thought that the art was a curse when the baby became sick, and she begged Sandra to release the baby from her spell. Sandra burned the sketch and the baby got well. Sandra then drew the cats on the stucco wall of the house, and was punished for defacing the walls. The family then decided she needed art lessons to keep her out of trouble and also cultivate her talent. Because the family wanted to be fair, all of the female cousins would take the lessons together. Don Jose was busy, trying to complete a sculpture commission, and he was rumored to be insane. Fourteen of the cousins were sent for art lessons with Dona Charito, who was available. When they arrived at the house, the children removed their shoes and were given a tour. They were shown paintings of fruit, guitars and horses before being instructed in the proper way to hold a paintbrush. Sandra became bored and painted a gold cat while Dona Charito was not looking. She painted several more cats before the teacher discovered them, and threw her out of the class for disobedience. Sandra wandered around the house and heard a man outside cursing Dona Charito. Sandra investigated and found a shed in the backyard. She climbed up on a stump to peer in a window, hoping to discover something embarrassing about her teacher. She saw strange shapes inside the shed, and noticed a woman's figure with a blank face. She also noticed a naked man chained by the neck who was chiseling feet for the female statue. He climbed on top of the statue and put his chisel against its forehead. Sandra screamed to warn the statue and the man jumped toward the window to grab her. The chain pulled him back, but she fell to the ground and broke her arm. She saw his face in the window, studying her and smiling. Sandra continued screaming until the class ran outside. She told Dona Charito she had broken her arm, and her cousins played happily in the mud. It took many months for the bone to heal, especially since it had to be re- broken after it had healed incorrectly. Sandra got to have ice cream and special toys in the hospital. She could not go to art lessons anymore, though her cousins still had to study still life painting for a year while Sandra had her arm in a sling. At Christmas time, Sandra and her family went to the National Cathedral for the nativity pageant. Sandra recognized the sculptures from the shed, especially the Virgin, who had a face that looked exactly like her own.

The Four Girls

POV: Third Sofia was now twenty-six and Carla would be thirty-one next month, but Laura still insisted on calling all of the sisters "the four girls." She always felt that she had to apologize to strangers and their father that there were no boys in the family. Carlos always said, "Bulls sire good cows." The mother dressed each girl in a particular color, Carla in yellow, Sandra in blue, Yolanda in pink and Sofia in white. Sofia was jealous of her older sister's pink outfits, but Yolanda insisted on keeping pink for herself. The mother would sometimes get details about the different girls confused, but she had a particular story for each that she liked to tell on special occasions. Carla grew up to be a psychologist, and analyzed her own story for unresolved childhood issues. Carla's story was referred to as the story of the red sneakers. When Carla was younger the family was poorer and had little money to spend on unnecessary things. Carla constantly begged anyway for a pair of red sneakers. A neighbor offered to give Carla a pair of white sneakers, but she only wanted red ones. Her father suggested that they paint the sneakers red with her mother's nail polish, which was what they did. Her mother told this story at Carla's wedding. Yolanda wanted to be a poet but ended up a schoolteacher. At a poetry reading, her mother described Yolanda's nervous nature—as a child, her hair fell out—to Yolanda's boyfriend, a fellow literature professor named Clive. She also told stories of how Yolanda used to recite poems on buses. The mother did not like to tell stories about Sandra, because she said she would like to forget the past. She and her husband had to commit Sandra to a mental hospital because her anorexia led to a mental breakdown. Sandra had started dieting during graduate school and ended up in the hospital, able only to read. She felt she was turning into a monkey, and had to read all the great works of man before she ran out of time. She felt that evolution was going backwards and she would eventually turn into all the animals her mother was trying to get her to eat. The night Sofia was born, the family was robbed, but the robbers were caught and everything was returned. Her mother felt that Sofia was lucky for this reason. She told this story to a handsome stranger while watching her granddaughter in the hospital. A week after Sofia's daughter was born, the daughters gathered at her house for Christmas. Sandra had been released from the hospital for a month, but was still sensitive and cried easily. Sandra had a new boyfriend, and Yolanda's boyfriend had just gone back to his wife again. Sofia confessed that she made love to Otto on the fourth day she met him. In her mother's version of the story, they met in Peru rather than Colombia, and Sofia never fought with her father over the letters. Yolanda complained about Clive's betrayal. Analysis Laura's perspective on each of the girls is shown through the stories she chooses to tell about each of them during proud moments. What she leaves out or changes in each of the stories also indicates her current attitude toward each of her daughters. She is able to create a reality and history for the family that is more comfortable and positive by redefining the more difficult moments her daughters have experienced. She smoothes over Sofia's betrayal of the family, her running away and fighting with her father, by calling it lucky that she ended up with such a loving husband and a beautiful blonde baby. Her story about the thieves who got caught the night Sofia was born similarly reflects her desire to look on the brighter side of things. She needs this positive attitude to craft positive family stories out of unfortunate events. Her story about Carla's red sneakers reflects her pride that her family was able to work creatively during a time a relative hardship in order to provide for the children. Instead of overly dwelling on what she and her husband were not able to offer the children, she highlights their resourcefulness in pleasing the children's every whim, no matter how trivial. Also, though one could fault Carla for being spoiled and ungrateful for refusing the white sneakers, her mother only sees the father's loving desire to give his daughter everything she wanted or needed. Yolanda's career as a poet and her trouble with men also get a positive spin when told by her mother. Though her mother is uncomfortable with the sexual or romantic content of her daughter's poetry, she seems to ignore this when she attends readings, and behaves as a proud mother would. Though Yolanda was unsuccessful as a poet, her mother still would assure strangers at her readings that she was brilliant and always had been, even since she was a child. The mother's inability to talk about Sandra's mental illness indicates the limits of her ability to transform negative experiences into funny family stories. She has nothing positive to say about Sandra's breakdown, and so this story is not repeated. The doctor at the hospital is the only one who hears the mother's perspective on Sandra's mental illness, and she does not tell the story proudly, but instead tragically. This omission indicates the limits of motherly pride, which will forgive rebelliousness, selfishness, or failure, but not insanity.

