In America, it is common practice for parents to attempt to educate their teenage children on the practice of sex. This is a generally awkward experience that most kids end up repressing to the far recesses of their mind. However, this is not an idea that most immigrant children are exposed to. Instead, because it is seen as more socially acceptable, they are made to embrace celibacy and abstinence. In her novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents”, Julie Alvarez narrates the difficulties faced by the Garcia girls growing up bicultural in the United States. It chronicles the transitions they made as they strived to create an identity that was both Latina and American. Alvarez uses the theme of sexuality to illustrate the Garcia girls’ transition from Dominican island beauties to hip American teens.
While Dominican culture may appear to be relaxed, the general views on sex are very outdated and conservative. This is largely due to the presence of Catholicism, the predominant religion among Hispanics in the DR, and a prevalence of …show more content…
sexual revolution, sexual education was readily available to all young adults, with little to no backlash for those who sought it. These differences in upbringing can be demonstrated by the human doll that was brought from America to the D.R. (Alvarez 225). The Human Body doll served to provide children with a basic educational understanding of the body, something that Dominican children would have never had access to as it related to sexuality. In fact, within the Dominican culture, female students would not have access to sex education the way other young girls might have in the American educational system. The United States adopted an even more open attitude towards sex during in the 1960s/70s. Sex became more socially acceptable outside the strict boundaries of heterosexual marriage. Aptly named the era of "free love," thousands of individuals amassed to preach the “power of love” and the “beauty of
While Dominican culture may appear to be relaxed, the general views on sex are very outdated and conservative. This is largely due to the presence of Catholicism, the predominant religion among Hispanics in the DR, and a prevalence of …show more content…
sexual revolution, sexual education was readily available to all young adults, with little to no backlash for those who sought it. These differences in upbringing can be demonstrated by the human doll that was brought from America to the D.R. (Alvarez 225). The Human Body doll served to provide children with a basic educational understanding of the body, something that Dominican children would have never had access to as it related to sexuality. In fact, within the Dominican culture, female students would not have access to sex education the way other young girls might have in the American educational system. The United States adopted an even more open attitude towards sex during in the 1960s/70s. Sex became more socially acceptable outside the strict boundaries of heterosexual marriage. Aptly named the era of "free love," thousands of individuals amassed to preach the “power of love” and the “beauty of