Julia+Alvarez+(Anna)

Alvarez rose to prominence with the novels //How the García Girls Lost Their Accents// (1991), //In the Time of the Butterflies// (1994), and //¡Yo!// (1997). Her publications as a poet include //The Housekeeping Book// (1984) and //The Woman I Kept to Myself// (2004), and as an essayist the autobiographical compilation //Something to Declare// (1998). Many commentators regard her to be one of the most significant Latina writers, and she has achieved critical and commercial success on an international scale. Many of Alvarez's works are influenced by her own personal experience as a Dominican in United States, and focus heavily on issues of assimilation and identity. Her diverse cultural upbringing as both a Dominican and an American is evident in the combination of personal and political tone in her writing. She is known for works that examine cultural expectations of women both in the Dominican Republic and the USA, and for rigorous investigations of cultural stereotypes. In recent years, Alvarez has expanded her subject matter with works such as //In the Name of Salome// (2000), a novel with Cuban rather than solely Dominican characters and fictionalized versions of real historical figures. [] [] 
 * Julia Alvarez ** (born March 27, 1950) is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Born in New York of Dominican descent, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country.