How Tia Lola Came to Visit Stay by Julia Alvarez, 2001.

After Miguel Guzman’s parents get divorced, Miguel’s mother moves from New York to a small town in Vermont with Miguel and his sister, Juanita, and invites her favorite aunt from the Dominican Republic, Tia Lola, to come stay with them and help raise the children. Miguel’s mother has gotten a job as a counselor at a small college in the area, and because of the hours she works, she asks her aunt to come and be with the kids. Miguel isn’t enthusiastic about the arrival of this aunt, who has to be called “tia”, the Spanish word for “aunt”, instead of “aunt” because she doesn’t speak English. Miguel and Juanita know some Spanish, but they’re more accustomed to English because they’ve always lived in the US.

The move from New York to Vermont isn’t easy because Miguel misses his father and New York City, and there are no other Latino families in this small town in Vermont, making Miguel feel like he doesn’t fit in. Some of the kids in Vermont don’t even know that Miguel is Latino, mistaking him for being from some other ethnic group or asking him uncomfortable questions about the way he looks and why his skin is darker than everyone else’s. He misses his old friends in New York and still doesn’t understand why his parents couldn’t just stay married instead of turning their lives upside down with this divorce.

When Tia Lola arrives, Miguel can’t think of anything else to say to her in Spanish except “Te quiero mucho” (“I love you a lot”), which is something his parents say to him. He’s a little embarrassed that he can’t think of anything else and that his sister is more bold with her Spanish, but Tia Lola appreciates the message and says that she loves both Miguel and Juanita, too. Miguel isn’t sure at first how long Tia Lola will be staying with them, but he’s astonished at the amount of luggage she’s brought. She says that she didn’t know what she would need in Vermont, so she brought a little of everything. Among her belongings are potions because Tia Lola practices santeria, particularly related to healing. Miguel’s mother explains that Tia Lola is something like a doctor, but with magic. Juanita thinks that sounds exciting, and she can’t wait to tell other kids about her magical aunt when school starts again after the winter break, but Miguel hopes nobody else finds out about Tia Lola.

Miguel thinks that people will think Tia Lola is crazy for thinking that she can do magic and for her other odd habits. The beauty mark on her face tends to change positions because she keeps forgetting where she put it last time. She refuses to even learn English, saying that Spanish is easier, and if Americans are so clever, how come they haven’t realized that? Miguel dreads what the kids at school will say about Tia Lola because they already tease him about other things. They call him “Goose man” because of his last name and quack at him. (Yes, I know geese honk and ducks quack, but the kids apparently don’t.) Miguel knows that the kids are just trying to have fun, but all the teasing makes him feel really uncomfortable, like he’s always going to be an outsider. Tia Lola is a colorful but eccentric character. A couple of boys from the Little League team at school mistake her for a ghost when they drop by the house because she’s dressed oddly and is carrying a brazier for doing one of her spells to rid the house of evil spirits. Apparently, there were already some local rumors about the house being haunted before they moved in, and Miguel lets the other boys believe that they really saw a ghost for awhile because he can’t think how to explain what Tia Lola was actually doing. At first, Miguel hopes that Tia Lola’s visit will just be temporary so no one will find out who Tia Lola really is and tease him about her. However, he gradually becomes fond of her and comes to reconsider himself whether or not Tia Lola’s “magic” really works.

As the family settles into their new home and the children get used to Tia Lola, they have to sort out some problems and learn how to live with each other. When Tia Lola realizes that Miguel seems embarrassed by her, her feelings are hurt, but Miguel finds a way to let her know that he’s glad she came. Miguel loves the stories that Tia Lola tells them about their relatives and legends of the Dominican Republic, like la ciguapa, a story that Miguel puts to his own use. (I love books with references to folklore and legends!) When she finds out that Miguel wants to try out for Little League, she makes special foods for him to help him get stronger. When Miguel turns ten years old, Tia Lola helps to throw a surprise party for Miguel with the boys from Little League. Miguel is relieved when the boys accept Tia Lola and laugh about how they thought she was a ghost.

Tia Lola sometimes gets homesick for the Dominican Republic, but she begins making friends in Vermont, starting with a local restaurant owner who joins her for Spanish lessons and dancing lessons. Tia Lola points out that people can have fun together even when they don’t speak the same language. However, the kids begin giving her English lessons, and she starts to learn some phrases. Her first attempts to speak English in public don’t go well because, while the kids taught her to speak phrases, they didn’t make the meanings of the phrases clear. Tia Lola starts saying the wrong things at the wrong time until they find a way to help her understand what she’s really saying and when to say it.

