Introduction: “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
“Exile” by Julia Alvarez first appeared in Homecoming (1984), her debut collection of poems that reflects on memory, migration, and identity. Set against the backdrop of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, the poem recounts Alvarez’s childhood experience of fleeing to the United States with her family in 1960. It captures both the innocence of a child—tricked into believing she is “going to the beach”—and the deeper trauma of forced displacement, conveyed through poignant imagery such as the child’s arms stretched “like Jesus’ on His cross” while learning to “stay up, / floating out” (Alvarez, 1984). The poem’s power lies in its blending of personal memory with political exile, turning a private moment into a universal reflection on loss, fear, and adaptation. Its popularity stems from this ability to humanize exile through the eyes of a child, balancing wonder at American modernity—“escalators as moving belts; elevators: pulleys and ropes”—with the pain of cultural dislocation, as seen in the contrast between the immigrant father and the idealized American family in Macy’s display window. By intertwining personal narrative with historical displacement, Alvarez created a work that continues to resonate with readers navigating themes of migration, exile, and belonging.
Text: “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
Ciudad Trujillo, New York City, 1960
The night we fled the country, Papi,
you told me we were going to the beach,
hurried me to get dressed along with the others,
while posted at a window, you looked out
at a curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo,
speaking in worried whispers to your brothers,
which car to take, who’d be willing to drive it,
what explanation to give should we be discovered …
On the way to the beach, you added, eyeing me.
The uncles fell in, chuckling phony chuckles,
What a good time she’ll have learning to swim!
Back in my sisters’ room Mami was packing
a hurried bag, allowing one toy apiece,
her red eyes belying her explanation:
a week at the beach so Papi can get some rest.
She dressed us in our best dresses, party shoes.
Something was off, I knew, but I was young
and didn’t think adult things could go wrong.
So as we quietly filed out of the house
we wouldn’t see again for another decade,
I let myself lie back in the deep waters,
my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross,
and instead of sinking down as I’d always done,
magically, that night, I could stay up,
floating out, past the driveway, past the gates,
in the black Ford, Papi grim at the wheel,
winding through back roads, stroke by difficult stroke,
out on the highway, heading toward the coast.
Past the checkpoint, we raced towards the airport,
my sisters crying when we turned before
the family beach house, Mami consoling,
there was a better surprise in store for us!
She couldn’t tell, though, until … until we were there.
But I had already swum ahead and guessed
some loss much larger than I understood,
more danger than the deep end of the pool.
At the dark, deserted airport we waited.
All night in a fitful sleep, I swam.
At dawn the plane arrived, and as we boarded,
Papi, you turned, your eyes scanned the horizon
as if you were trying to sight a distant swimmer,
your hand frantically waving her back in,
for you knew as we stepped inside the cabin
that a part of both of us had been set adrift.
Weeks later, wandering our new city, hand in hand,
you tried to explain the wonders: escalators
as moving belts; elevators: pulleys and ropes;
blond hair and blue eyes: a genetic code.
We stopped before a summery display window
at Macy’s, The World’s Largest Department Store,
to admire a family outfitted for the beach:
the handsome father, slim and sure of himself,
so unlike you, Papi, with your thick mustache,
your three-piece suit, your fedora hat, your accent.
And by his side a girl who looked like Heidi
in my storybook waded in colored plastic.
We stood awhile, marveling at America,
both of us trying hard to feel luckier
than we felt, both of us pointing out
the beach pails, the shovels, the sandcastles
no wave would ever topple, the red and blue boats.
And when we backed away, we saw our reflections
superimposed, big-eyed, dressed too formally
with all due respect as visitors to this country.
Or like, Papi, two swimmers looking down
at the quiet surface of our island waters,
seeing their faces right before plunging in,
eager, afraid, not yet sure of the outcome.
