Overview of Part 3: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

For me, part three of the book was extremely confusing. One of the most confusing parts was the part where the secret police keeps searching for Papi and the Garica family had to use various codes to stay safe. I did not understand why the secret police wanted Papi.What did they want from him?

As the story progresses backwards, I begin to understand the surroundings of the four girls and how some events impacted how they grew up. The most important event that impacted them was the migration from the Dominican Republic to America. The governments served different purposes in their lives that were both good and bad. The government in the Dominican Republic oppressed women by degrading their abilities and roles in society. If they had stayed on the Island, the sisters would never have thrived to who they are and fulfill their curiosity in the world. America gives them rights and they used it toward their parents, and experienced inappropriate things, like drugs. In America, they abandons their culture and is a bit ashamed of it. But throughout young adulthood, they realizes the beauty of their culture when they had lost it already.

I find that the childhood of the four sisters did not explain much about their adulhood actions, feelings, or dilemma. For example, it didn't explain the part where Yolanda was 'allergic' to words, or when Carla was in a state of hysteria, claiming she was evolving backwards into a monvey.

Ultimately, the ending of the book is weird. It ended abruptly with a random topic- a cat. The cat, in the story, had the least significance in her life and was least talked about, but it seemed to impact Yolanda greatly- from childhood to adulthood. The cat might represent something like childhood.