Laura Garcia de la Torre does not have a favorite story for her daughter Sandi, unlike the rest of her daughters; and unlike the rest of the daughters, from early on Sandi experiences a sense of unexplainable loss. This elusive quality seems to defy interpretation in its foreshadowing of Sandi’s breakdown in her adult years, and reflects the mysticism around Sandi’s character as a whole. In Julia Alvarez’s novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the doll figures largely during the pivotal moments in Sandi’s life, whether they are the static representations of the Virgin Mary statue, or a Barbie. In an attempt to pinpoint how Sandi has “invented what [she] needs to survive,” I will argue that during the moments in Sandi’s life where she
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Here, she undergoes a similar powerlessness to what she experienced with Dona Charito and Don Jose as she learns from La Bruja and the Spanish superintendent who refuses to speak in Spanish that her cultural identity is inferior. La Bruja complains, “The Garcias should be evicted. Their food smelled. They spoke too loudly and not in English. The kids sounded like a heard of wild burros” (Alvarez 170), and to their faces, yells, “Spics! Go back to where you came from!” (Alvarez 171). In addition to the cultural shame that Sandi begins to feel is the loss of class, status, and respect. The immigration from the Dominican Republic to the United States humbles the formerly affluent, independent, and esteemed Garcia family as their well-being comes to depend on the financial aid of Laura’s father and the beneficence of the Fannings, the couple who portray at an extreme the American imperialism and white cultural ideology beginning to mold Sandi’s identity. While in “Still Lives,” Sandi fought against posing as “one of the model children of the world,” in “Floor Show,” she decides to exhibit the doll-like behaviors of what she believes is the ideal American daughter in the hopes that the Fannings will love her and want to adopt her (Alvarez 248). Still experiencing a familiar sense of anonymity, …show more content…
The Spanish restaurant, boasting authenticity, is a commercial enterprise that profits off of the sexualizing, exotifying, and stereotyping of Spanish culture, much in the same way that gender and race is represented through dolls. Rather than being any kind of authentic portrayal of Spanish traditions and values, or being intended for Spanish people, El Flamenco is a commercial trap for white culture through Spanish stereotypes. The beautiful servers are “dark-eyed,” “long finger[ed]” men in the appearance of bull-fighters; the dancers perform a sexually degraded version of Flamenco; the food is an inedible and greasy hybrid of American and Spanish; and the music is American songs performed in the Spanish style (Alvarez 175). Sandi realizes, “La Bruja was wrong. Spanish was something that [white] people paid to be around” (Alvarez 179). Sandi does not affirm her cultural values as she delights in this false display of culture. Like Mrs. Fanning’s brief encounter with the other, her pride is tied to a superficial link, such as the too distant ancestry that the Gracias continue to prop their elite status upon. Sandi buys into the commercial value of this appropriated version of identity, of the Spanish Barbie doll, and is proud and empowered by
Here, she undergoes a similar powerlessness to what she experienced with Dona Charito and Don Jose as she learns from La Bruja and the Spanish superintendent who refuses to speak in Spanish that her cultural identity is inferior. La Bruja complains, “The Garcias should be evicted. Their food smelled. They spoke too loudly and not in English. The kids sounded like a heard of wild burros” (Alvarez 170), and to their faces, yells, “Spics! Go back to where you came from!” (Alvarez 171). In addition to the cultural shame that Sandi begins to feel is the loss of class, status, and respect. The immigration from the Dominican Republic to the United States humbles the formerly affluent, independent, and esteemed Garcia family as their well-being comes to depend on the financial aid of Laura’s father and the beneficence of the Fannings, the couple who portray at an extreme the American imperialism and white cultural ideology beginning to mold Sandi’s identity. While in “Still Lives,” Sandi fought against posing as “one of the model children of the world,” in “Floor Show,” she decides to exhibit the doll-like behaviors of what she believes is the ideal American daughter in the hopes that the Fannings will love her and want to adopt her (Alvarez 248). Still experiencing a familiar sense of anonymity, …show more content…
The Spanish restaurant, boasting authenticity, is a commercial enterprise that profits off of the sexualizing, exotifying, and stereotyping of Spanish culture, much in the same way that gender and race is represented through dolls. Rather than being any kind of authentic portrayal of Spanish traditions and values, or being intended for Spanish people, El Flamenco is a commercial trap for white culture through Spanish stereotypes. The beautiful servers are “dark-eyed,” “long finger[ed]” men in the appearance of bull-fighters; the dancers perform a sexually degraded version of Flamenco; the food is an inedible and greasy hybrid of American and Spanish; and the music is American songs performed in the Spanish style (Alvarez 175). Sandi realizes, “La Bruja was wrong. Spanish was something that [white] people paid to be around” (Alvarez 179). Sandi does not affirm her cultural values as she delights in this false display of culture. Like Mrs. Fanning’s brief encounter with the other, her pride is tied to a superficial link, such as the too distant ancestry that the Gracias continue to prop their elite status upon. Sandi buys into the commercial value of this appropriated version of identity, of the Spanish Barbie doll, and is proud and empowered by