– from Homecoming (1984)
Annotations: “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
| Stanza | Annotation | Literary Devices 🌸🌺🌼🌻🌹🌷 |
| The night we fled the country, Papi, / you told me we were going to the beach… | The speaker recalls the night they secretly left the Dominican Republic. The father tells the child it is a trip to the beach, hiding the real danger. | 🌸 Dramatic irony (child believes beach trip, but it’s escape); 🌺 Imagery (“curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo”); 🌼 Euphemism (beach trip masking exile); 🌻 Tone of secrecy and fear. |
| On the way to the beach, you added… Mami was packing… | The child notices that the explanation does not make sense. The uncles laugh nervously; the mother packs with teary eyes, signaling worry and sadness. | 🌸 Symbolism (one toy = loss of home); 🌺 Irony (vacation vs. exile); 🌼 Imagery (“red eyes belying”); 🌻 Contrast (parents’ sadness vs. child’s innocence). |
| Something was off, I knew… we wouldn’t see again for another decade… | The child senses something is wrong but cannot fully understand. Their home will be lost for many years. | 🌸 Foreshadowing (loss of home); 🌺 Understatement (“something was off” hides deep tragedy); 🌼 Irony (child’s limited understanding). |
| I let myself lie back in the deep waters, / my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross… | The child imagines swimming, arms stretched like Jesus. This symbolizes both innocence and sacrifice. She feels strangely able to float that night, symbolizing survival. | 🌸 Simile (“arms out like Jesus”); 🌺 Religious allusion (Jesus’ cross); 🌼 Extended metaphor (swimming = escape/journey); 🌻 Imagery (floating, deep waters). |
| Floating out, past the driveway, past the gates, / in the black Ford, Papi grim at the wheel… | The escape becomes compared to swimming strokes. The child imagines leaving home as moving through dark waters. | 🌸 Metaphor (car ride as swimming); 🌺 Symbolism (black Ford = vehicle of exile); 🌼 Imagery (grim Papi, winding roads). |
| Past the checkpoint, we raced towards the airport… | They avoid danger at the checkpoint and head to the airport. The mother tries to cheer them with lies of a surprise, but the child senses a larger loss. | 🌸 Suspense; 🌺 Dramatic irony (children believe surprise, readers know it’s exile); 🌼 Symbolism (checkpoint = barrier to freedom). |
| At the dark, deserted airport we waited… Papi, you turned… set adrift. | At the airport, father and child feel they are leaving behind a part of themselves. The metaphor of swimming returns, emphasizing being set adrift from home. | 🌸 Metaphor (swimming = exile); 🌺 Symbolism (adrift = loss of roots); 🌼 Alliteration (“distant swimmer”). |
| Weeks later, wandering our new city, hand in hand… escalators, elevators, blond hair and blue eyes… | In New York, the father explains new things. The child is amazed but also confused by cultural differences. | 🌸 Imagery (“moving belts,” “pulleys and ropes”); 🌺 Symbolism (blond hair, blue eyes = foreignness/otherness); 🌼 Juxtaposition (wonder vs. alienation). |
| We stopped before a summery display window at Macy’s… | They see an idealized American family in a shop window. The contrast with their immigrant identity makes them feel different. | 🌸 Imagery (Macy’s window display); 🌺 Contrast (American family vs. immigrant family); 🌼 Symbolism (plastic toys = artificial perfection). |
| We stood awhile, marveling at America… no wave would ever topple… | Both father and child try to feel lucky but still feel like outsiders. The sandcastles symbolize permanence they lack. | 🌸 Symbolism (sandcastles = security); 🌺 Irony (their real exile vs. fake stability of toys); 🌼 Imagery (red and blue boats). |
| And when we backed away, we saw our reflections… with all due respect as visitors to this country. | They see themselves reflected in the glass, dressed too formally, appearing foreign. They are outsiders, “visitors,” not yet belonging. | 🌸 Imagery (reflections in glass); 🌺 Symbolism (formality = alienation); 🌼 Metaphor (mirror = identity struggle). |
| Or like, Papi, two swimmers looking down… eager, afraid, not yet sure of the outcome. | The poem closes with the image of father and daughter as swimmers on the edge of a dive. They are entering exile, afraid of what will come. | 🌸 Extended metaphor (swimming = journey of exile); 🌺 Tone (uncertainty, fear, anticipation); 🌼 Simile (two swimmers looking down). |
Literary And Poetic Devices: “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
| Device | Example from “Exile” | Explanation |
