How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

For fans of Sandra Cisneros and Isabela Allende Winner of the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award Alvarez's second novel, In The Times of the Butterflies, was nominated for the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award

A novel of Latin American life.Yolanda Garcia is taking a trip to the Dominican Republic to revisit the country where she was born, and which her family was forced to flee for New York when she was a child. Previously privileged and wealthy, the family finds it hard to adjust to immigrant life in the Bronx, particularly their tough old-world father, Papi. As they try immerse themselves in the American way of life, Yolanda and her three sisters begin to rebel against Papi's traditions and values, each in their own way. But, however the girls may iron the curls from their hair and blend their Hispanic accents to fit in, they will always see the world through Dominican eyes. Now Yolanda needs to return one more time, to recover forgotten memories and remember that part of her she lost.