How the García Girls Lost Their Accents Foreignness and 'The Other' Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

García de la Torre didn't mean a thing to them, but those brand-named beauties simply assumed that, like all third world foreign students in boarding schools, we were filthy rich and related to some dictator or other. (2.1.5)

So here's an example of one U.S. stereotype about foreigners—at least the ones with enough means to be able to go to boarding schools.

Quote #8

Here they were trying to fit in America among Americans; they needed help figuring out who they were, why the Irish kids whose grandparents had been micks were calling them spics. (2.2.21)

So this is the dark side of America's great tradition of immigration and cultural diversity—America's not-so-great tradition of discrimination and racial slurs. Immigration to the U.S. has changed over its history (with more immigrants now coming from Latin America than from Europe), but the pattern of discriminating against the newcomers has stayed the same.

Quote #9

They could have eaten anywhere, Sandi thought, and yet they had come to a Spanish place for dinner. La Bruja was wrong. Spanish was something other people paid to be around.

We love this moment where little Sandi realizes that her culture's foreignness can sometimes be valued and appreciated, and not always scorned and despised.