Final Thoughts

Hard to believe the semester is coming to an end, but alas, here are some concluding thoughts. All in all, I am very glad that I decided to take this class. I was initially looking for a class to brush up on my Spanish and was slightly disappointed that the structure would be primarily based on literature, most of which would be taught in English. However I feel that I have walked away from this class having gained a great deal of insight into the struggles of identity that people face in new cultural settings. I was moved by many of the works that we read and feel that it was the best selection of literature that I have read in a class at UBC.

Having lived 18 years in California, the Chicano experience is something that has been simultaneously close and far away from me all at once. It has been close to me in the sense that I have geographically grown up in an area with a large demographic of Latino immigrants. I have worked in kitchens with all Mexican laborers, have gone to school with Spanish speakers learning English for the first time, and have witnessed movements of solidarity that are often pushed to the margins of society or ignored by the government. I once tried to organize workers in my restaurant to participate in the Day Without a Mexican but was discovered and scolded by my boss. Needless to say, work still ran because too many of the immigrant workers were afraid of losing their jobs. I have felt far away from the experience because despite the physical proximity and certain elements of a collective experience I have shared with Chicanos in my area, I am still a representative of the dominant white English speaking demographic of my country and have lived the majority of my life feeling comfortable in my cultural environment.

Reading the books that we read in this class provided a certain bridge of understanding to the experience of immigration and identity. These books provided a voice that is often underrepresented in dominant cultural discourse. They told tales of the emotional experience of cultural assimilation, created a sense of collective identity, and asked questions of identity and the possibility of hybridizing cultures. Who Would Have Thought It? providing a historical context for Latin immigration and dealt with issues of fluidity of borders. Jose Marti provided insight into American culture as understood by someone who exists outside of it. Y no se lo trago la tierra created a mosaic of collective experience and unstable identities. Women Hollering Creek brought up many elements of the female experience and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents dealt with issues of cultural confusion, assimilation, and attempts of creating a 'hybrid' culture. And lastly, And a Body to Remember With dealt with the deeply emotional side of memory, uprooting, and political exile. All have offered valuable insights and I am glad to have had the experience of reading them. All in all, I felt this was a very rewarding class.

and a Body to Remember With

I must say, I really enjoyed this book. Rarely do I sit down and read a book cover to cover, but for some reason, that was the experience I had with this novel. When I first started it, I was a little unsure of how I felt about her general writing style, but within a few chapters I began to get into it and found it a very easy, insightful, and emotion-filled read. What I liked most about the book was the relatablitiy I felt to the settings in which it took place. Having lived that last three years in Canada, and specifically Vancouver, it was very interesting to read about the local places that she described; the Britannia center on Commercial drive, Kits, Stanley park, etc. Being new to Canada, it was interesting to read an account off someone with fresh eyes adjusting to the differences that are for me, subtle, but for her, far more substantial. I was also able to understand many of the situations that she discussed in Chile because a few years ago, I spent a summer in Chile living with a family that was very politically involved in the resistance of the dictatorship and military coup of 1973. Reading these accounts conjured potent memories of my time in Chile, and though I did not myself experience the hardships that the country has faced, I learned a great deal about them from people who did.

Like many of the other books we have read in this class, the story is non-linear nor straight-forward in its telling of events and emotions. Rather, it is like a mosaic of snippets of many peoples experiences and understanding of political upheaval, loss, desire, uprooting, and assimilation. I think that this is a conscious choice of many of the authors that we have read, as these experiences and emotions are not concrete or easily explained, but rather dynamic and complex. Just as Julia Alvarez mirrors the fuzziness and fluidity of memory in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, layering this book in such a way seems to be a more accurate depiction of the complexity and collective voice and collective struggle that Chilean exiles have faced.

What made the book feel very human to me was the fact that that though the stories were heavily laced with political commentary and the experience of cultural assimilation, she did not exclude other human sentiments of her telling of events. She included stories of romantic love and loss, of the common struggles that families face, and lighter stories including the one about missing the Astor Piazolla concert twice. Also, I would say that this book would fall into the category of a feminist novel based on the way that we have defined it in this class. Many of the stories are written from the perspective of women, and women are portrayed as strong and important agents in both a revolutionary sense and also in facing challenges of assimilation.

More thoughts

Okay.
I was the only person in the class who initially did not respond well to this book, and though I am not completely finished with it, I must say that my opinion has improved. This is by no means my favorite book we have read for the class and I am less impressed by by her actual writing style than the other authors. However, needless to say, as I read more I got more into the stories, became less irritated with the characters, and found their story to be more relatable. I think that part of the reason why I was not initially into the book was because of the reverse chronological order in which it is written. I am not used to reading books in this order and for some reason, meeting these characters at the 'end' of the scope in which their lives are discussed left me a bit uninterested because I didn't find them very likable. As I read more though, I began to understand how they came to be as they are and the reasons behind their idiosyncrasies. They were very 'Americanized' in the beginning of the novel, and it was interesting to watch the psychology behind the progression of their assimilation into a new culture. With each chapter, I began to see them as more 'Dominican' which made me understand the elements in their lives that lead to their Americanization. This book was interesting to me because my roommate is a whitewashed Dominican who migrated to the U.S. at age nine. I have heard many tales of her assimilation process, and the difficulties she faced, which were surpisingly similar to the struggles of the Garcia Girls.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

So far, I am really not convinced about this book. Perhaps, I was expecting a bit more from this book, partially because I am writing about her on Wikipedia and have read many rave reviews about her work, but I am liking it less than many of the other books we have read in the class. I find her style to be rather immature, resembling young adult fiction a little more than I would chose to read at this point in my life. I also find it her style flatter than the other writers...Rivera, Marti, and Cisnernos wrote with a conviction that kept my interest and captivated me. They all brought a certain poetry that I really enjoyed reading that I find lacking in this book, while I simultaneously havn't found the story that interesting. Lastly, and this is my last complaint, I have found the characters to be both unrelatable and unlikable. I am not fond of the father, nor am I fond of any of the daughters so far.

I have not written this book off yet however, and am willing to continue with it with an open mind. I hope that as I get into the story more, the insights that it offers will become a bit more apparent to me. I really wanted to like this book, and based on what I had heard previously, had heard nothing but good things, and premtively thought it was going to be one of my favorites of the class. My dislike at this point could be a result of high expectations and for this reason I will be curious to know how it unfolds.