Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez is an accomplished author and poet, born on March 27, 1950, in New York City, though she spent much of her early life in the Dominican Republic. Her family's socioeconomic background was complex, shaped by political upheaval; her father's family lost wealth due to their political affiliations, while her mother came from a more prosperous background. This blend of experiences influenced Alvarez's perception of identity and belonging.
After escaping to the United States just before her father's arrest in 1960, Alvarez faced the challenges of being a Dominican immigrant, which she later explored in her semi-autobiographical novel, *How the García Girls Lost Their Accents*. She pursued higher education, earning degrees in literature and writing, eventually becoming a professor at Middlebury College. Alvarez has authored several notable works, including *In the Time of the Butterflies* and *¡Yo!*, which engage with themes of bicultural experience and women's issues.
In addition to her novels, she has written poetry, nonfiction, and children's literature, with later works addressing complex topics accessible to younger audiences. Recognized for her contributions to literature, Alvarez has received multiple awards, including the National Medal of Arts and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award. Her work continues to resonate, highlighting the nuances of cultural identity and personal transformation. In recent years, she has expanded her portfolio with new novels and children’s books, further solidifying her impact as a significant voice in contemporary literature.
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Subject Terms
Julia Alvarez
- Born: March 27, 1950
- Birthplace: New York, New York
Author Profile
Author. Although she was born in New York City, Julia Alvarez spent much of her childhood in the Dominican Republic. Her parents were from the island. Her mother came from a well-positioned and wealthy family, but her father was rather poor. The family’s divided economic position was tied to political problems within the Dominican Republic. Her father’s family, once wealthy, supported the wrong side during the revolution, and her mother’s family benefited by supporting those who gained power. Although poorer than most of their relatives, Alvarez's family enjoyed a privileged position in the Dominican Republic.
Although raised in the Dominican Republic, Alvarez describes her childhood as “an American childhood.” Her extended family’s power, influence, American connections, and wealth led to Alvarez enjoying many of the luxuries of America, including American food, clothes, and friends. When Alvarez’s father became involved with the forces attempting to oust the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Rafaél Leonidas Trujillo Molina, the secret police began monitoring his activity. Immediately before he was to be arrested in 1960, the family escaped to America with the help of an American agent. In an article in American Scholar (“Growing Up American in the Dominican Republic”) published in 1987, Alvarez notes that she had wanted to be a true American girl all her life. She thought, in 1960, that she would live in her homeland, America.
Living in America was different from what Alvarez expected. As her fictional but partly autobiographical novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) hints, Alvarez was faced with many adjustments in America, where she was seen as a Dominican immigrant. She experienced homesickness, alienation, and prejudice. Going from living on a large family compound to living in a small New York apartment was quite an adjustment. Alvarez’s feeling of loss when moving to America caused a change in her. She became introverted, began to read avidly, and eventually began writing.
Alvarez attended college, earning degrees in literature and writing from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1971 and Syracuse University in 1975. After her poetry began to win critical acclaim, she became an English professor at Middlebury College in 1988, providing a steady means to support her writing. She would publish several poetry collections, but one of her best-known works is her first novel, the semi-autobiographical How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. It was followed by In the Time of Butterflies (1994) and ¡Yo! (1997), which explored similar themes. She also continued to write poetry and branched into nonfiction and children's literature. In 1998, she shifted from teaching full-time to becoming an artist-in-residence at Middlebury, allowing her more creative time while continuing to teach occasional classes. Later works of fiction include In the Name of Salomé (2000), The Cafecito Story (2001), Saving the World: A Novel (2006), and the children's books A Gift of Gracias (2005) and Return to Sender (2009).