Joe

POV: Third person Yolanda stood in the window of a mental institution, watching a man with a tennis racket. Yolanda named the objects in her room and described her relationship with John, her husband, to her doctor. She imagined them flirting on a riverbank amid the constellations, saying, "I love you." She remembered when they played word game while relaxing next to a pond. Yolanda insisted that John was a pond and she was the sky. John pointed out that her nickname Yo does not rhyme with the word sky. But she pointed out that Yo, pronounced Joe, rhymes with cielo, which means sky in Spanish. She began to mistrust John when he said she was crazy and needed a shrink. She also distrusted that he made lists of the pros and cons of marrying her. She was hurt that he thought she was too intelligent for her own good and might be crazy. She got angry when he tried to kiss her and screamed, "No!" She also got upset when he tried to make love to her. When he brought her irises, she could not understand what he said anymore. When he spoke, she only heard, "Babble babble." She had trouble writing a good-bye note, but finally left to go to her parents' house. With her parents, she spoke only in quotations or misquotations of literature she had read or songs she had heard. Her therapist, Dr. Payne, suggested that she check into a mental hospital and her parents agreed. Yolanda cried as she was taken to the hospital, but she decided that Dr. Payne would help her get better. She also thought she was falling in love with him. When her parents visited, she awkwardly told them she loved them, and that she and John just did not speak the same language. She thought her nicknames fragmented her sense of self. She also felt allergic to certain words like love or alive, and had physical reactions when she said or heard them. The destruction of the meaning behind language represents Yolanda's inability to connect with other people in meaningful ways. Her failure to relate to John on deeper interpersonal levels is rooted in her distrust of his love, and his difficulty understanding her Dominican culture and heritage. Her cultural identity is represented by the Spanish language, which John cannot understand. When Yolanda points out that her name rhymes with sky in Spanish, she highlights the fact that he cannot access or appreciate her first language and her deeper cultural connections to the Dominican Republic. The fragmented narration of this chapter reflects both Yolanda's disjointed thought processes related to her mental breakdown, as well as her fragmented sense of identity. Her national and cultural identity is split between the Dominican Republic and the United States, and her personal sense of self is also fragmented. This fragmented sense of self was brought on by the heartbreak of divorce, yet also indicates ongoing problems relating to other people. The bastardization of her name from Yolanda to Yo to Yoyo to Joe to Josephine throughout her relationships with John and her family members represents the dissolution of Yolanda's sense of identity. Her later insistence on being called only Yolanda reflects her desire to heal by integrating her various emotional and psychological parts. The raven that emerges from her throat and attacks Dr. Payne represents her fears that language, and specifically her own words, could hurt the people she cares about. Her affection and attraction to Dr. Payne is threatened by the aggressive and ugly words that could come out of her mouth, symbolized by the bird. The bird freely moves from the room through the window screen, just as Yolanda might be able to freely speak her own mind if she were able to stop misquoting others. The allergy that she develops to certain emotionally charged words like love also symbolizes her fear of the damage she could do to those she cares about should she use language to convey her feelings.

