Previous
Sandra García
Carla is the oldest of Carlos and Laura’s four daughters. When the family moves to the U.S., Carla is already approaching adolescence. She is bullied in school and is sexually harassed by a stranger as she walks home one day. Carla wishes to return to the Dominican Republic for a long time after moving, but she is overall less affected by the move than Yolanda and Sandra. She is stable and rational, and less prone to emotional outbursts than her sisters. Carla later studies psychology and gives a lot of unsolicited advice to her sister. She becomes a child psychologist and writes publicly about the traumas her family endured during her upbringing.
Carla García Quotes in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
The How the García Girls Lost Their Accents quotes below are all either spoken by Carla García or refer to Carla García. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
6. A Regular Revolution Quotes
The pictures all celebrated women and their bodies, so it wasn’t technically about sex as she had understood it up to then. But there were women exploring “what their bodies were all about” and a whole chapter on lesbians. (Things, Mami said, examining the pictures, to be ashamed of.)
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The girls are in college, and they regularly get in trouble for doing things their parents don’t approve of. Yolanda is in trouble one day for reading a book about the female body. Laura’s reaction to the book sheds light on the extent of how harmful it is to push her extremely conservative values on her daughters. Laura seems to become more conservative as time goes on and her daughters grow older. When the girls are young, Laura makes an effort to raise them in the “American” style—in other words, she tries to adopt a less authoritarian approach to parenting Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. V
Mundín wiggles his eyebrows. “How many taboos can we break here? Let’s see.” He enumerates: incest, group sex, lesbian sex, virgin sex—
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Sofia is spending a year on the Island as punishment, and the other three sisters are back to visit their family. Sofia is with her cousin and boyfriend, Manuel, and the other three are visiting a brothel with their cousin Mundín. For all of the García adults’ insistence on abstinence and sexual modesty, there is a lot of overt sexual behavior on the Island. Mundín is intrigued and entertained by the sexual acts that are the most frowned upon, which suggests that the repressive Dominican ideas about sexuality actually lead to “inappropriate” sexual behaviors instead of preventing them. Relationships between Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem
There, among the pink vanities with baskets of little towels and talcum powder and brushes, we come up with our plot. We reach out our hands and seal our pact. Yoyo rallies us with “¡Que viva la revolución!”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The three older sisters form a plan to save Sofia from the abusive relationship she is in with their cousin Manuel. This chapter explicitly links the feminist revolution to the Dominican political revolution. Whereas the Dominican revolutionaries fight for freedom from their militant dictator, the girls fight for women’s rights. Sofia is the most naturally independent sister, and she ends up being the most sexually liberated one later on, so the fact that she concedes to Manuel’s dominance shows how powerful patriarchal culture is in the Dominican Republic. Yolanda’s enthusiastic participation in this girls’ coup shows that she strongly believes Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Und
These baby monkeys were kept in a cage so long, they wouldn’t come out when the doors were finally left open. Instead, they stayed inside and poked their arms through the bars for their food, just out of reach.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The girls reconnect with their family on the Island, and they feel a twinge of homesickness. They compare the feeling to a psychology experiment where caged monkeys don’t want to leave their cages after becoming accustomed to being locked inside. This comparison shows that the girls see the Dominican Island as a prison—a place with limited freedom. A part of them wants to stay on the Island. This may suggest that the freedom the girls have in the U.S. comes with its own disadvantages. In a way, it may be easier to live a sheltered life in the Dominican Republic Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiore
Get the entire How the García Girls Lost Their Accents LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Carla García Character Timeline in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
The timeline below shows where the character Carla García appears in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
3. The Four Girls
...always wears the same color. Sofia wears white, Yolanda wears pink, Sandra wears blue, and Carla wears yellow. Yolanda is happy because pink is a girly color, and as Sofia grows...
(full context)
...on edge because her lover Clive left her to go “back to his wife again.” Carla and Sofia try to mediate the other two’s arguments. Throughout the conversation, Yolanda’s sisters call...
(full context)
6. A Regular Revolution
...year. Sofia chooses to stay on the Island because she is unhappy in New York. Carla thinks this is a bad idea, as it’s normal for teenagers to be unhappy. Carla...
(full context)
...they want to stay on the Island. The situation reminds them of an experiment from Carla’s studies in college, wherein monkeys are trapped in cages so long that they no longer...
(full context)
8. Trespass
...flan for the occasion, and everyone makes a wish as they blow out the candle. Carla wishes to go back home. She misses her cousin Lucinda. The García family now lives...
(full context)
Carla is in seventh grade. At school, a group of boys regularly harasses her. They throw...
(full context)
Two officers come to the García house to write a report of what happened to Carla. Carla struggles with her limited English to describe the event, and the officers’ insensitivity troubles...
(full context)
11. The Blood of the Conquistadores
Since Laura told them to get out of the room with the men, Carla and Sandra are eating lunch at Tía Carmen and Tío Mundo’s house. Carla can tell...
(full context)
Laura is relieved to see Vic approach with Sandra and Carla. Vic tells the men that Carlos will be home soon, and that Carlos and his...
(full context)
14. An American Surprise
...a pile of presents—even the baby Sofia as well as all the servants. That night, Carla can’t sleep because she’s excited about her new toys. Gladys comes into her room and...
(full context)