After 2010, Alvarez published Where Do They Go? (2016) and Already a Butterfly (2020), both children's books exploring complex topics like death and self-reflection in child-friendly ways. Alvarez is praised for her portrayal of bicultural experiences, particularly for her focusing on the women’s issues that arise out of such an experience, and she has been called one of the most important Latino women writers of her generation. In 2020, she released her first adult novel in over a decade, Afterlife, at the age of seventy. In 2024, she released The Cemetery of Untold Stories. Alvarez has been highly awarded for her work. In 2009, she received the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award in literature; in 2013, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama. In 2024, Alvarez was the subject of a PBS documentary called Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined, which explored the author's life and work.
Bibliography
Alvarez, Julia. "A Citizen of the World: An Interview with Julia Alvarez." Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers. Edited by Bridget Kevane and Juanita Heredia. U of New Mexico P, 2000.
Alvarez, Julia. "An Unlikely Beginning for a Writer." Máscaras. Edited by Lucha Corpi. Third Woman, 1997.
Alvarez, Julia. "On Finding a Latino Voice." The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and How They Work. Edited by Maria Arana. Public Affairs, 2003.
Bing, Jonathan. "Julia Alvarez: Books that Cross Borders." Publishers Weekly, 16 Dec. 1996.
Conde, Arturo. "Bestselling Author Julia Alvarez is the Subject of a New PBS Documentary." NBC News, 17 Sept. 2024, www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/bestselling-author-julia-alvarez-subject-new-pbs-documentary-rcna171432. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Echevarria, Roberto Gonzalez. "Sisters in Death." New York Times Book Review, 18 Dec. 1994, p. 28.
Garcia-Johnson, Ronie-Richele. "Julía Alvarez." Notable Hispanic American Women. Edited by Diane Telgen and Jim Kamp. Gale Research, 1993.
Johnson, Kelly Lyon. Julia Alvarez: Writing a New Place on the Map. U of New Mexico P, 2005.
“Julia Alvarez.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/julia-alvarez. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Kornberg, Julia. "Julia Álvarez Wrote English Prose with a Dominican Accent." National Endowment for the Humanities, 13 Sept. 2024, www.neh.gov/article/julia-alvarez-wrote-english-prose-dominican-accent. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Luis, William. "A Search for Identity in Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents." Callaloo, vol. 23, no. 3, 2000, pp. 839–849.
Lyons, Bonnie, and Bill Oliver. "A Clean Windshield: An Interview with Julia Alvarez." Passion and Craft: Conversations with Notable Writers. U of Illinois P, 1998.
"Meet Julia." Julia Alvarez, www.juliaalvarez.com/about. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Oliver, Kelly. "Everyday Revolutions, Shifting Power, and Feminine Genius in Julia Alvarez’s Fiction." Unmaking Race, Remaking Soul: Transformative Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom. Edited by Christa Davis Acampora and Angela L. Cotten. State U of New York P, 2007.
Ortiz-Marquez, Maribel. "From Third World Politics to First World Practices: Contemporary Latina Writers in the United States." Interventions: Feminist Dialogues on Third World Women’s Literature and Film. Edited by Ghosh Bishmupriya and Bose Brinda. Garland, 1997.
Rifkind, Donna. "Speaking American." New York Times Book Review, 6 Oct. 1991, p. 14.
Rosario-Sievert, Heather. "Conversation with Julia Alvarez." Review: Latin American Literature and Arts, vol. 54, 1997, pp. 31–37.
Rosenberg, Robert, ed. and director. Women of Hope/Latinas Abriendo Camino: Twelve Ground Breaking Latina Women. Bread and Roses Cultural Project. Films for Humanities, 1996.
Sirias, Silvis. Julia Alvarez: A Critical Companion. Greenwood, 2001.
Socolovsky, Maya. "Patriotism, Nationalism, and the Fiction of History in Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and In the Name of Salomé." Latin American Literary Review, vol. 34, no. 68, 2006, pp. 5–24.
Stavans, Ilan. "Daughters of Invention." The Commonweal, 10 Apr. 1992, pp. 23–26.
Stavans, Ilan. "Las Mariposa." The Nation, 7 Nov. 1994, pp. 552, 554–556.