Daughter of Invention

POV: Third person limited After arriving in the United States, Laura would take the girls window- shopping in department stores and try to invent things. At night she would lie in bed and sketch out household inventions and strange contraptions, like a child's double-compartment drinking glass with a straw. She thought it was a problem that her daughters wanted to become Americans and would argue with them in English, throwing in odd and confused idioms like "green behind the ears." She felt that she was a good Dominican mother, but a failure as an American Mom. One night, she showed Yolanda a sketch of a car bumper with a removable can opener attached, which she thought would be convenient for picnickers. Her daughters felt frustrated that she was not able to better help them explore their identities as immigrants and withstand the pressures of discrimination and assimilation that they faced going to American schools. They felt that her inventions were a waste of time that she could have spent better supporting their efforts to fit into American culture. Though her mother compared her own creative effort to Yolanda's poetry writing, her daughter still disregarded the inventions. The daughters humored her because they realize that their mother's social status evaporated when she came to the United States, and she needed to create a new identity out of more than class snobbery. She became frustrated that she could not turn her good ideas into profitable business ventures, so she decided to organize her husband's office instead. While in school, Yolanda was chosen to write a speech to be given to her class. She was embarrassed by her accent and feared being humiliated in front of her unfriendly and foreign peers. Her mother offered to help, but Yolanda wanted to do it herself. Carlos offered advice in Spanish, but the sisters did not understand most of his formal diction. She was inspired by reading Walt Whitman and wrote the speech quickly, finally satisfied that she sounded like herself in English. Her father was concerned with the political situation in the Dominican Republic and was considering returning the family to the Island. He was also scandalized by Yolanda's insubordinate and disrespectful attitude towards teachers, plagiarized from Whitman. Yolanda's mother defended the speech and further angered her father, who feared a house full of independent and Americanized women. He tore the speech into pieces, leading Yolanda to call him "Chapita," the nickname used for Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic. Yolanda ran into her bedroom and locked the door until her mother came to help her write a new speech. Though full of bland platitudes, the schoolteachers liked it. Her father came home the next day with a new electric typewriter for Yolanda, and apologized for his behavior. After helping her daughter write the speech, Laura Garcia never invented again.

Floor Show

POV: Third person limited Laura briefed her four daughters on their manners before the family went out to dinner with an important couple, the Fannings. She warned them to behave themselves and to let her order for them. The family had been in the United States for three months after escaping from the secret police, and Laura would often cry or lose her temper. She tried to interest the girls in the dinner at a Spanish restaurant by mentioning a floorshow with flamenco dancers. Sandra was upset by an unfriendly and prejudiced neighbor who complained about the noise the girls made. The family put on their best clothes for the dinner and got excited for the special occasion. Dr. Fanning had arranged for the family's arrival in the U.S. through a fellowship, and was helping Carlos get a job and pass the American medical licensing exam. The couple realized the family had little money, and wanted to treat them to a little luxury. Sandra secretly hoped the Fannings might adopt her so she could be rich and have an allowance. Their mother's father paid the rent, bought the girls' clothes, and took them to the ballet. That night their father splurged and they took a taxi to the restaurant. Sandra realized she missed the chauffeurs and maids she was used to in the Dominican Republic. Their mother insisted it was fair that the Fannings pay for the elegant dinner, since her family had hosted them luxuriously when they visited the Dominican Republic. Their father was embarrassed by his temporary inability to support his family. Sandra thought Dr. Fanning's wife was ugly and did not understand why he had married her. Sandra flirted with the busboy and drank so much water that she had to go to the bathroom. Her father and Mrs. Fanning accompanied her, and Sandra noticed when Mrs. Fanning planted a brief kiss on her father's lips. Sandra was shocked by what she had seen. In the bathroom mirror she noticed that she was a very pretty girl and could even pass for an American because of her light coloring. Her father asked her not to tell her mother that the drunken woman had kissed him. Sandra then feared that the busboy would try the same thing on her. Mrs. Fanning kept drinking more wine until Dr. Fanning told the waiter not to serve her any more. Mrs. Fanning called him a "party fart," which the girls did not understand. Sandra did not eat her food and instead watched the beautiful and passionate dancers. Then Mrs. Fanning ran on stage and made a fool of herself, which the rest of the restaurant enjoyed watching. Sandra resented her ruining the show, though Dr. Fanning then toasted to the family's arrival in the United States. When offered a little Barbie doll dressed as a flamenco dancer, Sandra ignored her mother's warning not to ask for extra treats from the Fannings and asked to buy the doll. Her father refused, but Mrs. Fanning insisted that her husband pay for four dolls, one for each girl. When her mother prompted her to say thank you, Sandra made her doll give Mrs. Fanning a kiss on the cheek and said "gracias." Analysis The entire family feels an enormous pressure to behave properly in an American social setting, and express their gratitude for the favors Dr. Fanning has done for the family. They also need to let loose for a night and have some fun after the traumas of leaving the Island and immigrating to the United States. The family was used to a very high standard of living in the Dominican Republic, and they feel deprived by having to live in a small apartment, consider the needs of unfriendly neighbors, and adapt culturally and economically to their new situation. The outing with Dr. Fanning presents the opportunity to prove that they can survive and even enjoy the process of becoming Americans. Sandra's perspective on the evening is crucial because she witnesses a darker and embarrassing side of American culture. The Spanish restaurant serves as a kind of cultural haven, where Sandra feels like her heritage is appreciated and celebrated rather than complained about to the superintendent of their apartment building. The drunken American woman intrudes into this cultural haven twice, first by kissing her father, and secondly by interrupting the dancers' act. Though Sandra seeks a respite from American culture, she cannot separate herself in a fantasy of passion and artistry for long. The issue of class also interrupts her family's fantasy of luxury. Especially for a child like Sandra, who had been spoiled in the Dominican Republic by her family's wealth and social position, it was difficult to transition into a social setting where her family name earned her no particular respect or extravagance. For her father, the shame of his inability to provide his family with the same wealth and prestige they had enjoyed at home leads to a sense of powerlessness. His desire to fit into the American culture leaves him unprepared to deal with an unexpected situation, and he is mortified by the idea of scandalizing his family and his benefactor by exposing Mrs. Fanning's indiscretion. Ironically, despite the family being on their best behavior, the evening turns out to be an enormous embarrassment for all involved. Sandra uses this awkward moment to get a doll, perhaps indicating that she will be able to manipulate social situations in her new culture to get what she wants materially.

