Summarize this essay and then react to it. Does she make a clear point and support it with examples? Can you relate to her experience at all?
Alvarez, in her story, talks about a family that has emigrated from the Dominican Republic. In the story she describes how once a year her family would gather together to watch the Miss America pageant. They would have discussions about each model and why or why not a particular model should win. They would also envy the models because the contestant were all white and blue eyed, and that they themselves would not be able to win the competition because they were not “Americans”. Alvarez makes clear points in her story that she supports with example: in one instance Alvarez mentions that the girls want to be like the models, and later she supports that example by saying that the girls would change their looks to try to be like them. “We would have to translate our looks into English, iron and tweeze them out, straighten them, mold them into Made-in-the-U.S.A. beauty.”