In this case, the author is communicating by using Spanish that monolingual English-speaking readers may not understand. For some readers, she's communicating the feeling that we're missing something, and that works for me. (I am missing things -- cultural nuances, memories of similar experiences, a whole lot of things that other readers may not be missing. It's a reminder that I'm reading from a distance.) If it doesn't work for you, that's unfortunate, but what you're arguing feels to me like saying Tolkien writes badly because you have difficulty with archaic language. That's a valid reason not to read Tolkien, but it's a feature, not a bug.
Anyway -- I don't think there's anything wrong with writing specifically for a bilingual English and Spanish speaking audience, but Alvarez isn't an example of that. I don't speak any Spanish and I haven't had trouble understanding her books. Sometimes I skip over a phrase (or look it up, which I have done successfully with Google), but I used to do that all the time when I was 8 and still learning a lot of the less common English words. (Which many authors use without regard for the parts of their audience who will have difficulty with them, because while they may not be transparent to every person who reads English-language novels, they add something to the text.)
no subject
Anyway -- I don't think there's anything wrong with writing specifically for a bilingual English and Spanish speaking audience, but Alvarez isn't an example of that. I don't speak any Spanish and I haven't had trouble understanding her books. Sometimes I skip over a phrase (or look it up, which I have done successfully with Google), but I used to do that all the time when I was 8 and still learning a lot of the less common English words. (Which many authors use without regard for the parts of their audience who will have difficulty with them, because while they may not be transparent to every person who reads English-language novels, they add something to the text.)