Snow

POV: Yolanda During the family's first year in New York, they rented a small apartment near a Catholic school. Yolanda liked the teachers there, especially her grandmotherly fourth grade teacher, Sister Zoe. This teacher told Yolanda that she had a beautiful name and insisted that the class be taught how to pronounce it correctly. Yolanda was the only immigrant in the class and got special tutoring from Sister Zoe to help her learn English. She was seated apart from the other students to practice pronouncing words like "laundromat," "subway," and "snow." Yolanda soon had learned enough English to understand that the Cuban missile crisis was making everyone very nervous. Yolanda's school had air-raid drills and she imagined what would happen to their bodies if a nuclear missile hit New York. She learned new words to describe the situation like "radioactive fallout" and "bomb shelter." Sister Zoe explained how a bomb would explode, and drew pictures on the chalkboard of mushroom clouds and fallout. Yolanda and her family prayed for world peace. When winter came, the days grew shorter and the weather colder. One day as Yolanda sat at her desk by the window, she saw spots in the air like the ones on the chalkboard. She screamed "Bomb!" and some girls began to cry. Sister Zoe just laughed and explained that it was only snow. Yolanda watched the snow that she had heard so much about, but had never seen before, as Sister Zoe explained that each flake was unique and beautiful, like each person. Analysis Yolanda's growing vocabulary better prepares her to interact with American culture and will open up a new world of language and literature. In the mean time, it prepares her to describe the unexpected aspects of American society that she cannot imagine or relate to as a Dominican girl. Her teacher's kindness is a pillar of support in an uncertain and terrifying age, when the threat nuclear holocaust seems more real. Yolanda's fear leads her to assume the worst when she encounters a strange and unknown phenomenon. This short anecdote becomes a funny story Yolanda can tell the reader in the first person. This memory also indicates why she grew to use language as a tool to deal with the unusual and uncertain traumas she will encounter later in life. If she can name a phenomenon in English and thus understand its beauty or danger, she feels prepared to find a place for herself in the United States and better articulate her own voice.