| Alliteration 🌸 | “at a curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo,” — (c/k sound: curfew, Ciudad) “speaking in worried whispers to your brothers,” — (w sound: worried, whispers) “The uncles fell in, chuckling phony chuckles,” — (ch sound: chuckling, chuckles) “She dressed us in our best dresses, party shoes.” — (d sound: best, dresses) | The repetition of the “s” sound emphasizes the difficulty and effort of escape, mirroring the struggle of swimming and fleeing. |
| Allusion 🌺 | “my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross” | This biblical allusion compares the child’s posture in water to Christ’s crucifixion, suggesting sacrifice, suffering, and endurance. |
| Ambiguity 🌼 | “some loss much larger than I understood” | The vague “loss” reflects the child’s incomplete comprehension of exile, leaving meaning open to readers’ interpretation. |
| Contrast 🌹 | “the handsome father… so unlike you, Papi” | Juxtaposing the American father with her immigrant father highlights cultural displacement and insecurity. |
| Dramatic Irony 🌷 | Papi tells the children they are “going to the beach” | The audience knows they are fleeing, while the child is partly deceived. This creates tension and emotional poignancy. |
| Euphemism 🌸 | “a week at the beach so Papi can get some rest” | The mother disguises exile with a false explanation, softening the harsh truth for the children. |
| Foreshadowing 🌺 | “we wouldn’t see again for another decade” | Early mention of leaving the home foreshadows long-lasting exile and loss of roots. |
| Imagery 🌼 | “curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo” | Vivid sensory detail conveys the oppressive atmosphere of dictatorship, making readers visualize the fear and danger. |
| Irony 🌻 | “What a good time she’ll have learning to swim!” | The uncles’ false enthusiasm contrasts sharply with the reality of fleeing persecution. |
| Juxtaposition 🌹 | Escalators and elevators vs. fear of exile | Old fear is set against new wonders in New York, highlighting cultural shock and contrast between two worlds. |
| Metaphor 🌷 | “winding through back roads, stroke by difficult stroke” | The journey is compared to swimming, showing escape as an exhausting, uncertain survival act. |
| Motif 🌸 | Repeated swimming imagery | Swimming recurs throughout, symbolizing exile, survival, and transition between two worlds. |
| Personification 🌺 | “her red eyes belying her explanation” | Mami’s “eyes” are given the human ability to “belie” or contradict, showing her emotions reveal the truth. |
| Religious Symbolism 🌼 | “my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross” | Beyond allusion, this image symbolizes faith, suffering, and hope, merging personal exile with universal sacrifice. |
| Repetition 🌻 | “until… until we were there” | Repetition stresses uncertainty, delay, and the child’s nervous anticipation of the unknown. |
| Simile 🌹 | “like Heidi in my storybook” | The American girl in Macy’s is compared to a fairy-tale character, emphasizing the idealized, almost unreal American identity. |
| Symbolism 🌷 | “sandcastles no wave would ever topple” | The sandcastles represent imagined stability in America, in contrast to the fragility of their own displaced life. |
| Tone 🌸 | Shifts from innocence to fear, then wonder | The tone begins as childlike confusion, shifts to anxiety during escape, and later blends amazement with alienation in America. |
| Understatement 🌺 | “Something was off, I knew” | The child’s simple phrasing downplays the enormity of exile, intensifying its emotional impact. |
Themes: “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
🌸 Theme of Exile and Displacement: In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, the central theme revolves around the traumatic experience of exile and the profound sense of displacement that follows forced migration. The poem recounts the speaker’s sudden departure from Ciudad Trujillo, where the child is deceived into believing she is merely “going to the beach” while, in reality, her family is fleeing political danger. This deception highlights the psychological dislocation that accompanies physical exile, as the child’s innocent perception clashes with the adult reality of fear and loss. Alvarez underscores the rupture of belonging by depicting the home they “wouldn’t see again for another decade,” an image that conveys not only physical estrangement but also the erosion of memory and cultural rootedness. Thus, the poem elevates personal memory into a universal meditation on exile, where dislocation is not simply geographic but also existential, estranging the individual from both past and present.
