They grew up in a very influential time of America when experimenting with drugs and multiple partners was made a fad. This was the first time in many years that America broke free of their Dick and Jane type of life. Many foreign countries were still in a stereotypical type of lifestyle. Alvarez uses Yolanda to truly show how different other countries were compared to America at this time and how influential American young people were during the 1960s. America is well-known for their forcement on people different than the ‘immigrants’ we truly are. Although the 60’s was the time of love and acceptance, true acceptance didn’t really exist. People were becoming more acceptant of African Americans in the country due to Martin Luther King Jr.’s major movement. One problem America has always had is accepting outsiders. Sure, America is good about letting them into the country and allowing them to eventually become citizens, but she is also good at kicking her own kind out of their own country. Native Americans were thought as outsiders in the beginning of of the European settlement. Many citizens now are trying to trace their ancestry back to Native Americans. The article “Genes, money and American quest for identity,” by Jessica Marshall, talks about different testing that is being done to trace back lineage in African Americans and any …show more content…
Alvarez has a section in her article about wanting to become Miss America. She reflects this time in her life through Sofia mainly. Alvarez separates her ‘Dominican childhood,’ and her ‘American childhood’ in her own life as well as the four sisters. Alvarez states, “At night, my prayers were full of blonde hair and blue eyes and snow and just such a plane ride as this one,” referring to her family’s arrival to America. Much like The Bluest Eye, Alvarez uses the four sisters to show what other girls who were not American or not caucasian thought what the definition of pretty had to fit. Most of the time, it was blonde hair and blue eyes. This is where America’s great reputation of being this wonderful melting pot of people and the place for all foreigners to go, is wrong. America isn’t the welcoming place everyone thinks it should be. In fact, America is more of a fake welcome. Maybe we’ll solve all your troubles and give you the help you need to recover from being under a dictatorship all of your life but, if you were not born and raised in America, you’re different and that’s just how it is. Often times kids will be born and raised in America but their parents could be from another country. Then every American ever is so interested about your culture when really your culture is the American culture. The