Historical adaptations, both fiction and reality-based, have always been a favorite genre of mine. From shows like “Downton Abbey” to modern adaptations like “SIX,” the reflections of past worlds and nations are always a joy to submerge myself in. Hispanic and Latino literature is also a phenomenal genre, with greats like Isabel Allende and Julia Alvarez. Today, we will be diving into one of my favorite books at the intersection of these worlds: “In The Time Of The Butterflies” by Julia Alvarez.
A somewhat fictionalized version of a true story, this book follows four sisters in the Dominican Republic. It is set in the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, a brutal ruler of the country from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He killed many innocent Dominicans and Haitians, leaving his bloody mark on history.
The book opens with Dedé, one of the four sisters, telling her family’s story to an interviewer. When we meet her, she is the only sister still living and is telling her story to ensure that it is remembered, that her family is remembered, and that they are remembered not just as heroes, but more importantly, as people.
Every chapter is told from one of the sisters’ points of view, making it incredibly rich and giving us powerful insight into each of the characters. Each narrator also has a very unique voice. For example, the youngest sister, Maria Teresa, tells her story through diary entries.
Minerva, Dedé’s younger sister, is a justice-oriented person and starts to secretly attend resistance meetings, hoping to overthrow the dictator. She was set on this path when she met a classmate, Sinita, who lost all her male relatives to the regime. The eldest sister, Patria, takes the longest to join the fight against the regime and is very religious. She wanted to become a nun, but eventually decided on a more traditional family path. Throughout the story, we learn that she bears two children, but miscarries her third, which she believes is her divine punishment for not becoming a nun.
Next, we meet Virgilio Morales, who becomes a key member of the resistance and Minerva’s lover. It is around this point in the chronology that Dedé decides she wants to join the cause, but ultimately backs out to protect her children. This is also the start of a love triangle, with Virgilio wanting Minerva and Dedé wanting Virgilio. As I read this book, I truly felt so invested in what was to come next and was very immersed in this world.
The sisters meet Trujillo in person many times over the course of their story, due to their family’s social status, and he develops a desire for Minerva that she refuses. One of these meetings is during a party that the four sisters attend, and it is during this party that Trujillo discovers that Minerva is part of the resistance because she accidentally forgot her purse, which contained evidence and causes her father to go to jail.
Many years later, Patria attends a religious retreat in the mountains, during which the regime bombs the area to kill any members of the resistance, and soldiers kill revolutionaries, including a boy the same age as her son, Nelson. This causes her and Minerva to work together to overthrow Trujillo. It is this sequence of events—in addition to Maria Teresa falling in love with a man in the resistance movement—that leads her to join it.
The book ends with Dedé deciding to join the revolution, followed by Trujillo’s secret police arresting many of the side characters in the book and even Minerva and Maria Teresa. Eventually, they are released, and we end with the three revolutionary sisters in a car driving along a mountain road during a storm to get back from the prison. The car, we learn, fell off the cliff and into the ocean, killing the girls and the driver. The book leaves no doubt about that. Trujillo was behind their accident, and it was not some random event, but a planned murder.
This is an absolutely beautiful, inspiring book that describes these revolutionaries perfectly. Because of—not in spite of—their femininity and feminism, they were able to disrupt a powerful dictatorship, showing that every small action really can make a difference.
