Julia Alvarez Biography

Contrary to popular belief, there are many successful people with English degrees from A-List Hollywood stars to directors, CEO’s and politicians. I did not chose one of those people despite their very direct ways of influencing lots of people. I chose Julia Alvarez, a Dominican American author and poet. She received her Masters Degree in Creative Writing in 1975. Julia Alvarez is a writer by passion and drive and a leader as a side effect. Her writings are of international acclaim. Her most famous works include How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies. Julia Alvarez is everything I aspire to be and far more influential than I could ever hope to be.

My favorite quote from Julia Alvarez does not come from

either a poem or a book. My favorite quote comes from an interview conducted at Vanderbilt University in 2012 by Megan Myers for the Afro-Hispanic Review. When prompted on why she felt the need to say “yes” to Piti, a character in her self called “us- moir” A Wedding in Haiti, Alvarez responded “I think of it as having to earn that ‘e’ at the end of human in order to be a humane human being.” I find that seeking to “earn that ‘e’” is a very important characteristic of any good leader. Without humanity, we would all just be animals.
My personal leadership philosophy is “no matter what strengths they bring to the table, a leader has to be willing to stand up for their beliefs and work with their followers to reach their goal.

A leader’s goal should benefit as many people as possible. A leader cannot gain power without showing respect and trust to those who follow.” The best example of Julia Alvarez meeting the standards of my personal view of leadership is from an excerpt from her autobiographical work Something to Declare. The piece titled “Dona Aida, With Your Permission” is an essay addressing Alvarez’s identity as a Dominican American writer and why she writes predominately in English. Alvarez explains in a very tactful way how her identity was shaped by where she was born (New York City) where she was raised (The Dominican Republic) and where her life was built (The United States) to an older Dominican author, Aida Cartagena Portalatin. Alvarez cites that it is out of respect that she does not write in Spanish, “ a language [she] can speak but [has] not studied deeply enough to craft.” Her words are eloquent yet effective. She stands up for who she is, “a mixed breed,” a “pan-American, a gringa-dominicana, a synthesizing consciousness.” I think a leader should be self-aware and always acknowledge how they have gotten where they are

today.
I do not pretend to have shared any of the struggles Alvarez has faced in her life. She was born in the United States during her “parents’ first and failed stay in the United States…[with them] preferring the dictatorship of Trujillo to the U.S.A. of the early 50s” (Alvarez, 2003). I am a Southern raised millennial white girl. I lived in the same town from birth until college. I was never discriminated against for who I am or where I was from until I was too old to care what anyone thought of my southern drawl. I do share some core values with Julia Alvarez though. I believe in the importance of autonomy, education, feminism and the power of words. I think we should all seek to be humane human beings. I take great value in individual identities and self-representation, two reoccurring themes in Alvarez writings.
In addition to shared values, I like to think that Julia Alvarez and I share a few strengths as well. My top strengths are input, intellection, context, restorative, and learner. As a teacher and an author, Julia Alvarez must share at least a few of these with me. I hold out on this hope that those who teach are those who love to learn and who love to share the knowledge they have found with others. One look at Julia Alvarez’s resume shows a dedication to helping others learn the beauty of writing. Another glance at her resume reflects a great collection of novels, poems, essays and awards, making Julia Alvarez a likely holder of the Input strength too. Intellection is another strength I share with Julia. One cannot write about life without first doing a little introspection and being open to new ideas and theories. In the Time of the Butterflies is a period piece about the dictatorship of Trujillo which reflects another shared strength, context. People with the strength of context appreciate the past and understand the present in relation to history.
I chose to be an English major for the same reason Julia did, I have a passion for words and written language.

Her aspiration was to write, but fell in love with teaching along the way. My dream is to teach, but I fell in love with creative writing along the way. I think my strengths play a big part in my determination to do what I love. Growing up, I was determined that I was going to be a doctor because in my mind that was the only way for me to help others and make my family proud. I had no passion for medicine only the drive to do something good, and then in high school I discovered a passion for the English language that makes me never want to stop learning. Julia Alvarez proves that I can still help people in my chosen field. I can still make a difference. I want to use my intellection and my context and the vast archives of information I store because of my input strength to help shape the minds of future doctors or lawyers or writers or artists or world

leaders.
I aspire to be an author and a poet. I want to teach and be taught. I want the sum of my life experiences to be reflected by my actions and immortalized by my words. We are worlds apart in experience and culture, but Julia Alvarez is the kind of leader I seek to be.