This document provides context and analysis of the short story "How to Date a Brown Girl" by Junot Diaz. It includes a plot summary, descriptions of characters like the main character Yunior, analysis of symbols, and biographical information about author Junot Diaz. The document also includes a review criticizing how Diaz represents Latino culture and homogenizes communities. Overall, the document offers backgrounds on the story, its themes of identity and stereotypes, and perspectives on the author's portrayal of these topics.

1. Name:
Fernando Murcia
Camilo Díaz
Leonardo Olaya
Email:
yullmurcia9@hotmail.es
camilod321@gmail.com
le_flow1148@hotmail.com
“HO W TO DATE A B RO WN GIRL (B LAC K GIRL, WHITE GIRL O R
HALFIE)”
PLOT
This short story is about a Dominican-American young boy called Yunior
who is preparing himself to have a date with an unknown black, white or
halfie girl. From the beginning to the end of the narrative, Yunior
explains, or advises, the reader –the story is intended to be read by
Dominican-American boys- on how to have a “successful date”; or in
other words, how to behave properly, depending on your date’s ethnic
background, to have sex with them. In that sense, this story deals with
several topics like identity, ethnics and stereotypes.
CHARACTERS
Yunior: The main character of the story is a young boy named Yunior.
Yunior is a Dominican boy who presumably had to immigrate to the U.S.A
with his family. In the story he doesn’t seem proud about his actual
social, ethnical and economical condition, so he tries to hide any kind of
element that may reveal his identity or the place he belongs to. Yunior
takes part in the story as a character and as narrator of the story, too.

2. IMAGERY/SYMBOLS
The story has different and very uncommon symbols but once you know
the context in which the story was written you can understand better
those elements.
Government cheese: This kind of cheese is a processed meal that was
provided by the U.S. government during several years as a mean of
social assistance. In that sense, this food not only represents Yunior’s
family alimentary preferences but it represents its social status. Yunior’s
family was a poor family that was a beneficiary of Social Security.
Photo showing Yunior’s childhood : This photo becomes an important
symbol because it contains elements that reveal Yunior’s past and
identity. The elements portrayed in the photo -described in the text- like
the “campo”, the half-naked kids, the goat, the rope leash, permit the
reader to know what the background of Yunior’s life is; those elements
make the reader to realize that Yunior comes from a very humble family
and context.
Neighborhood: the way in which the neighborhood is represented is a
way to represent the “ghetto”. A ghetto is a part of a city in which
members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or
economic pressure.
Hair: it represents different qualities people in different contexts have.
“Run a hand through your hair like the whiteboys do”. It is referring to
the characteristic of people in another place; in this case I believe he is
contrasting white’s people hair with his own type of hair.

3. GLOSSARY
Government cheese: Cheese provided by the U.S. government to poor
people.
Society Hill: A well-recognized place in Philadelphia.
My hair is Africa: Curly hair, it makes reference to people from Africa.
Out-of-towners: Visitors. People from outside
Halfie: hot and sexy woman.
Mutts: Dangerous dogs.
Uncle Tomming: Black men who will do anything to stay in good standing with
"the white Man" including betraying his own people.
THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIME
The author of “How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl or halfie)”
is the Dominican-American writer, novelist and professor Junot Diaz.
Diaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on December 31,
1968 and he lived there with his mom and grandparents till he was 6
years old and he had to immigrate to the United States to re-unite with

4. his father. Diaz settled in Palin, New Jersey, where he started his
academic and, later, his literary career.
Despite the fact this novelist is better known for his work on fiction
literature -he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction on 2008 for his
novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”- he is better recognized
for his short stories collection Drown. Diaz is also recognized as an
activist of
REVIEW
“My dislike for Junot Diaz stems from my larger problems with how literature is
presented from “Latino” culture. (…) Diaz is speaking from personal
experience, but he is attempting to bring you directly into his experience. (…)
We can safely assume that this is a poor neighborhood in the late 60s or 70s –
with the mention of government cheese and “the Movement.” (…) Junot Diaz
goes further in homogenizing his own community, and people will unfortunately
follow his lead, thus ignore some of the deeper and more troubling issues all
community and individuals face (…) ”
Isabalino Anastacio Guzman
Connotation
Díaz has been active in a number of community organizations in New
York City, from Pro-Libertad, to the Communist Dominican Workers'
Party (Partido de los Trabajadores Dominicanos), and the Unión de
Jóvenes Dominicanos (lit. "Dominican Youth Union"). He has been critical
of immigration policy in the United States. With fellow author Edwidge
Danticat, Díaz published an op-ed piece in The New York
Times condemning the illegal deportation of Haitians and Haitian
Dominicans by the Dominican government. After outwardly critiquing the
revoking of citizenship for Haitian-Dominicans, Dominican officials
lambasted the writer.

5. Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junot_D%C3%ADaz#Early_years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Date_a_Brown_Girl_(Black_Girl,_White_Girl,
_or_Halfie)
http://isabalinoanastasioguzman.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/junot-diaz-specifically-
how-to-date-a-browngirl/
Worksheet
1. Read the questions about the text and answer.
 What do you think is the purpose of exposing this kind of story? Is it the
purpose of the author to give advice on dating and to categorize people
depending on their ethnical features? Or to criticize that way of thinking?
 What do you think about Yunior’s advices on how to date a girl? Do you
think dating has to do with ethnical issues? Or Does anyone have the
possibility of dating any kind of girl or boy?
 In our context. How would you categorize the different kinds of girls or
boy in your country?

6. The following images can be used to illustrate the girls who are described in
the story:
BROWN GIRL BLACK GIRL
WHITE GIRL HALFIE GIRL