Final Garcia Girls

So I just finished the book, and I'm glad to finally find a book in its entirety that I will not be selling back. I love how the historical context of it was so accurate and the fact that we got to follow their impact on real people instead of just reading about it in a history book. I found it really interesting how the tale was told from the future to the past, and I wonder why that was deemed necesary by Alvarez? Why did she feel the need to tell her story this way when it wouldn've been just as effective to tell it chronologically? My belief is that this way, the reader can see exactly the roots that later influenced the girls to act the way they did and become who they did in society. Honestly, I'm going to need to read the book again from the start (or rather the end) to be able to fully understand it. The lines of who is who and what happens when are somewhat blurred (and I wonder is this was the desired effect). Much like the mother would dress her girls in the same colour always and call them all by the same nickname, I found their personality boundaries somewhat blurred as well. They all seem like distinct people when you are reading their own stories, but looking back I can't exactly remember them as different people. It seems like if they are the same sister, going through differnt but similar issues (sorry my computer just erased what I had writtenf rom now on, so i'm going to try to remember what I had said..gah).
Also, I wonder about the haitian cook. It seems weird to me that she would want to be in a coffin every night just to become acustomed to being in that environment when she dies. I hadn't perceived haitian people as very "voodoo" until now, so i find it very compelling to learn more about what exactly they believe in.
Alvarez definetly puts a lot of herself and her life in this book. (I'm doing my wikipedia on her). Right now if anybody were to ask me that cliche question of who I'd like to have lunch with, anybody dead or alive, I'd have to say Alvarez. I'd be curious to know just how much she actually embellished in the story for the sake of a commercial book, or how much is actually true (such as the haitian cook, the "proving you are a girl", and the art lesson story)
Something that was mentioned in class right before we were dismissed was what we though the parents could've possibly done to make 50% of their girls go crazy. I dont think it's the parents fault at all. It is true that we are much influenced by our lives at home, however, the parents only moved the girls for their own protection. I dont think it was a choice as much of a necessity: they probably woudn't have been alive had they stayed. The problems that led the girls to go crazy, consequentially, were thsoe of adjusting to a new life and being pulled like rag dolls from one culture to the other. I believe we all go through issues in our lives, and it's unfair to blame the parents for something that they only did with good intentions when any of us could go mad from what they faced, and we all face every day regardless of having their exact experiences. We all have the need to belong and problems that come with it, therefore I think examining the source of their madness is somewhat insensitive to the people we are to blame.
Looking forward to discussing this book for another week.