How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Lesson Plan

What is the significance of the fact that Mami speaks to the girls in English when she is angry with them, and that Yolanda writes her poetry in English?

Both of them are trying to assimilate to American culture and society. For the mother, English is a way of being accepted into American society, and she uses it to model for her girls during their most difficult interactions that they will have to accept the language of their new home. For Yolanda, writing in English is a way of understanding American society, where she has been ostracized and made to feel like an outsider. (Any students for whom English is not their original language could be asked when their parents...