Literature Circles: Post #3

"My job was to man the front desk, answer the phone, find patient charts in the packed file cabinets behind me, or fill out on for new patients," Julia Alvarez, narrator. Page 105.

The quote obviously relates back to the topic of what the role of the character was back in their home country. In the Dominican Republic Julia worked for her father as the receptionist. During the time when Julia lived in the Dominican Republic, I would have thought that is was not very common for the father and the daughter, or any two family members to be working together.

I can definitely relate to the quote because I have done many things with my dad in which we were working together. Whether I am helping him with a project around the house, making improvements or fixing things, I always seem to end up working with my dad, which seems to be a good partnership because we are always very successful when we work together.

Julia was about our age or older when she was working as the receptionist for her father, do you think you would have been able to be responsible enough to work in a doctor's office? Why or why not?

"The way I might wince at an ethnic joke in which I recognize in exaggerated from a cultural trait I'm not very proud of," Julia Alvarez, narrator. Page 119.

This quotes is something that made me think of all the hardships that Julia faced while living in America. This quote obviously shows that Julia sometimes feels as though she is not proud of her original Latino culture. Julia must have faced situations in the past that made her almost want to regret the fact that she is a Latino.

This quotes really surprised me because is seems as thought Julia is very proud to be a Latino. Especially because she is so involved and dedicated to quinceaneras. They way she talks about coming to America and facing hardships was very minimal because Julia had given me the impression that she did not face any major difficulties coming here.

Why don't you think that Julia is proud of her culture?