Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Today’s Video: Julia Alvarez

We continue this week’s theme of famous Latin American women in literature with a look at Julia Alvarez.

Alvarez- who is of Dominican background- has written numerous acclaimed books of fiction and poetry. Despite this, her 1991 novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents” has been the subject of controversy after a South Carolina school board recently banned the text. In an interview published last month Alvarez noted how the book’s outlawing of her book reminded her of her childhood under infamous dictator Rafael Trujillo.

The following video clip is another interview of Alvarez discussing her most recent book on quinceañeras. Alvarez explains why she wrote on the subject despite her initial reluctance as well as “what writing is all about”.

(Video link):

Previous videos this week:

Sources- SFGate.com, The Latin Americanist, Wikipedia, YouTube, Independent Weekly, Vivirlatino

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