Julia Alvarez's personal story/essay "Names/Nombres" details her experience of having to maintain her Dominican heritage and the American identity she had adopted in her new country. This story reveals some of her dilemma in maintaining her identity even at times when she don't feel like.
The passage given in the question shows the influence of her family or rather Dominican culture when they had to come to her school occasions. Her Dominican heritage was most apparent at these events, especially her graduation ceremony where almost all of her extended family had come to witness the historic event in their family. She had commented on how they were all so engrossed within themselves that they wouldn't even be able to listen to the word in fast spoken English used by the Americans even though they were seated at the front.
I believe they were walked to the guillotine and told to kneel at the head of it. They would then be executed while people watched. It was brutal in that time.