Antojos

POV: Yolanda Yolanda had returned to the Dominican Republic for the first time in five years, possibly to stay on a permanent basis. Her extended family had prepared a cake to welcome her home, shaped like the Island. Candles marked out the major cities, and her younger cousins fought over who would get to eat which city. One of the maids could not find matches to light the candles, so they waited for her to fetch some from the neighbor's house. Yolanda's aunts and cousins bluntly criticized her appearance, as Yolanda silently critiqued theirs. Her aunts complained about how difficult it was to find good help these days, for instance a chauffeur who could keep the car full of gas. Yolanda was struck by the maids' gestures of pleading that she recognizes from illustrated Renaissance books. She also had difficulty speaking in Spanish, stumbling over what she wanted to explain and missing certain key words. Her aunts explained that the word antojo means a craving for something you want to eat, or more specifically, the desire of someone who has been taken over by a saint. Yolanda decided that her antojo was to drive north into the countryside toward the coast to look for guavas. The aunts cautioned her against this plan, as it was dangerous for a woman to travel alone through the mountains in an expensive car. Taking a bus was also out of the question, because Yolanda would have to ride with campesinos, or peasants. Yolanda decided to drive north anyway, in a Datsun borrowed from a cousin. As she drove, she enjoyed the scenic countryside, and wondered if the Island would be her permanent home. She was startled by an army bus full of leering soldiers, and was also unnerved by an armed guard patrolling in front of a flowery mansion. She suspected that her relatives owned the mansion. She stopped in a small village to ask where to find fresh guavas to pick herself. An old woman suggested that her grandson could guide her to the guava grove, so Yolanda took a group of young boys guava picking. After they had loaded the car with guavas, they got a flat tire. Yolanda told the boy she would give him a dollar if he would run back to the mansion to ask for help. While he was gone, two men with machetes approached the car and asked Yolanda if she needed help. She was terrified of the men and could not move or speak. When they asked if she was American she responded in English and tried to explain that she had a flat tire. They changed the tire for her and she gave them money to thank them for their help. She drove down the road to find the boy who she sent for help. Because the security guard did not believe that a Dominican woman would be out alone after sunset, the boy was beaten for telling lies. Analysis Yolanda has traveled to the Dominican Republic in order to search for her cultural and personal identity. Her difficulty relating to her relatives and other Dominicans reflects the emotional complexity of immigration. Having left her home country at a very young age, she has lost much of the language and culture that forms her family background and national heritage. For this reason, she approaches situations differently than the rest of her family, and there is a gap between their cultural perspective and her own. This gap leads to a certain distance between her and the other members of the family. The intimacy she should feel upon being reunited with her aunts and cousins contrasts with the alienation she actually feels. Yolanda's return to her extended family is complicated because she does not fit into Dominican culture the way her cousins do. She sticks out physically because she dresses informally and wears her hair long and naturally, whereas her cousins wear designer pantsuits and color their hair. She does not fit in linguistically because she has forgotten much of her Spanish and cannot express herself well. She also has a dramatically different perspective on class than the rest of her family. She notices the poor treatment that the maids receive, as well as deferential physical postures that reflect their class subordination. They seem to adopt these humble postures to deflect the aunts' verbal abuse, and Yolanda sympathizes with them rather than her complaining aunts. Because she has left the United States and is considering staying in the Dominican Republic permanently, we can guess that Yolanda does not fit in well to American culture, either. Yet, during her moment of greatest crisis and fear, she embraces her identity as an American and chatters on in English to the men who only want to solve her car trouble. Her initial distrust of the men reflects her fears of the Dominican Republic and all the unknowns it represents. Though she should be at home in her home country, she feels like a stranger and is more comfortable when treated as a foreigner. Yolanda consistently expects the wrong reaction from the Dominicans she meets. She expects the two men with machetes to try and harm her, when in fact they only want to help her on her way. She also expects the mansion security guard to respect the young boy she sends for help. Yet because she does not behave as a Dominican woman would, the guard does not believe the boy's story. This event shows that Yolanda will not be able to integrate herself into Dominican culture and society as if she had never left. Her twenty-nine years living in the United States has shaped her identity, so she can only return to her homeland as an outsider.

The Human Body

POV: Yolanda Yolanda remembers the close ties between her sisters and her cousins when they lived in the family compound of adjoining houses in the Dominican Republic. Each sister had a particular cousin who was close in age and a best friend. Yolanda's buddy was her boy cousin Mundin, even though their friendship was discouraged by her aunts. Her family members worried that Yolanda would end up a tomboy. Her grandfather had a political appointment for the United Nations, and as a result had to deal with close scrutiny and annoying searches by the dictatorship and the secret police. Yolanda's only experience with violence was what she saw in American movies. Her grandmother needed special treatments in the U.S. for unspecified medical issues, and her grandfather humored her willfulness. They often traveled to New York City, and they would always bring toys for the children when they returned from a trip to the U.S. Yolanda was discouraged from being a tomboy or playing cowboy with her male cousins, but she once received a cowgirl outfit with a skirt that matched Mundin's cowboy outfit. Once their Aunt Mimi brought them a toy called The Human Body, a plastic doll with removable body parts, and pink modeling clay. She also brought a book about Scheherezade's enchanting story-telling abilities. Yolanda enjoyed reading the book until her cousin Mundin teased her with the clay. He made a long boa constrictor out of the clay and tempted her to follow him. He offered to trade the clay to Yolanda if she would show him that she was a girl. He wanted her to prove it in a coal shed at the back of the family compound. The family lived next door to the dictator's daughter and her family, and the coal shed was strictly off limits to the children.