🌺 Theme of Innocence and Childhood Perception: In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, another prominent theme is the tension between childhood innocence and the inability to grasp the gravity of exile. The child narrator perceives the escape through playful metaphors of swimming—“my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross” and “stroke by difficult stroke”—which convey both her imaginative lens and her unconscious absorption of danger. The motif of swimming transforms the terrifying escape into a surreal, almost magical experience where the child “could stay up, floating out,” suggesting a temporary triumph over fear. However, this imaginative framing also highlights the fragility of childhood perception, which can soften, but not erase, the reality of displacement. Alvarez thereby presents innocence not as ignorance, but as a lens that allows the child to endure trauma, even as subtle acknowledgments—“some loss much larger than I understood”—hint at the premature erosion of that innocence.
🌼 Theme of Cultural Alienation and Identity: In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, cultural alienation emerges as a dominant theme as the family navigates their arrival in New York City. The father attempts to introduce his daughter to a new world of “escalators as moving belts; elevators: pulleys and ropes; blond hair and blue eyes: a genetic code,” yet these explanations reveal not wonder but estrangement. The speaker confronts her difference when gazing at the Macy’s display window, where the American family—“the handsome father, slim and sure of himself” and the girl “who looked like Heidi in my storybook”—becomes an unattainable ideal of belonging. The juxtaposition between the confident American image and her own father, with his “three-piece suit, fedora hat, and accent,” illustrates the sense of cultural otherness that defines exile. Alvarez emphasizes that exile is not only about leaving one’s homeland but also about existing as a perpetual outsider in the adopted land, where identity is superimposed like their reflections in the shop window: “big-eyed, dressed too formally with all due respect as visitors to this country.”
🌻 Theme of Memory, Loss, and Survival: In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, the theme of memory and loss intertwines with survival, as the adult speaker recalls her childhood escape with vivid imagery. Memory transforms exile into an extended metaphor of swimming, where the child’s survival instincts emerge in her ability to “stay up, floating out” rather than sink, suggesting resilience in the face of danger. Yet memory also carries the sting of loss, as the speaker recalls the deception, the hurried packing, and the farewell to a home unseen for ten years. The father’s gesture at the airport—his eyes “scanned the horizon as if you were trying to sight a distant swimmer”—encapsulates the deep psychological rupture, as if part of him is “set adrift” forever. Alvarez demonstrates that exile fragments memory into both trauma and survival, for while displacement strips the family of home and certainty, it also demands the endurance of identity through recollection, imagination, and adaptation.
Literary Theories and “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
| Literary Theory | Application to “Exile” | Textual References |
| 🌸 Psychoanalytic Theory | Alvarez’s poem reveals the unconscious fears, suppressed anxieties, and childhood trauma of exile. The child narrator processes danger through symbolic swimming imagery, reflecting the mind’s attempt to master fear. Freud’s concepts of repression and displacement can be applied to the way the child interprets escape as play. | “I let myself lie back in the deep waters, / my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross” → repression of fear through fantasy; “some loss much larger than I understood” → unconscious awareness of trauma. 🌸🌼 |
| 🌺 Postcolonial Theory | The poem critiques displacement caused by dictatorship and exile, showing the cultural alienation of immigrants in America. The speaker contrasts her Dominican identity with the imposed ideals of whiteness and American modernity, illustrating hybridity and otherness (Bhabha). | “blond hair and blue eyes: a genetic code” → racialized difference; “two swimmers looking down… not yet sure of the outcome” → uncertainty of hybrid identity. 🌺🌻 |
| 🌼 Feminist Theory | The poem reflects the gendered dimensions of exile, especially the role of the daughter’s perspective. The mother’s tears and quiet packing highlight women’s emotional labor in sustaining the family, while the daughter’s innocent voice embodies female endurance in trauma. Feminist reading foregrounds silenced women’s experiences in migration narratives. | “Mami was packing / a hurried bag, allowing one toy apiece, / her red eyes belying her explanation” → maternal sacrifice and hidden grief. 🌼🌹 |
| 🌻 Reader-Response Theory | The poem invites readers to experience exile through the child’s eyes, creating varied emotional responses depending on readers’ own backgrounds. Immigrant readers may identify with the feeling of being “visitors,” while others may sense the poignancy of cultural estrangement. | “with all due respect as visitors to this country” → readers interpret differently based on cultural memory; “marveling at America… no wave would ever topple” → irony shaped by reader’s awareness of fragility. 🌻🌸 |
Critical Questions about “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
🌸 Question 1: How does childhood innocence shape the perception of exile in the poem?
