Julia Alvarez

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Julia Alvarez
Born	March 27, 1950 (1950-03-27) (age 59) New York, USA
Nationality	Dominican-American
Alma mater	Connecticut College, Syracuse University, Middlebury College
Spouse(s)	Bill Eichner
Official website

Julia Alvarez (born March 27, 1950) is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Born in New York of Dominican descent, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country.

Alvarez rose to prominence with the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), and ¡Yo! (1997). Her publications as a poet include The Housekeeping Book (1984) and The Woman I Kept to Myself (2004), and as an essayist the autobiographical compilation Something to Declare (1998). Many commentators regard her to be one of the most significant Latina writers, and she has achieved critical and commercial success on an international scale.

Many of Alvarez's works are influenced by her own personal experience as a Dominican in United States, and focus heavily on issues of assimilation and identity. Her diverse cultural upbringing as both a Dominican and an American is evident in the combination of personal and political tone in her writing. She is known for works that examine cultural expectations of women both in the Dominican Republic and the USA, and for rigorous investigations of cultural stereotypes. In recent years, Alvarez has expanded her subject matter with works such as In the Name of Salome (2000), a novel with Cuban rather than solely Dominican characters and fictionalized versions of real historical figures.

In addition to her successful writing career, Alvarez has taught in such notable institutions as George Washington University and is the current writer-in-residence at Middlebury College.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and education 1.2 Career 2 Literary work 3 Themes and style 4 Influence on Latin American Literature 5 Grants and honors 6 List of works 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

Julia Alvarez was born in 1950 in New York City. When she was only three months old, her family moved to the Dominican Republic, where they would live for the next ten years.^[1] She grew up with her extended family in sufficient comfort to enjoy the services of maids.^[2] Critic Silvio Sirias reports that Dominicans value a talent for story-telling; Alvarez developed this talent early and was "often called upon to entertain guests".^[3] In 1960, the family was forced to flee to the United States after her father participated in a failed plot to overthrow the island's military dictator, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.^[4] -, circumstances which would later be revisited in her writing: her novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, for example, portrays a family that is forced to leave the Dominican Republic in similar circumstances;^[5] and in her poem, "Exile", she describes "the night we fled the country" and calls the experience a "loss much larger than I understood".^[6]

Alvarez's transition from the Dominican Republic to the United States was difficult: Sirias comments that she "lost almost everything: a homeland, a language, family connections, a way of understanding, and a warmth".^[7] She experienced alienation, homesickness, and prejudice in her new surroundings.^[6] In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Alvarez mentions that trying to raise "consciousness [in the United States]... would be like trying for cathedral ceilings in a tunnel".^[8]

As one of the few Latin American students in her Catholic school, Alvarez faced discrimination because of her heritage and was often called a "spic" by her classmates. This caused her to turn inward and led to her fascination with literature, which she called "a portable homeland".^[7] She was encouraged by many of her teachers to pursue writing, and from a young age, was certain that this was what she wanted to do with her life.^[6] At the age of 13, her parents sent her to a boarding school after her neighbourhood was deemed unsafe. As a result, her relationship with her parents suffered, and was further strained when every summer she returned to the Dominican Republic to "reinforce their identities not only as Dominicans but also as proper young ladies".^[9] These intermittent exchanges between countries formed her cultural understanding, the basis of many of her works.^[10]

After graduating from Abbot Academy in 1967, she continued her studies at Connecticut College from 1967–1969 (where she won the Benjamin T. Marshall Poetry Prize), the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College (1971), and Syracuse University (1975).^[10]

[edit] Career

After acquiring a Master's degree in 1975, Alvarez took a position as a writer-in-residence for the Kentucky Arts Commission. She travelled throughout the state visiting elementary schools, high schools, colleges and communities, conducting writing workshops and giving readings. She attributes these years with providing her a deeper understanding of America and helping her realize her passion for teaching. After her work in Kentucky, she extended her educational endeavours to California, Delaware, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and Illinois.^[11]

Alvarez taught English and creative writing at California State University, University of Vermont, George Washington University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1988 she took an assistant professor position at Middlebury College where she taught a wide variety of literature classes, including creative writing, Hispanic-American literature, Shakespeare, and courses across the disciplines.^[12] During her tenure at Middlebury her poems became increasingly popular, appearing in literary journals and magazines. Her first collection of poems, entitled Homecoming, was published in 1984 by Grove Press.^[11] In 1984–1985, Alvarez served a fellowship awarded after a national competition at George Washington University's Jenny Mckean Moore Writing Center's English Department. She taught several creative writing workshops (poetry and fiction) for the community and other academic courses at the George Washington University,^[13] and was promoted to full-time professor status at Middlebury College in 1996. However, in 1998 she resigned from this tenured position to devote her time to writing.^[12]

