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Julia Alvarez
hen we arrived in New York City, our names changed almost immediately. At Immigration, the officer asked my father,
Mister Elbures, if he had anything to declare. 1 My father shook his head
no, and we were waved through. I was too afraid we wouldn't be let in if I corrected the man's pronunciation, but I said our name to myself,
opening my mouth wide for the organ blase of the a, trilling my tongue-
for the drumroll of the r, All-oab-rrr-esl How could anyone get Elbures
out of that orchestra of sound? G
At the hotel my mother was Missus Alburest, and I was little girl,
10 as in, "Hey, little girl, stop riding the elevator up and down. It's nota toy."
When we moved into our new apartment building, the super' called
my father Mister Alberase, and the neighbors who became mother's friends
pronounced her name feto-lee-ah instead of Hoo-lee-ab. I, her namesake,
was known as Hoo-lee-tab at home. But at school I was Judy or Judith,
and once an English teacher mistook me for Juliet.
o PERSONAL E
Rereadlines 1- Consider Alvan: choice of words her thoughts a Immigration. C think Julia is pro her last name?
- At Immigration ••. declare: Immigration is the place where government officials check the documents of people entering a country. People must acknowledge, or declare. certain goods or moneys that they are carrying.
- trilling my tongue: rapidly vibrating the tongue against the roof of the mouth. as in pronouncing a Spanish T.
- super: superintendent. or building manager.
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It took a while to get used to my new names. I wondered ifI shouldn't correct my teachers arid new friends. But my mother argued that it didn't matter. "You know what your friend Shakespeare said, 1\ rose by any other name would smell as sweet."'4 My family had gotten into the habit of 20 calling any literary figure "my friend" because I had begun to write poems and stories in English class. By the time I was in high school, I was a popular kid, and it showed
in my name. Friends called me Jules or Hey Jude,^5 and once a group
of troublemaking friends my mother forbade me to hang out with called
me Alcatraz." I was Hoo-lee-tab only to Mami and Papi and uncles and
aunts who came over to eat sancocbo' on Sunday afternoons--<>ld world folk whom I would just as soon go back to where they came from and leave me to pursue whatever mischief I wanted to in America. JUDY ALCATRAZ: the name on the wanted poster would read. Who would ever trace her to me? D
30 ..H Jj Y older sister had the hardest rime getting an American name for
herself because Mauricia did nor translate into English. Ironically,
although she had the most foreign-sounding name, she and I were the Americans in the family. We had been born in New York City when our parents had first tried immigration and then gone back "home," too homesick to stay. My mother often told the story of how she had almost changed my sister's name in the hospital. After the delivery, Mami and some other new mothers were cooing over their new baby sons and daughters and exchanging names and weights and delivery stories. My mother was embarrassed among the Sallys and
40 Janes and Georges and Johns to reveal the rich, noisy name of Mauricia,
so when her turn came to brag, she gave her baby's name as Maureen.
"Why'd ya give her an Irish name with so many pretty Spanish names to choose from?" one of the women asked her. My mother blushed and admitted her baby's real name to the group. Her mother-in-law had recently died, she apologized, and her husband had insisted that the first daughter be named after his mother, Mauran. My mother thought it the ugliest name she had ever heard, and she talked my father into what she believed was an improvement, a combination
of Mauran and her own mother's name, Felicia. ,.
50 "Her name is Mao-ree-shee-ah," my mother said to the group.
"Why, that's a beautiful name," the new mothers cried. "Moor-ee-sba,
Moor-ee-sba," they cooed into the pink blanket. Moor-ee-sba it was when
- 'A rose ••• smell as sweet': In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the main characters' families are enemies. But when Romeo and Juliet fall in love, Juliet uses almost these words to say that Romeo is precious to her no matter what his family name is. S. Hey Jude: the title of a hit song by the Beatles in 1968. 6. Alcatmz (al'ka-traz'): the name of an island in San Francisco 8ay that was once the site of a prison. 7. soncocho (siing-ko'cho) Spanish: a traditional Caribbean stew of meat and vegetables.
D CONNECT You might hay nickname for 1 on page 804. I how this nickn makes you fee Julia's nicknan her feel.
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La~ JUagE
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•. GRAMMAR CONTEXT In lines 47- correct capita of common at nouns.
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:... '0 ••. ~. . "Julia Altagracia Marfa Teresa Alvarez Tavares Perello Espaillar Julia Perez Rocher Gonzalez." I Ffonounced it slowly, a name as chaotic with sounds as a Middle Eastern bazaar or market day in a South American village. I suffered most whenever my extended family attended school occasions. For my graduation, they all came, the whole noisy, foreign- looking lot of fat aunts in their dark mourning dresses and hair nets, uncles with full, droopy mustaches and baby-blue or salmon-colored suits and white pointy shoes and fedora hats, the many little cousins who snuck in without tickets. They sat in the first row in order to better understand :100 the Americans' fast-spoken English. But how could they listen when they were constantly speaking among themselves in florid-sounding phrases, rococo consonants, rich, rhyming vowels? Their loud voices carried. Introducing them to my friends was a further trial to me. These relatives had such complicated names and there were so many of them, and their relationships to myself were so convoluted. There was my Tfa Josefina, who was not really an aunt but a much older cousin. And her daughter, AIda Margarita, who was adopted, una hija de crianza. II My uncle of affection, Tfo Jose, brought my madrina Tfa Amelia and her comadre Tfa Pilar. \2 My friends rarely had more than their nuclear familyl3 to introduce, 110 youthful, glamorous-looking couples ("Mom and Dad") who skied and played tennis and took their kids for spring vacations to Bermuda. a After the commencement ceremony, my family waited outside in the parking lot while my friends and I signed yearbooks with nicknames which recalled our high school good times: "Beans" and "Pepperoni" and "Alcatraz." We hugged and cried and promised to keep in touch. Sometimes if our goodbyes went on too long, I heard my father's voice calling out across the parking lot. "Hoo-lee-tab! Vdmonosf"14 G
Back home, my nos and tfas and primas, Mami and Papi, and mis
bermanas had a party for me with sancocbo and a store-bought pudln,
120 inscribed with Happy Graduation. Julie. 15 There were many gifts-that
was a plus to a large family! I got several wallets and a: suitcase with my initials and a graduation charm from my godmother and money from my uncles. The biggest gift was a portable typewriter from my parents for writing my stories and poems. Someday, the family predicted, my name would be well-known throughout the United States. I laughed to myself, wondering which one I would go by. ~
11. una hlja de manza (oo'nii e'hii de kre-an'sii) Spc1nish: a child raised as if one's own.
- My uncle of affection ••• Tia Pilar: My favorite uncle, Uncle Jose, brought my godmother Aunt Amelia and her close friend Aunt Pilar. B. nuclear family: a family unit consisting of a mother, a father, and their children. 14. VtimQnos (ba'ma-nOs) Spanish: Let's go. 1S. Back home ••• Julie: Back home, my uncles and aunts and cousins, Mami and Papi. and my sisters had a party for me with a stew and a store-bought pudding, inscribed with Happy Graduation,Julie.
810 UNIT 7: BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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convoluted (kon'va-loo'tlc difficult to um complicated
m CONNECT Think about h Julia feels wht introduces he to her friends. Situ~tJQn have ex,: ..,ienced 0 ab:-lut tt-~)'cal uriClerstC ,JhI
~, ,."^ PE'RS0NAL~ .. Rerec:.:;1ines 11 you think Julie nickname by t she graduates school? Tell w helped you an question.