In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, childhood innocence shapes the entire narrative lens through which exile is remembered and retold. The young narrator interprets the escape from the Dominican Republic as a playful adventure, believing she is “going to the beach” rather than fleeing for her family’s safety. This innocence transforms moments of fear into images of fantasy, such as when she imagines herself floating: “my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross… magically, that night, I could stay up, / floating out.” The swimming imagery reveals how the child’s mind processes trauma through imagination, softening the harshness of displacement. Yet innocence does not completely erase awareness, as suggested by the line “some loss much larger than I understood,” which conveys the child’s dim perception of exile’s gravity. Thus, innocence functions both as a protective filter and as a haunting reminder of unprocessed trauma.
🌺 Question 2: How does the poem portray exile as both physical displacement and emotional estrangement?
In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, exile is depicted not only as the act of leaving one’s homeland but also as a deeper condition of emotional estrangement. The physical escape unfolds through tense details—“curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo,” the “checkpoint,” and the “dark, deserted airport”—marking the urgency of political flight. However, Alvarez extends exile into the realm of emotional dislocation, as seen when the narrator and her father confront their alienation in New York. At Macy’s, the family gazes at the display window where an idealized American family appears “so unlike you, Papi, with your thick mustache, / your three-piece suit, your fedora hat, your accent.” This contrast intensifies the sense of not belonging, reinforcing that exile is as much about identity loss as it is about leaving a homeland. Ultimately, Alvarez portrays exile as an ongoing condition where even survival brings estrangement.
🌼 Question 3: What role does memory play in constructing the meaning of exile in the poem?
In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, memory plays a central role in constructing meaning out of the family’s flight and its aftermath. The adult speaker recalls her childhood escape with vivid sensory details—“a hurried bag, allowing one toy apiece” and “all night in a fitful sleep, I swam”—that preserve the trauma of departure. Memory transforms exile into a metaphor of swimming, where survival depends on floating rather than sinking. Yet memory also reconstructs loss: the home they “wouldn’t see again for another decade” becomes a symbol of both estrangement and nostalgia. By recalling her father’s anxious glance at the airport, “your hand frantically waving her back in,” Alvarez underscores how memory does not heal exile but instead preserves its fractures across generations. Memory, therefore, does not simply recount events but creates a poetic framework through which exile becomes both bearable and haunting.
🌻 Question 4: How does Alvarez use imagery and symbolism to universalize the experience of exile?
In “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, imagery and symbolism elevate a personal story of flight into a universal meditation on exile. The recurring metaphor of swimming—“stroke by difficult stroke”—symbolizes both the physical difficulty of escape and the emotional labor of survival. Similarly, the sandcastles in the Macy’s window, “no wave would ever topple,” become symbolic of unattainable stability in exile, contrasting with the fragility of the immigrant family’s own identity. Even reflections in the store window, “superimposed, big-eyed, dressed too formally,” symbolize the immigrant’s condition of always seeing themselves through the lens of another culture. Through such imagery, Alvarez moves beyond autobiography to articulate the universal human condition of displacement, where individuals live between past and present, belonging and alienation, home and exile.
Literary Works Similar to “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
- 🌸 “Immigrants” by Pat Mora – Similar to “Exile” because it explores the struggles of immigrants trying to preserve identity while assimilating into a new culture, capturing the tension between cultural loss and belonging.
- 🌺 “Refugee Blues” by W. H. Auden – This poem resonates with “Exile” through its portrayal of displacement, fear, and alienation, as both works depict the pain of being forced out of one’s homeland under political threat.
- 🌼 “Home” by Warsan Shire – Like Alvarez’s poem, it emphasizes the necessity of exile, showing that people leave home only when “home is the mouth of a shark,” echoing the urgency and danger in “Exile”.