In addition to writing, Alvarez holds the position of writer-in-residence at Middlebury College, where she continues to teach creative writing on a part-time basis.^[11] Alvarez currently resides in the Champlain Valley in Vermont. She has served as a judge, panelist, consultant, and editor, and also gives readings and lectures across the country.^[12] She and her partner Bill Eichner, an ophthalmologist, created Alta Gracia, a farm-literacy center dedicated to the growth of organic coffee through environmental stability and the promotion of literacy and education worldwide.^[14][13] Alvarez and her husband purchased the farm in 1996 and intend to promote cooperative and independent coffee-farming in the Dominican Republic.^[15]

[edit] Literary work

Alvarez is regarded as one of the most critically and commercially successful Latina writers of her time.^[16] Her published works include five novels, a book of essays, four collections of poetry, four children's books, and two works of adolescent fiction.^[17]

Among her first published works were works of poetry The Housekeeping Book (1984) and Homecoming (1991). Poetry was Alvarez's first form of creative expression in writing and she explains that her love for poetry has to do with the fact that "a poem is very intimate, heart-to-heart".^[18] The compilations contain poems that celebrate nature and the detailed rituals of daily life, including domestic chores. Her poems explore stories of family life and are often told from the perspective of women. She puts patriarchal privilege into question and looks at issues of exile, assimilation, identity, and the struggle of the lower class in an introspective manner. Her poems, critic Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez suggests, give voice to the immigrant struggle.^[19]

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, Alvarez's first novel, was published in 1991, and was soon widely acclaimed. It is also the first major novel written in English by a Dominican author.^[20] A largely personal novel, the book details themes of cultural hybridization and the struggles of a postcolonial Dominican Republic.^[21][22] Alvarez illuminates the integration of the Latina immigrant into the U.S. mainstream and shows that identity can be deeply affected by gender, ethnic, and class differences.^[23] Alvarez utilizes her own experiences to illustrate deep cultural contrasts between the Caribbean and the United States.^[24] So personal was the material in the novel, that for four months after it was published, her mother refused to speak with her, and her sisters also were not pleased by their portrayal.^[13] The book has sold over 250,000 copies, and was declared a notable selection by the American Library Association.^[25]

1994 saw the release of her second novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, which has a historical premise and elaborates on the death of the Mirabal sisters during the time of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. In 1960 their bodies were found at the bottom of a cliff in the north coast of the island, and it is said these women were a part of a revolutionary movement to overthrow the oppressive regime of the country at the time. These women are legendary figures and are colloquially referred to as Las Mariposas, or The Butterflies.^[26] This story portrays women as strong characters who have the power to alter the course of history, demonstrating Alvarez's affinity for strong female protagonists and anticolonial movements.^[27] As Alvarez explains, "I hope that through this fictionalized story I will bring acquaintance of these famous sisters to English speaking readers. November 25, the day of their murders is observed in many Latin American countries as the International Day Against Violence Toward Women. Obviously, these sisters, who fought one tyrant, have served as models for women fighting against injustices of all kinds."^[26]

In 1997 she published ¡Yo!, a sequel to How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, which focuses solely on the character of Yolanda rather than telling the story of the García family.^[28] Further enhancing the use of Alvarez's own experiences and autobiographical nature, Alvarez remarks on the success of a writer who uses her family as the inspiration for her work.^[28] Alvarez's opinions on the hybridization of culture are often conveyed through the use of Spanish-English malapropisms, or Spanglish; such expressions are especially prominent in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. Alvarez describes the language of the character of Laura as "a mishmash of mixed-up idioms and sayings".^[29] ¡Yo! could be considered a novel depicting Alvarez's musings on and criticism of her own literary success.^[30]

In the Name of Salome (2000) is a novel that weaves together the lives of two distinct women and illustrates how they devoted their lives to political causes. It takes place in several locations including the Dominican Republic before a backdrop of political turbulence, Communist Cuba in the 1960s, and several University Campuses across the United States, containing themes of empowerment and activism. As the protagonists of this novel are both women, Alvarez illustrates how these women, "came together in their mutual love of [their homeland] and in their faith in the ability of women to forge a conscience for Out Americas."^[31] This book has been widely acclaimed for its careful historical research and captivating story, and was described by Publishers Weekly as "one of the most politically moving novels of the past half century."^[31]

