Border Crossings in Latina Narrative: Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

Abstract

In spite of being labeled a postcolonial novelist, Julia Alvarez avoids becoming a spokesperson for a generalised US Latino/a experience in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) and thus escapes the double bind of group identity, or “representation” that is often associated with so-called multi-ethnic literature. Although Alvarez fits perfectly in the pluralist view of American society in the last few decades, her novel is different in the sense that it spells discursive trouble, marked as it is by transgressions, thereby subtly undermining the happily pluralist view implicit in much contemporary multiculturalism.

Opsomming
Ten spyte daarvan dat Julia Alvarez as ‘n post-koloniale romanskrywer bestempel word, vermy sy dit om ‘n spreekbuis te word vir ‘n veralgemeende Amerikaanse Latino/a ondervinding in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) en spring so dié dubbele binding van groepsidentiteit of “voorstelling” wat dikwels geassosieer word met sogenaamde multi-etniese literatuur vry. Alhoewel Alvarez perfek pas in die pluralis-tiese siening van die Amerikaanse samelewing gedurende die laaste paar dekades, is haar roman anders in die sin dat dit diskursiewe probleme voorspel, gekenmerk, soos dit word, deur oorskrydings wat op subtiele wyse die gelukkige pluralistiese siening wat implisiet is in baie kontemporêre multi-kulturalisme ondermyn.