- 🌻 “The Emigrée” by Carol Rumens – Comparable to “Exile” in its nostalgic yet painful memory of a lost homeland, using imagery of exile, cultural estrangement, and childhood perception to frame the experience.
- 🌹 “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes – While not directly about political exile, it mirrors “Exile” in exploring identity, difference, and belonging in America, where cultural displacement shapes self-perception.
Representative Quotations of “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
| Quotation | Context in the Poem | Theoretical Interpretation |
| 🌸 “you told me we were going to the beach” | The father deceives the child to protect her from fear during their escape. | 🌸 Psychoanalytic: A defense mechanism (displacement of truth) to shield the child’s unconscious mind from trauma. 🌻 Reader-Response: Readers feel tension knowing the hidden reality. |
| 🌺 “curfew-darkened Ciudad Trujillo” | Describes the oppressive atmosphere of dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. | 🌺 Postcolonial: Reflects the violence of authoritarian regimes driving exile. 🌼 Historical: Highlights Rafael Trujillo’s regime as the backdrop of forced displacement. |
| 🌼 “Mami was packing / a hurried bag, allowing one toy apiece” | The mother silently prepares the children for exile while hiding her grief. | 🌼 Feminist: Shows women’s hidden emotional labor during exile. 🌹 Marxist: The restriction of toys symbolizes loss of material stability. |
| 🌻 “my arms out like Jesus’ on His cross” | The child imagines herself swimming, likening her posture to crucifixion. | 🌻 Religious/Symbolic: Allusion to sacrifice and survival. 🌸 Psychoanalytic: Suggests unconscious fear transformed into a sacred metaphor. |
| 🌹 “stroke by difficult stroke” | The family’s escape compared to swimming strokes. | 🌹 Metaphorical: Exile as survival struggle. 🌺 Postcolonial: Journey symbolizes migration under duress. |
| 🌷 “some loss much larger than I understood” | The child senses deep loss but cannot fully articulate it. | 🌷 Psychoanalytic: Suggests repressed trauma resurfacing in adult memory. 🌸 Reader-Response: Readers bring personal understanding of exile into this ambiguity. |
| 🌸 “your hand frantically waving her back in” | At the airport, Papi anxiously looks back as if trying to recall what they leave behind. | 🌸 Postcolonial: Gestures toward homeland and roots being abandoned. 🌼 Memory Studies: Symbolizes generational trauma carried into exile. |
| 🌺 “blond hair and blue eyes: a genetic code” | The father explains American difference to the daughter. | 🌺 Postcolonial: Marks racialized otherness and cultural alienation. 🌻 Critical Race Theory: Shows hierarchy of whiteness vs. immigrant identity. |
| 🌼 “the handsome father… so unlike you, Papi” | The Macy’s display shows an idealized American family contrasting with theirs. | 🌼 Cultural Studies: Critique of consumerist ideals in shaping identity. 🌹 Postcolonial: Reveals sense of inferiority within the immigrant gaze. |
| 🌻 “two swimmers looking down… eager, afraid, not yet sure of the outcome” | Closing image of father and daughter as swimmers before a plunge. | 🌻 Universal Symbolism: Exile as uncertain plunge into the unknown. 🌺 Postcolonial: Captures liminality—existing between homeland and host land. |
Suggested Readings: “Exile” by Julia Alvarez
- Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. “Contesting the Boundaries of ‘Exile’ Latino/A Literature.” World Literature Today, vol. 74, no. 3, 2000, pp. 507–17. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/40155817. Accessed 29 Aug. 2025.
- Suárez, Lucía M. “Julia Alvarez and the Anxiety of Latina Representation.” Meridians, vol. 5, no. 1, 2004, pp. 117–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40338651. Accessed 29 Aug. 2025.
- Alvarez, Stephanie. “Latino / A ‘Exile’ Literature.” World Literature Today, vol. 76, no. 3/4, 2002, pp. 74–74. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/40157595. Accessed 29 Aug. 2025.
- Luis, William. “A Search for Identity in Julia Alvarez’s: How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.” Callaloo, vol. 23, no. 3, 2000, pp. 839–49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3299671. Accessed 29 Aug. 2025.