[edit] Themes and style

Alvarez's upbringing as both an American and a Dominican contributes to the authenticity of her novels, which often emphasize the complicated relationship between the U.S. and the rest of the Americas.^[32] Themes in her novels range from the loss of one's culture and mother tongue in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, a rather autobiographical work,^[32] to political commentary between U.S. and Caribbean relationships (In the Name of Salome).^[21] . She examines the places she has lived in from many points of view: as an exile, an immigrant, a woman, a daughter, a Latina, and a writer.^[33]

Widely regarded as an ethnic writer, Alvarez is often compared with authors such as Esmeralda Santiago, Edwidge Danticat, and Sandra Cisneros.^[1] Her works frequently highlight historical events, as exemplified in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, where U.S. foreign policy is depicted as first supporting and then distancing itself from an anti-Trujillo rebel movement in the Dominican Republic.^[34] Her historically rooted writings inform the public of the rapidly changing policies in the U.S. state department, and the involvement of the CIA in foreign affairs.^[23] Her writings parallel Dominican history and family history critically, illuminating the abuse of patriarchal power as a root of hardship and the cause of uprooting Latin American families.^[35] Alvarez asserts that Dominican political history has been characterized by the recurrent substitution of one set of conquistadores after another, which has caused and continues to cause negative effects on the private sphere for both men and women.^[35] Her writings deal with the many aspects of patriarchy, colonialism, and dictatorship along with the various representations of women and sexuality.^[36] Alvarez is known for her deep integration of important community and social issues into her writings.^[23]

Her writing often expresses the betwixt and between feeling of straddling two cultures at once, without belonging fully to either. In an interview with Juanita Heredia, Alvarez explains, "Once Trujillo was killed, we found we had become hybrids, Dominican-Americans! We were no longer "real" Dominicans because we had changed. But we were not mainstream Americans either. We were ni pez, ni carne, neither fish, nor fowl."^[37].

Julia Alvarez's social activism is a theme in many of her works. In her novel Saving the World, Alvarez critiques social activism and human aid in a political story of self-sacrifice.^[22] She asks what motivates people to devote themselves to social causes.^[22] In a semi-autobiographical context, she paints a portrait of a woman, and depicts the human struggle of coping with depression and middle age.^[22]

Her fiction does not confine itself to traditional forms of narration. For example, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents is told through multiple narrators, with the protagonist Yolanda García's story being conveyed through various points of view.^[38] The novel is written in reverse chronological order paralleling the way that the memory works.^[35] The complex manner in which Alvarez expresses varying perspectives in non-linear time frames allows the audience to gain a sense of retrospect.^[20] Inversion allows the readers to engage with questions of narrative power, as the stories are told from varying perspectives and in the voice of varying characters, sometimes changing in a single story.^[35]

Regarding her place in the American Literary horizon, Alvarez suggests that she "is a Latina who writes, but not a Latina who writes only for Latinos".^[39]

[edit] Influence on Latin American Literature

Alvarez is regarded as one of the most critically and commercially successful Latina writers of her time.^[40] As Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez observes, Alvarez is part of a movement of Latina writers that also includes Sandra Cisneros and Cristina García, all of whom weave together themes of the experience of straddling the borders and cultures of Latin America and the United States.^[41] Coonrod Martínez goes on to suggest that a subsequent generation of Dominican-American writers, such as Angie Cruz, Loida Maritza Pérez, Nelly Rosario, and Junot Díaz, have been inspired by Alvarez's success.^[41]

Alvarez admits "the bad part of being a 'Latina Writer' is that people want to make me into a spokesperson. There is no spokesperson! There are many realities, different shades and classes".^[39]

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents is the first novel by a Dominican-American woman to receive widespread acclaim and attention in the United States.^[36] The book portrays ethnic identity as problematic on several levels. She undermines the positive pluralistic view of contemporary notions of multiculturalism by challenging commonly held assumptions of multiculturalism as a strictly positive part of society. In this way, she reveals that much of immigrant identity is greatly affected by ethnic, gendered, and class conflict.^[36] According to critic Ellen McCracken, "Transgression and incestuous overtones may not be the usual fare of the mainstream’s desirable multicultural commodity, but Alvarez’s deployment of such narrative tactics foregrounds the centrality of the struggle against abuse of patriarchal power in this Dominican American’s early contribution to the new Latina narrative of the 1990s."^[42]

Regarding the women's movement in writing, Alvarez explains, "definitely, still, there is a glass ceiling in terms of female novelists. If we have a female character, she might be engaging in something monumental but she's also changing the diapers and doing the cooking, still doing things which get it called a woman's novel. You know, a man's novel is universal; a woman's novel is for women."^[43]

