Julia Alvarez: Hello, my name is Julia Alvarez, but until I was 10 and came to the United States, my name was Julia Alvarez. In Spanish, it's very popular to give kids several middle names, so really my name was Julia Antagracia Maria Theresa Alvarez. Back then, in the Dominican Republic where I'm from, in legal documents, you kept all your last names for four generations on your father's side and your mother's side, so my whole official name was Julia Antagracia Maria Theresa Alvarez Tovarez Pereos Esteban Julia Georgette Gonzalez.

When we got to this country, my new American friends would get a kick out of hearing me rattle them off. "Say your whole name! Say your whole name," they'd ask. Sometimes now, people ask me if I get insulted that here in the USA I became Julia Alvarez, and I said, "Good grief. It's a relief not to have to carry so many names around, but if you insist, you may call me Julia Antagracia Maria Theresa Alvarez Tovarez Pereos Esteban Julia Perez Georgette Gonzalez, or Julia Alvarez for short."

Of course, since I'm Dominican-American, half and half, it's always nice to have it both ways. My short American name pronounced the Spanish way, Julia Alvarez.