The Daughter of Invention

Yoyo’s character is introduced as the “Big Mouth” and the “spokesperson” for her sisters (243). Early on, she advocates for her and her sisters to no longer have to attend a school where they are ostracized for being Dominican. Her first solution to their difficulties at school is just to no longer attend. Laura doesn’t allow this, so Yoyo is left to find her own route to acceptance. Yoyo, short for Yolanda, translates to “I, I” in Spanish, signifying the multiple selves Yoyo must invent in this stage of her life. Part of her is a poet, one that emerges in the evenings when she is alone in her room. This time is written about as a private, special one: “[S]he wrote secret poems in her new language” (245).

Yoyo realizes, though, that mastery of English can help her connect to and succeed within her school environment. If she can’t leave school, she might as well find a place to settle within it. Yoyo “took root in the language” (245). When Yoyo is asked to give the speech on Teacher’s Day, she can no longer remain private with her writing and has to choose between the irreverence and independence of Walt Whitman and the traditional Dominican values of her parents.