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Understanding and Interpreting
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1. Explain how learning English gave Alvarez and her sisters power over her parents. How did
they use this power?
2. Besides giving her power over her parents, what other effects did learning English have on
Narrative
Alvarez? How did she feel about this at the time (pars. 6–8), as she was slowly losing her
Spanish language?
3. Explain how Alvarez responds to the differences in gender expectations that she faces when
she goes to the Dominican Republic that summer by herself (par. 13).
4. What are the similarities and differences between Alvarez and her friend Dilita? Why is this
contrast important to the story Alvarez is telling?
5. Characterization of other people in a narrative often reveals as much about the narrator as it
does about the person being described. Explain what Alvarez reveals about herself while
describing her boyfriend Mangú, including her choice of nickname for him.
6. Explain what role the merengue, the popular Dominican dance, plays in this narrative. How
does it reflect Alvarez’s inner conflicts?
7. Why is Alvarez, at the time, reluctant to agree with Dilita that the two of them “have the best of
both worlds” (par. 22)? Does she agree at the end of the narrative?
8. What conclusion does Alvarez draw about language, culture, and identity the last night that
she and Mangú are together looking at the stars (pars. 27–31)?
9. Alvarez introduces the reader to her husband only at the end of the narrative. What information
about him — and his family — does she include, and how does this relate to the ideas about
language and identity that Alvarez explores in this piece?

Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure

10. Vocabulary in Context. Explain the meaning of Alvarez’s use of the words hyphenated and
hybrid when describing herself and Dilita in paragraph 15. How are these words effective at
communicating her attitude toward culture at the time? How are these words used differently
in other contexts?
11. What does Alvarez achieve by starting her narrative with the incidents of language confusion
and hostility her mother faces in the first three paragraphs?
12. In paragraph 5, Alvarez writes that kids in public school “were thrown in the deep end.” What
does the metaphor mean in the context of her narrative? At the end of that paragraph, she
writes, “Not everyone came up for air.” What might Alvarez expect that we conclude about
public school from this last sentence?
13. What is Alvarez likely trying to communicate by putting the word home in quotation marks
when referring to the Dominican Republic?
14. Alvarez includes words in Spanish throughout her narrative, sometimes translating them and
sometimes not. What effect do these choices create for readers?
15. Reread paragraph 33. Explain what inner conflicts remain for Alvarez and how her language
choices communicate these conflicts.
16. While the narrative follows a strict chronological order, there is a significant time jump when
Alvarez sees Mangú again much later in her life. How does the inclusion of this scene help
Alvarez communicate a central idea about language, identity, and/or culture?

184
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Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
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For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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