Miss America Contest
The average weight for a Miss America contest winner is 121 pounds. The average woman’s weight is 166 pounds. This contest creates unrealistic images of what a beautiful American woman is supposed to look like. This was the case for the Alvarez sisters. They saw the pretty, blonde haired, blue eyed white girls from the Miss America contest and tried to be like them so they could fit in and be accepted by their peers. On top of that, their parents wouldn’t allow them to be the All American Girl they longed to become.
The Alvarez sisters saw the Miss America contestants who were tall and fair with long sleek hair. This was the opposite of the Alvarez sisters. The article states, “...how short we were, about how our hair frizzed…” The Alvarez
sisters were short, brown girls with long, frizzy curls. They had hairy legs and bushy eyebrows. This obviously wasn't the look they were going for, so they did what they could to look less Dominican and more American.
The sisters wanted so bad to “look as if [they] belonged.” They lived in a mostly white neighborhood, with them being the only Hispanics. According to the article, “Teachers and classmates at the local Catholic referred to us as ‘Porto Ricans’ or ‘Spanish.’ No one knew where the Dominican Republic was on the map.” They made the Dominican Republic sound like somewhere people would want to go, instead of a Third World Country. The sisters wanted to look like their classmates too. “So we’d painstakingly rolled our long, curly hair round and round, ironing it until we had long, shining shanks, like our classmates and the contestants, only darker.
Mrs. Alvarez wasn't supportive of her daughters’ desires. She wouldn’t let her daughters shave or wear the clothes they wanted. The article says when the sisters wore clothes they likes that she would say “You’re going to wear that in public!” When they begged her to let them shave, she would say, “[they] had long lives ahead of [them] in which to shave.” And their father didn't even acknowledge their desire. The article states “...[he] would say absently that we looked beautiful.”
In 2017 America, immigrants are not welcome. I do not know if it’s xenophobia, nationalism. Immigrants today feel the same way immigrants from 1964 felt. The Alvarez sister were one of those immigrants. They love being in American, but feel as though they will never belong. “Life is alright in America, if your all-white in America.”
The Alvarez sisters saw the Miss America contestants who were tall and fair with long sleek hair. This was the opposite of the Alvarez sisters. The article states, “...how short we were, about how our hair frizzed…” The Alvarez
sisters were short, brown girls with long, frizzy curls. They had hairy legs and bushy eyebrows. This obviously wasn't the look they were going for, so they did what they could to look less Dominican and more American.
The sisters wanted so bad to “look as if [they] belonged.” They lived in a mostly white neighborhood, with them being the only Hispanics. According to the article, “Teachers and classmates at the local Catholic referred to us as ‘Porto Ricans’ or ‘Spanish.’ No one knew where the Dominican Republic was on the map.” They made the Dominican Republic sound like somewhere people would want to go, instead of a Third World Country. The sisters wanted to look like their classmates too. “So we’d painstakingly rolled our long, curly hair round and round, ironing it until we had long, shining shanks, like our classmates and the contestants, only darker.
Mrs. Alvarez wasn't supportive of her daughters’ desires. She wouldn’t let her daughters shave or wear the clothes they wanted. The article says when the sisters wore clothes they likes that she would say “You’re going to wear that in public!” When they begged her to let them shave, she would say, “[they] had long lives ahead of [them] in which to shave.” And their father didn't even acknowledge their desire. The article states “...[he] would say absently that we looked beautiful.”
In 2017 America, immigrants are not welcome. I do not know if it’s xenophobia, nationalism. Immigrants today feel the same way immigrants from 1964 felt. The Alvarez sister were one of those immigrants. They love being in American, but feel as though they will never belong. “Life is alright in America, if your all-white in America.”