The Rudy Elmenhurst Story

POV: Yolanda Yolanda tells the story, in the first person, of how for a few years she was the wildest one of her sisters. In high school she was vivacious, and had a lot of callers, though no serious relationships. In college, however, she could not keep the callers interested for long, since she refused to sleep with any of them. She went to college during the late sixties and the sexual revolution. She insists that she was Americanized enough not to be concerned with her Dominican Catholicism, so she did not have a good excuse for her prudishness. In her first English class, she met Rudy Brodermann Elmenhurst, the third. Yolanda felt out of place and foreign, and appreciated Rudy's odd name, his lateness, and his acne scars. He had "bedroom eyes," was able to laugh at himself, and did not bring a pen to class. She felt a shiver of sexual chemistry as he asked her if she had an extra one. Yolanda did not have an extra pen, and felt awkward while explaining this in a whisper. But she handed him a small red pencil inscribed with the Americanized version of her name, Jolinda. The pencil had been sharpened down to the J, and Yolanda was embarrassed that she had saved the pencil for such a long time. That night, Rudy stopped by her room as Yolanda was reciting a love sonnet she had written for class. He claimed he only wanted to return her tiny pencil, but then asked her out to lunch. Yolanda was confused but agreed to have lunch anyway. They had lunch and then also had dinner, because they became so absorbed in each other. They wrote a pornographic poem together, and Rudy explained all the sexual double meanings found within images of nature. Yolanda was a very innocent virgin and did not understand Rudy's strategies of flirtation. He would linger in her room late at night before kissing her goodbye behind her ear. Yolanda felt that her innocence regarding sex and drugs was related to her situation as an immigrant. The boys' dorm rooms hosted parties with drugs and alcohol, and Yolanda was afraid that Rudy would take advantage of her if she drank or smoked marijuana. She told him she was afraid he might rape her, and his explicit language shocked her when he denied it. They would kiss and cuddle, but she refused to let him touch her. He would get frustrated with her "hangups," and Yolanda would get disgusted by the language he used to describe sex. Yolanda feared pregnancy and also the possibility of being frigid. She felt ashamed of her uptight and formal Old World parents and envied his parents' relaxed attitude toward sex. Rudy thought sex should be fun and she thought it should be meaningful and serious. She stormed out of his room one night and put a crucifix under her pillow for comfort. After they broke up, Yolanda missed Rudy and noticed his poems were more explicitly affectionate. Yolanda fantasized about Rudy coming back to her during the spring dance. But Rudy brought another girl to the dance and Yolanda could tell by looking at the way they interacted that they were sexually intimate. Five years later, while Yolanda was in grad school and finally sexually experienced, Rudy stopped by unexpectedly. He asked if she wanted to do it and she got offended and threw him out. She messily uncorked his expensive bottle of wine and drank it from the bottle like "some decadent wild woman who had just dismissed an unsatisfactory lover." he roots of Yolanda's problems with American men, from Rudy all the way through to John, relate to the cultural differences between Dominican and American attitudes toward sex and relationships. Her fears of intimacy and sexual experimentation relate to her desires to be appreciated and cherished as a pure and chaste virgin. Though tempted by the mystery and pleasure of sex that Rudy seems to offer, she is also terrified by the disrespect communicated through his crude vocabulary. Yolanda places such importance on the hidden and subtle meanings of words and language that she is easily offended by what she feels is an inappropriate and crass way of talking about sex. If Rudy had framed sex in terms of poetic romance, she might have given in more easily to his advances. Because he talked about sex using a distinctively American vocabulary, such as "laid," "balled," or "****ed," and used American slang like "69," Yolanda could not relate to his perspective on sex. She cannot think of sex in the same ways that Americans did in the late sixties, as a fun and harmless experience. She continues to see it in many ways as her parents did, as a symbol of a long term and spiritual commitment to another person. Yet the casual attitude that she finds so offensive is what originally attracted her to Rudy in the first place. She feels caught between the Dominican culture she finds too oppressive and the American culture she finds too casual. The conclusion confirms that Rudy is a selfish and insensitive person, especially after having had some time to possibly mature. Though Yolanda experiments with sex during the years following her relationship with Rudy, she retains her insistence that a lover respect her attitudes toward sex and frame desire within a vocabulary that she finds attractive and respectful. She seems to have overcome some of her insecurities regarding her frigidity, since she sees herself as a wild woman, drinking alcohol and defining the boundaries and characteristics of her sexual relationships.

