The author's word choice gives the reader insight into the dialect of the speaker. The written pronunciation of some words show what the character would sound like speaking, which gives an indication of where they are from or what they're like.
Answer and Explanation:
After reading the essay "Names nombres" written by J. Alvarez, we can learn how difficult it is for a family of Spanish origin to maintain their names and traditions within a totally different culture like that of the USA, especially when that family comes from a country considered to be "third world", seen as inferior and often shameful and devalued. This affected the way Alvarez saw her own identity, associated with her and her family names. These names were pronounced so differently by the Americans, it seemed that they were erasing the Latin origin of it and imposing an Americanized and more "normal" version.
In this essay, Alvarez approaches her youth as a Latin immigrant in the USA. It shows how difficult it is to live between two cultures and how it affects various elements in people's lives.
The quint- prefix means 5, so five babies.
Can you explain with a little more details?