Through it all, Miguel keeps wishing that, somehow, his parents could magically get back together. In spite of Tia Lola’s “magic”, Miguel’s life and his parents’ marriage don’t return to the way they were before. Everyone’s life changes. Miguel comes to realize that there can be good changes as well as bad, and some of the changes that seemed really bad at first turn out to be better than he thought. Tia Lola is one of the greatest good surprises of them all, and Miguel finds himself hoping that, rather than just staying for a short visit, Tia Lola will stay with them forever.

This book is the first of a series of stories about Tia Lola, and it is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction and Spoilers

There is an interesting element to this story that I didn’t fully appreciate until the second time around. The first time I read this book, I read it in Spanish, the only other language I know with any fluency besides English. When you read the book in English, there are English translations for the Spanish words and phrases that the children use with their aunt. I didn’t need English translations for these phrases because they were pretty simple, but they’re useful for anyone who doesn’t know Spanish or is just a beginner. (By the way, please excuse the fact that I haven’t placed the proper accent marks in the Spanish words. I know where they’re supposed to go, like the ‘i’ in “tia”, but I’ve been having trouble typing them on this keyboard. I can fix that when I figure out what the problem is.)

Because I grew up in the Southwestern US, I took Spanish classes all through school. It’s the most popular foreign language class in Arizona schools because there are people who commonly speak it around here. It’s a very useful skill to have. My speech has always been weaker than my reading ability because of the way classes are taught, and my speech practice has been irregular. I often read children’s books in Spanish to keep my vocabulary sharp, but when I try to speak, I’m often slow. In some ways, I understand how both Miguel and Tia Lola feel, trying to communicate when you’re still learning and you have an imperfect understanding of another language. One of the things I liked about this story is that it shows how it’s okay to start with an imperfect knowledge. In my experience, if you know some of another language, the other person will try to help you and meet you halfway. Even if you don’t say everything exactly right or you’re slow and clumsy, you can still find a way to get your point across, and the more you practice, the more you improve.

Miguel and Tia Lola go through that same process, starting out with communicating imperfectly and learning to meet each other halfway, not just with language but with learning to live together as family. Miguel’s mother says, “The easiest language to learn but the hardest to speak is mutual understanding.” Tia Lola seems to have a kind of magic about her, not the fairy tale kind, but the kind that comes from having a unique way of looking at things and from understanding people. She doesn’t magically have all of the answers, she makes embarrassing mistakes sometimes, and she can’t fix Miguel’s parents’ marriage, but she makes life better for the family by being there and caring.

When Miguel’s father finds out that Tia Lola is staying with them, he likes the idea because Tia Lola will help the children improve their Spanish, something that he also wants. Miguel confides his initial worries about Tia Lola and what the other kids will say about her to his father over the phone. Miguel’s father tells him that, if he is proud of himself and proud of his family, he shouldn’t care what other people think. It’s easier said than done with the other kids at school teasing Miguel all the time. Miguel’s father says that he’ll understand evenutally and also that accepting other people for who they are helps them become the best versions of themselves they can be. Miguel thinks about what his father has told him before about the harmful effects of stereotypes because people make unfair assumptions about other and the things other people have assumed about him because of his background. One kid at school told him that he was bound to make the Little League because his family is from the Dominican Republic, like his baseball hero Sammy Sosa, and that baseball must be in his blood, but Miguel knows that’s just a stereotype. Miguel’s father tells him that his skills at baseball are his own, not due to being from the Dominican Republic, and if he makes the team, it will be because his skills are good and he worked to develop them. It makes Miguel think about some of the things he’s been assuming unfairly about Tia Lola and what she’s like, and he begins looking at her in a different way.

The book ends at Christmas, one year after Miguel’s parents separated, they moved to Vermont, and Tia Lola came to stay with them. Miguel and his mother and sister accompany Tia Lola on a visit to the Dominican Republic, where he meets his other relatives and sees what Tia Lola’s original home is like. There, he makes it clear to her that he wants her to come stay with his family in Vermont permanently, and she decides that she wants to keep living with them, too.