The Drum

POV: Yolanda Yolanda's grandmother brought her a bright new drum from a trip to New York City. Yolanda played her drum too loudly and was scolded to play responsibly like an adult by her mother. Her grandmother said that if Yolanda were a good girl, she would eventually get to take a trip to the United States and see FAO Schwarz and snow. She agreed to play in a well-behaved way in the yard rather than inside the house. For weeks she drummed all day long, until she lost one of the drumsticks. Then Yolanda's aunt sat on the second drumstick, leaving her a drum but no sticks to drum with. She tried to use pencils or wooden spoons, but they did not sound as good. Yolanda liked to sneak into the coal shed, which their maid, Pila, had claimed was haunted by spirits, ghosts and devils. Pila had stolen from the family, and had been dismissed by the time Yolanda got her drum. Yolanda was still scared of the coal shed, and the stories she had told about how she lost one of her eyes. Yolanda once went looking for devils in the shed, but only found a bunch of newborn kittens. She was not sure what to do with kittens, and hoped to ask a grownup for advice. Then she noticed a strange man crossing the yard with a dog and a gun. Yolanda asked him for advice, and the man insisted that a kitten must be old enough to survive without its mother before it could be a good pet. He explained that to take the kitten earlier would be a violation of its right to life, because the kitten would die without its mother. Yolanda decided she would name her favorite kitten Schwarz. When the man with the dog began shooting his gun, the mother cat ran away. Yolanda decided not to take his advice, since he was a hypocrite killing birds who surely had babies too. Yolanda took Schwarz away from the shed, and as she spotted the mother cat, she remembered that Pila had lost an eye while being attacked by a cat. Yolanda put the kitten into the drum and replaced the lid, drumming to drown out the kitten's cries to its mother. She ran past the cat and took the kitten inside. She got annoyed with the kitten's plaintive meows and threw it outside again, injuring its leg. The kitten had trouble finding its way back to the shed, and the mother cat had disappeared. Later, the kitten also disappeared. Yolanda had nightmares and visions of the mother cat that haunted her at night. Yolanda briefly recounts the rest of her life, "collapsing all time now so that it fits in what's left in the hollow of my story." She now writes about her ghost stories and bad dreams, still haunted by the "violation that lies at the center of my art."

The Blood of Conquistadores

Third person Carlos noticed men with guns coming toward his house. He motioned for the maid, Chucha, to be quiet and ran into the bedroom closet. He also signaled for Yoyo to be quiet. He hid in a secret compartment with supplies and a gun that Vic had smuggled in for him. Yoyo thought that her father was playing a game, like when he would ask if she had the blood of the Conquistadors while holding her upside down by her ankles. She thought the dark skinned men looked creepy as they entered her house, and she noticed their guns. She thought they must be either criminals or the secret police in plain clothes that her mother has told her about. Yoyo was afraid because once she told a made-up story about her father having a gun to the neighbor, and she was beaten for it. Her mother said she almost got her father killed. Yoyo refused to talk to the men because she thought they must be in her house about the gun story. The men said her father should put locks on the doors to keep his daughters safe, and Chucha announced their mother's return home. She sprinkled powder around the house, casting a voodoo spell. Laura was scared when she spotted a black Volkswagen and the secret police outside her house. She told a servant to call Vic and tell him to come to get his tennis shoes. This was a code for trouble with the secret police. Laura tried to intimidate the lower class officers with snobbery, as she waited for Vic to come and help. Vic worked for the CIA and had promised to get the Garcia family out of the country. One man, Fernando, had already hung himself in jail after being tortured. She stalled the men with beer and snacks, waiting for Vic to arrive. Vic was interrupted while having sex with a young prostitute. He went to Laura's sister's house, where several uncles have been hiding in a bedroom. They explained the situation to Vic as Carla and Sandra noticed that their family members seemed strangely nervous. Carla wondered why Vic never wore tennis shoes when he showed up to pay off the secret police. When Vic arrived at the Garcias' house, he announced that Carlos had received a fellowship at a hospital in the United States. At that moment, Laura realized they would soon leave the Island. The secret police officers, Pupo and Checo, had been assigned to report on Dr. Garcia's comings and goings. When Vic arrived they worried that they had given an influential family a hard time, since Vic confirmed their connections to the Embassy. Pupo worried that his supervisor would punish their mistake. Laura told her children to pick out their best clothes and one toy to take on the trip to the U.S. Sandra realized that no toy would be able to fill the emptiness opening up inside her.

