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my little sister, ana, had the easiest time of all. She was plain
Anne—that is, only her name was plain, for she turned out to be the
pale, blond “american beauty” in the family. The only Hispanic thing
about her was the affectionate nicknames her boyfriends sometimes
gave her. Anita, or, as one goofy guy used to sing to her to the tune
of the banana advertisement, Anita Banana.
Later, during her college years in the late sixties, there was a
push to pronounce Third World 3 names correctly. I remember calling
her long distance at her group house and a roommate answering.
“Can I speak to ana?” I asked, pronouncing her name the
american way.
“ana?” The man’s voice hesitated. “Oh! You must mean Ah-nah!”
Our first few years in the States, though, ethnicity was not yet
“in.” Those were the blond, blue-eyed, bobby-sock years of junior
high and high school before the sixties ushered in peasant blouses,
hoop earrings, sarapes. 4 my initial desire to be known by my correct
Dominican name faded. I just wanted to be Judy and merge with the
Sallys and Janes in my class. but, inevitably, my accent and coloring
gave me away. “So where are you from, Judy?”
“New York,” I told my classmates. after all, I had been born
blocks away at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.
“I mean, originally.”
“From the Caribbean,” I answered vaguely, for if I specified, no
one was quite sure on what continent our island was located.
“really? I’ve been to bermuda. We went last april for spring
vacation. I got the worst sunburn! So, are you from Portoriko?” 5
“No,” I sighed. “From the Dominican republic.”
“Where’s that?”
“South of bermuda.”
They were just being curious, I knew, but I burned with shame
whenever they singled me out as a “foreigner,” a rare, exotic friend.
“Say your name in Spanish, oh, please say it!” I had made
mouths drop one day by rattling off my full name, which, according
to Dominican custom, included my middle names, mother’s and
Father’s surnames for four generations back.
“Julia altagracia maría Teresa Álvarez Tavares Perello Espaillat
eth•ni•ci•ty
(eth ni> s@ t7) n., belonging
to a racial, cultural, or national
group
CLOSE RE AD
Use Reading Skills
Author’s Purpose Compare
the anecdotes about the two
sisters’ names. What point do
you think the author is
making?
spec•i•fy (spe> s@ f8<) v.,
state explicitly
3. Third World. Developing countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia
4. sarapes (s@ r5> p7s). Woolen shawls or ponchos (Spanish)
5. Portoriko. Puerto Rico
NamES/NOmbrES
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