una despedida...adios span322a

I have enjoyed this class, the topics covered and the books were all very interesting.
Explaining to people that I was taking a Spanish class...but mostly reading and speaking English confused a lot of people...but now that we've finished all of the different books I've come to realize that reading books written by Latinas/Chicanas in English is really representative of the dual identities that these women and allows them to express all aspects of their identities through writing and reach a variety of different audiences.

I think that the fact that these writers (the women at least) wrote in English says a lot about their experiences. I'm mostly thinking about Sandra Cisneros and Carmen Rodriguez (but Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton and Julia Alvarez are also important).

Sandra Cisneros is a bit different because she was born in the U.S. but her writing is very influential in depicting the unique Chicana dual identity of being of both cultures.
Rodriguez presents a similar context in a different way, as having a dual identity due to immigration. Rodriguez presents a very personal view of what it feels like to live as an immigrant Canada - accepting the culture of the new country while maintaining connection to that of your birth country.

The past few months I have been working on a research project for America Latina al Dia (a radio show on Co-op Radio). We've been talking to a lot of people about what they think about the show. People think that the show, which is bilingual, should remain bilingual because by using English, the show is able to present a Latin American perspective to English speakers, who may not have access to this perspective anywhere else. I think that the same goes for these books in English - they make the stories of Mexican-American, Dominican-American, Chicana and Chilean-American women available to English speakers.

I think that's all I've got for tonight. Also, if you guys don't already listen to co-op radio, you should, haha. Especially America Latina al Dia, Saturdays 12-1:30pm, 102.7fm.

and a body to remember with

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be Canadian. I think that this book really explores the meaning of a Canadian identity.

I really enjoyed learning about the different immigration and cultural experiences of the three different women in "breaking the ice". That these women came together and shared stories in a hockey arena (how very "Canadian") at 6am was very nice. They really did create a true friendship and it seems that they are able to see how many people from all different places have similar immigration experiences.

I love that a lot of this book is based in Vancouver a lot in East Vancouver...Fraser and 49th, Britannia Community Centre, Commercial Drive etc.

I'm sure that if I'd ever been to Santiago or any other part of Chile I would feel even more connected to it. It's funny that when you read something written about somewhere you don't know, the names of streets and landmarks are just names, but if you've been there or lived there every place name and description of a familiar aspect of that landscape brings with it memories and personal experiences at that particular place. I often feel this way when reading Margaret Atwood books that are based in Toronto, everything she writes is exactly how I remember it growing up.

I'll admit that I have never taken much time to learn a lot about Chile, but this book has definitely sparked my interest and given me a lot to think about. It always seems that Chile and Argentina are two South American countries that seem to be really proud of their history. I was really intrigued by Rodriguez' descriptions of Chile during the dictatorship, how turned upside down it had become and that "these things only happened in the so-called 'banana republics', not in Chile." (p.74)

About drumsticks

This whole story about Yolanda and the black cat was an interesting ending. As I said in my last post I feel that a lot of this book was focussed on Yolanda and I think that I liked her the best. I really liked the story of the drum, and as I noticed others have blogged I that it was really interesting to meet the characters as grown women and then see them as children.

I also, however, thought it was interesting that Alvarez ended the story with a super-condensed sum up of Yolanda's life...
"Then we moved to the United States. The cat disappeared altogether. I saw snow. I solved the riddle of an outdoors made mostly of concrete in New York. My grandmother grew so old she could not remember who she was. I went away to school. I read books. You understand I am collapsing all time now so that it fits in what's left in the hollow of my story?" (285)

This whole last chapter I pictured Yolanda as a young child, roaming around the yard with her drum and since we met Yolanda as a woman already it was almost as though she is a friend who is telling you about her childhood, so you picture a miniature version of the woman that you know presently...does that make any sense? Even though I don't know her, it was just a different way of character development, somewhat tracing the four garcia girls' personalities backwards.

When she refers to the "hollow" of her story, I was thinking that since Yolanda is the character who both begins and ends the book, both first and last chapter taking place on "the island", perhaps all of the things that happen in between those two chapters...the good and the bad, life in the U.S. is just the filler, maybe what we are supposed to take away from her story are those parts that she shares with us about her time in the dominican republic? hmmm who knows.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, 1st half

I am enjoying this book so far, the way it is written, although different from Cisneros, is also a style that for me is easy to read and keeps my attention with its telenovela-style melodramas. When I first read the synopsis on the inside cover of the novel I thought “oooh how West Side Story!” but then I quickly realized that this is nothing like West Side Story, well except maybe that one chapter where Yolanda is “on the island” and the family discusses the differences between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. “I like to be in America...everything free in America!” Does anyone else feel like singing that song throughout this book?

I’m intrigued by the reverse chronological/random chronological order in which Alvarez tells the stories of the four girls. I also like the chapter titles, and the declaration of whom the chapter is about, proving the confusing nature of stories about 4 sisters and people’s inability to remember who is who. I also noticed that sometimes Alvarez writes in the third person and sometimes it’s first person. This creates a real emotional divide between the writings, those in the third person (or better yet, those that refer to the characters as “the third daughter”, or my favourite “the mother”) are more impersonal, giving us less insight into the life and mind of the character. Whereas a chapter that is written in the first person, gives more of a sense of a character opening up and allowing the reader into their thoughts. The most interesting use of this was the two chapters that feature Yolanda, one after the other. The first, “Joe”, about Yolanda’s relationship with her ex-husband, John, was written in the third person whereas the following chapter “The Rudy Elmenhurst Story” was written in the first person. I haven’t quite figured out why Alvarez wrote these two stories so differently…maybe it will come with more insight into the character of Yolanda. I feel like so far Yolanda has been featured the most out of the 4 daughters.

This book deals with a lot of the themes that we’ve seen in some of the other literature in this class such as race, class, gender, immigration/migration, culture, identity, and probably many more common issues…but I think it deals with them in a different way.

I think “the mother” is an interesting character…so wrapped up in righteousness and the reputation of their family. It makes me think of the stories of immigrant families where the children do not understand the struggles of their parents in their home country. However it seems that when it comes to Dominican society, this family is pretty secure and is definitely upper class, despite the mother’s declaration of their poverty. I also find it interesting that we don't learn much about her until the chapter entitles "Daughter of Invention" when we learn that her name is Laura and that she aspired to invent things that would make the life of a housewife easier, and that she often mixes up English sayings (that was kinda funny).