Alvarez claims that her aim is not simply to write for women, but also deal with universal themes that illustrate a more general interconnectedness.^[41] In reference to this, Alvarez explains, "What I try to do with my writing is to move out into those other selves, other worlds. To become more and more of us."^[44] As an illustration of this point, Alvarez writes in English about issues in the Dominican Republic, using a combination of both English and Spanish.^[44] Alvarez feels empowered by the notion of populations and culture around the world mixing, and because of this identifies as a "Citizen of the World".^[44]

[edit] Grants and honors

Alvarez has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ingram Merrill Foundation. Some of her poetry manuscripts now have a permanent home in the New York Public Library, where she was featured in an exhibit, "The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, From John Donne to Julia Alvarez."^[45] She received the Prize from the Academy of American Poetry in 1974, first prize in narrative from the Third Woman Press Award in 1986, and received an award from the General Electric Foundation in 1986. ^[46]

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents was the winner of the 1991 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for works which present a multicultural viewpoint. ^[46] ¡Yo! was selected as a notable book by the American Library Association in 1998. Before we were free won the Pura Belpre award in 2002. ^[47]

[edit] List of works

• Homecoming (1984) (poetry)
• How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) (fiction)
• In the Time of the Butterflies (1994) (fiction)
• The Other Side (El Otro Lado) (1995) (poetry)
• Homecoming: New and Selected Poems (1996) (poetry) a reissue of the 1984 volume, with new poems
• ¡Yo! (1997) (fiction)
• Something to Declare (1998) (collected essays)
• Seven Trees (1998) (poetry)
• In the Name of Salomé (2000) (fiction)
• The Secret Footprints (2001) (fiction)
• How Tia Lola Came to visit Stay (2001) (fiction)
• A Cafecito Story (2001) (fiction)
• Before We Were Free (2002) (fiction)
• The Woman I Kept to Myself (2004) (poetry)
• Finding Miracles (2004) (fiction)
• Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia (2004) (children's book)
• Saving the World (2006) (fiction)
• Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA (2007) (nonfiction)

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Alvarez, Julia (1998), Something to Declare .

• Alvarez, Julia (2005), How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, New York: Plume, ISBN 978-0452287075 .

• Augenbraum, Harold F; Olmos, Margarite, eds. (2000), U.S. Latino Literature: A Critical Guide for Students and Teachers, New York: Greenwood Press, ISBN 978-0313311376 .

• Coonrod Martínez, Elizabeth (March/April 2007), "Julia Alvarez: Progenitor of a Movement", Americas 59 (2): 6–13, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=24331262&site=ehost-live, retrieved on 2008-11-15 .

• Dalleo, Raphael; Machado Sáez, Elena (2007), The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1403977960 .

• Day, Frances A. (2003), Latina and Latino Voices in Literature: Lives and Works (Updated and expanded ed.), New York: Greenwood Press, ISBN 978-0313323942 .

• Frey, Hillary (April 23, 2006), "To the Rescue. Review of Saving the World", The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23frey.html, retrieved on 2008-11-02 .

• Johnson, Kelli Lyon (2005), Julia Alvarez: Writing a New Place on the Map, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 978-0826336514 .

• Kafka, Philippa (2000), "Saddling La Gringa": Gatekeeping in Literature by Contemporary Latina Writers, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, ISBN 978-0313311222 .

• Kevane, Bridget (2001), "Citizen of the World: An Interview with Julia Alvarez", in Kevane, Bridget A.; Heredia, Juanita, Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers, Tucson, AZ: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 19–32, ISBN 978-0826319722 .

• Kevane, Bridget (2008), Profane and Sacred: Latino/a American Writers Reveal the Interplay of the Secular and the Religious, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0742543157 .

• McCracken, Ellen (1999), New Latina Narrative: The Feminine Space of Postmodern Ethnicity, Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, ISBN 978-0816519415 .

• Sirias, Silvio (2001), Julia Alvarez: A Critical Companion, Westport, CT: Greenwood, ISBN 978-0313309939 .

[edit] External links

• Julia Alvarez official website

v • d • e Julia Alvarez Fiction How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) · In the Time of the Butterflies(1994) · ¡Yo! (1997) · In the Name of Salomé (2000) · The Secret Footprints (2001) · How Tia Lola Came to Stay (2001) · A Cafecito Story (2001) · Before We Were Free (2002) · Finding Miracles (2004) · Saving the World (2006) · Poetry Homecoming (1984)  · The Other Side (El Otro Lado) (1995)  · Homecoming: New and Selected Poems (1996)  · Seven Trees (1998)  · The Woman I Kept to Myself (2004)  · Other Works Something to Declare (1998) (collected essays) · Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia (2004) (children's book) · Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA (2007) (nonfiction)  · List of works