Trespass

Third person limited When the Garcias had been in the United States for one year, Mami made a flan to celebrate. They all closed their eyes to make a wish as Sofia blew out the candle stuck in the middle of the flan. Carla prayed that they could return to the Dominican Republic. She did not like their house and yard on Long Island, and missed her cousins back home in the family compound. There was an empty lot near their house that had a sign against trespassing. Carla did not know that the word meant something different in that context than in the phrase "forgive us our trespasses." Carla had to walk to school by herself, and she learned the route by heart. As she walked, a gang of boys who hurled stones and ethnic slurs harassed her. She felt ashamed of the changes her body was undergoing during puberty, such as growing breasts and leg hair. She feared the pale, bland, and nasty American boys. They would talk about different makes of car, but she could only identify Volkswagens, which were used by the secret police in the Dominican Republic. One day after school a car followed her as she walked home from the bus stop. She could only describe it as a "long-nosed, lime green car." The car stopped and honked, and an American grownup gestured for her to come closer. She had trouble distinguishing between different American grownups, and would only notice their hair or their clothes. Carla assumed he wanted directions and felt embarrassed that her English was not good enough to be of much help. He smiled at her in a strangely apologetic way before Carla realized with shock that he was naked from the waist down, with a string tied around his erect penis. He asked her to get into the car but she backed away, struck dumb. He masturbated and Carla ran down the street. Her mother called the police when Carla explained what had happened, but Laura did not understand what it meant to file charges. The police insisted on talking directly to Carla, even though she was afraid of them. She could only say that the man had little hair and was in a green car. The police needed more useful details about the car or the man's appearance, and seemed frustrated with her limited English vocabulary. She was also mortified to have to describe what she had seen him doing, since she did not have the vocabulary in Spanish or English to effectively articulate what she had seen. After noting that he had a string around his thing, the police left. After this incident her mother walked her to and from school, and she later changed schools, but Carla was still haunted by the memory of the boys who taunted her to go back to the Dominican Republic. As she fell asleep, she would pray to return to a place full of those people who knew and loved her. Carla longs for the familiar and comfortable home she left behind in the Dominican Republic, as any girl her age might after moving a long distance. Yet unlike a child who is allowed to keep their language and culture, she also must face an openly hostile environment. It is not clear the tactics Carla will use in order to adapt and survive in her terrifying new surroundings, since she returns to the past to pray for a safe and loving feeling. Her memories of her extended family back home sustain her at night when she has nightmares about the abusive boys. Yet, Carla will eventually have to create new relationships rather than longing for the old ones, and she does not seem to have the tools to do so.

A Regular Revolution

Third person omiscent Mami and Papi had worked in the United States for almost four years before a small revolution in the Dominican Republic convinced them to become citizens in New York. The sisters complained about the less prosperous conditions in the United States and wanted to go home to the Island. Then Carla met a pervert, the sisters were subjected to ethnic slurs at school, and Sandra tried a tampon. Because of these shocking and disgraceful events, the girls were then sent away to boarding schools to avoid these kinds of American problems. Their peers at school assumed the girls were rich and related to dictators because they were foreign students in expensive boarding schools. Their privilege seemed more mysterious and not as familiar as Hoover vacuum cleaners or Hanes panty hose. The sisters enjoyed the freedom of living away from home by kissing boys and smoking cigarettes. They tried to keep their parents from suspecting that they were learning American vices, but they could not hide for long. The parents then decided that the girls would be sent back to the Island for the summers to reconnect them to their extended families and Dominican culture. The sisters got in trouble with their mother for a small bag of marijuana that had fallen behind the bed. Sofia admitted to possession of the drugs and was punished with a year in the Dominican Republic rather than American boarding school. After six months, she had changed her appearance and wore her hair and makeup with way Dominican women did. She had also started dating her uncle's illegitimate son, Manuel, who turned out to be bossy and possessive. When they went to the Island for Christmas, the three other sisters felt outraged by his sexist and provincial Dominican attitudes toward women and tried to humiliate him by drawing on their American feminism. They ridiculed his ignorance of Mary Wollstonecraft while making fun of his macho insecurities. Manuel pressured Sofia to have sex, but she resisted because she could not access contraception while in the Dominican Republic without causing a family scandal. One night while out on the town, their cousin Mundin brought the three sisters to a sleazy motel to show them the dark side of Dominican morality. While there, innocently enjoying the scenery, they noticed Manuel's car. The three sisters were outraged that Sofia was sleeping with a man who refused to wear a condom, and they decided to get the two lovers into trouble. The three sisters insisted that Mundin take them home before Sofia and Manuel left the motel. This meant that the couple would be left without a chaperone, and the relatives would be outraged. Their mother decided that Sofia had to be sent back to the United States before her reputation was ruined. Sofia called her sisters traitors, but they insisted that she would get over her anger and fears. Analysis Just as Yolanda has difficulties dating American men in the United States, Sofia has trouble maintaining a romantic relationship with a Dominican man in her home country. The four sisters have been exposed to casual attitudes toward sex and drugs in the United States, as well as concepts of feminist equality that don't translate easily into Dominican culture. The girls bounce between the taboos of each culture as their parents try to strike a balance and find a place for the sisters where their cultural and family roots can be supported and celebrated. The sisters have a problem with their parents sending them to the Dominican Republic because they have become so Americanized that they cannot understand or tolerate the sexual double standards that remain in more pronounced ways on the Island. Sofia had spent six months trying to adapt to her new environment and reconnect to a culture and language that she had left behind as a very young child. Her romantic involvement with a first cousin who is illegitimate satisfies her American desire to shock and scandalize her provincial and closed-minded relatives. Yet at the same time, she wants to fit into Dominican culture and be appreciated by Manuel, so she tolerates his badgering comments about her clothes and behavior. She submits to his obsessively possessive nature in order to reintegrate herself into traditional Dominican gender roles.