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The true story behind "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents"
Clip: 9/17/2024 | 2m 5sVideo has Closed Captions
Julia Alvarez recounts the day she had to escape from the Dominican Republic with her family.
Julia Alvarez and her sisters recount the day they had to escape from the Dominican Republic with their parents, because of her father's involvement in a plot to overthrew the dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The experience inspired a scene in her first novel, "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents."
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...
![American Masters](https://image.pbs.org/contentchannels/FgDyXIn-white-logo-41-8ZBpyZC.png?format=webp&resize=200x)
The true story behind "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents"
Clip: 9/17/2024 | 2m 5sVideo has Closed Captions
Julia Alvarez and her sisters recount the day they had to escape from the Dominican Republic with their parents, because of her father's involvement in a plot to overthrew the dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The experience inspired a scene in her first novel, "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents."
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A front row seat to the creative process
How do today’s masters create their art? Each episode an artist reveals how they brought their creative work to life. Hear from artists across disciplines, like actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, singer-songwriter Jewel, author Min Jin Lee, and more on our podcast "American Masters: Creative Spark."Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(tense music) (doorbell rings) - [Narrator] The doorbell rings, and Chucha lets in these two creepy looking men.
They wear dark mirror glasses.
What catches Jojo's eyes are their holster belts and the shiny black bulge of their guns poking through.
Chucha talks very loud, and repeats what the men say as if she were deaf.
She must be wanting Papi to hear from wherever he's hiding.
Jojo wants to cry too, but she's sure if she does, the men will get suspicious and take her father away, and maybe the whole family.
- When did you hear that you were leaving?
Because I remember that all of a sudden you just disappeared.
- Yeah.
- I don't remember much.
Was like, they're gone.
- They couldn't tell us.
We weren't told.
And then we came home one day and... - They said pack your bags?
- No.
- Pack your bag.
(Julia speaking Spanish) Because that's where the new airport was remember?
- Yeah, yeah.
- And I thought, "Wait a minute, "we're being put in little dresses (thoughtful music) "and we're going to Boca Chica."
(thoughtful music) - Maury was 11, Julia was 10, Tita was nine, and I was five.
(thoughtful music) I remember mother was just trembling and the plane wasn't taking off.
There was a delay, there was a delay, there was a delay.
And the longer it delayed, the more afraid they would be coming.
- I remember the anxiety.
And when we got in the plane and the plane.
- Took off, take off.
- Took off.
Mami and Papi just hugged each other and cried and cried.
- There was for them a huge relief, and then, of course, a huge loss.
(thoughtful music) (logo snaps)
How Julia Alvarez brought truth to the Mirabal sisters in her novel "In the Time of the Butterflies"
Video has Closed Captions
Julia Alvarez brought the story of the assassination of the Mirabel sisters to life in her novel. (1m 29s)
How Julia Alvarez conceived the story for her novel "Afterlife"
Video has Closed Captions
"Afterlife" was Julia Alvarez's way of "[giving] voice to that landscape of aging." (1m 5s)
How Julia Alvarez was inspired by the working class
Video has Closed Captions
Julia Alvarez wrote about the interior lives of working class women. (2m 52s)
Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined
Video has Closed Captions
Explore the story of writer Julia Alvarez, who blazed a trail for a generation of Latino authors. (1m 57s)
Julia Alvarez on the female perspective in "In the Time of the Butterflies"
Video has Closed Captions
Julia Alvarez wanted to write about dictatorship from a female perspective for her second novel. (2m 6s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipSupport for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...