How the García Girls Lost Their Accents Themes
Language and Communication
For Yolanda the poet, words are really super-duper important. Language isn't just a way of describing reality—language is a part of reality. Words are so important to Yolanda that she sees them...
Family
Everything about How The García Girls Lost Their Accents just screams 'Family.' From the title, which unifies the four sisters under the family name García, to the cute family tree at the book's...
Gender
The theme of 'Gender' is a heavy one in How The García Girls Lost Their Accents, because it reveals some unflattering things about characters that are otherwise pretty chill. Papi, for example? He...
Sexuality and Sexual Identity
As the García girls grow up they pass through adolescence. They don't get much of a "birds-and-bees" talk from their parents, aside from a warning not to go "behind the palm trees" with boys. But...
Society and Class
How The García Girls Lost Their Accents paints a picture of a very hierarchical Dominican society. The García family belongs to a privileged class of wealthy families who rely on the services and...
Foreignness and 'The Other'
How The García Girls Lost Their Accents explores what it's like for the García girls, who spend their childhoods in the Dominican Republic, to grow up as foreigners in the United States. Being an...
Literature and Writing
A protagonist who's a writer is a big hint that "Literature and Writing" is going to be a theme in How The García Girls Lost Their Accents. Yolanda is constantly trying to analyze her own life sto...
Politics
Politics are an issue in How The García Girls Lost Their Accents in a couple of ways. First of all, Carlos García participates in a failed attempt to overthrow Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship in t...