My Dominican heritage was never more apparent than when my extended the family attended school occasions. For my graduation, they all came, the whole lot of aunts and uncles and the many little cousins who snuck in without tickets. They sat in the first row in order to better understand the Americans' fast-spoken English. But how could they listen when they were constantly speaking among themselves in florid­sounding phrases, rococo consonants, rich, rhyming vowels?

Which influence does Alvarez write about in this passage?

popular culture
her culture
her friends
her neighbors