Letter to Julia Alvarez

Dear Ms. Julia Alvarez,
In my school we have been reading texts by Hispanic authors and identifying the identity traits and the craft in them. Out of all of those texts that I read I specifically liked yours the most. I think this because you made reading a few pages something worth while and entertaining, and also I found many things that automatically stood out to me as something that has to with me and my identity. And so I am writing this letter to explain how much I enjoyed your story and also talk to you about one, that I found some similarities with. This text is called “Barrio Boy” by Ernesto Galarza and is being compared to one of your stories “Names/Nombres”.
In your text I found one important metaphor that seemed to say a lot about your story. “… they were just being curious I knew, but I burned with shape whenever they singled me out as a “foreigner” a rare, exotic friend”(Page4, paragraph5) .One of the things that I think is most important about this quote is how you feel about being singled for your identity, who you are. Also the way that you write this quote tells me your anger for people who don’t understand who you are and how they make you feel secluded. This quote also has something in common with another metaphor in a story called “Barrio Boy” By Ernesto Galarza. “…off the school grounds we were traded the same insults heard from our elders. On the playground we were sure to be marched up to the principal’s office for calling someone a wop, a chunk, a dago or a greaser…” (Page 5, Paragraph 6). I believe that this quote also has to do with being singled out because it is saying that the most that foreign parents could do was use and teach their children insults. But I do think that unlike your quote this one is harder to understand because of the way that he describes how they insulted each other, like he has no feeling or mood in this story.
Some of the main things that I noticed that were different about your text and Ernesto Galarza’s is that, first of all, your text to me is more about how Latin people can be singled out in others countries. Also I got the feeling that what you were trying to do was to try to explain how we kind of can’t accept others for who we are so we try to fix them to be like us, like when you change some ones name from Julia to Judy. I mostly found this form parts in your text like “How could anybody get Elbures out of that orchestra of sound?”(Page 1, paragraph 1) and “At the hotel my mother was Missus Alburest” (Page1, paragraph 1). On the other hand, Ernesto Galarza’s piece is more about what is expected of immigrants. Like in the quote “Off the school grounds we traded the same insults we heard from our elders. On the playground we were sure to be marched up the principles office for calling someone a wop, a chink, a dago, or a greaser…” (Page 5, paragraph 6), he mentions what words were mentioned in the playground, but what it seems like is that the teachers were already trained to makes immigrant kids go up to the principals office. This all leads me to think that one very main difference that I found in both of your texts is that you want to portray how ones identity is the same as ones name but while reading Ernesto Galarza’s piece I noticed that his is more about explaining his life in school than showing his identity.
Also I would have to say that in your text I found certain quotes that relate to me and what I consider my identity. One of those quotes that I found in your text “Names/Nombres” is ““Say your name in Spanish, oh please say it!” I had made mouth drops one day rattling off my full name, which according to Dominican custom, included my middles names, mother’s and father’s surnames and four generations back…”(Page 3, paragraph 6) One thing that you say here that has to do with my name and how long it is. Being from Spain and Cuba my name is, “Sofia Helena Caraballo Frutos….” And so on. I think that it is very interesting because I know that the scene of “Come on say your full name in Spanish” IS repeated a million times. Also in your text I feel that in your text you have mentioned various times how you pronounce your name and the Dominican rrr. These things make me realize how I take all the things like being Spanish and pronouncing the rrr like an everyday thing without importance. So with your details I realized that to the eyes of others I might be considered exotic because I am different.
All in all, I would have to say that in your story you showed your point about how important identity is to you, but also by not making it too tacky. I believe that when I compare you to the text by Ernesto Galarza, I came to the conclusion that you know how to make a text or a story easy to read but interesting at the same time, and that I could easily feel what you felt in that moment of your life, because of the details that you had added. I hope that we get to read more of your stories in the mere future, because they are easy to enjoy and have a lot to say not only about you, but they can even teach us things of other people’s point of view and lifes. Lastly, I would like to say that one of the first things that I noticed when I was reading your story was how real you made it seem, like when you were embarrassed by your family, and how you might have grown out of them. You really made a story written on paper alive scene for every word, sentence, paragraph and page.
Sincerely,
Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx