In the Time of the Butterflies-Julia Alvarez

Discussion Questions

In the Time of Butterflies

            Minerva, Patria and María Teresa

 Mirabal

1. Although she does not reveal the details, Alvarez lets us know from the start that the novel will end tragically. Why do you think she made this choice?
2. How do the sisters differ in personality, goals and self-expression? How does Alvarez dramatize these differences?
3. How does the Trujillo regime portray itself? What means does it use to build a positive public image?
4. How does this police state control its citizens? How do its methods develop over the course of the novel?
5. What kinds of violence are directed against women both politically and socially? How do these forms of violence connect to the experiences of the men?
6. Turning again to the men in the book.  Does the father make you feel sympathetic or judgemental? Do your feelings change as the book progresses?  Is Jaimito a good man or not?  
7. Alvarez has said, "You can get rid of a dictator, but it's much harder to get rid of a dictator mentality!" How is the figure of el Jefe internalized and particularized by the male characters, even those who are in opposition to the regime? 
8. What events radicalize each sister? What personal commitments and feelings complicate the commitment to political activism for them?
9. What groups or institutions offer significant support or resistance to Trujillo both within and beyond the borders of the Dominican Republic?
10. This novel has been called polyphonic in that it contains many voices rather than a single narrator’s. How many voices and kinds of writing can you track as you read? How do these multiple voices connect with the themes of the novel?
11. This novel can also be seen as an example of resistance literature. How does Alvarez’s choice of subject and Dede’s later life, as the keeper of her sisters’ history, become a form of opposition to tyranny?
12. Readers of this novel have connected Maria Teresa’s sections with The Diary of Anne Frank. How do the content and form of these two works express similar themes and approaches to writing?
13. Alvarez brings in many legends and sayings from traditional Dominican culture. What values do these sayings express?
14. Dreams play an important role in the novel. What are some of the dreams and how do they relate to reality?
15. The anacahuita tree and the moon are recurring images in the novel. When do they appear and how do they contribute to the narrative?
16. Does it bother you that the sisters Alvarez created might not be exact duplicates of the historical Mirabals?  Dede has said that some details Alvarez invented or learned from someone else, but that she loved the novel because Alvarez "captured the spirit of the Mirabel sisters."  Does the book encourage you to want to know more about the historical figures depicted, the reign of Rafael Trujillo, this time period in Hispanic-Caribbean history? 
17. The United Nations has declared November 25, the day of the Maribal's murder, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (http://www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/).  It marks the first day of the international movement "16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence" which ends on Human Rights Day, December 10th.  Should writers be writing to change the world?  What is the role of an author's politics in a novel?  Does politics have any place in fiction?
18. Given the current debate and divisions in the United States (and around the world) over the issue of refugees seeking asylum from violence in their homes and home countries, what can readers learn about this global issue in light of the story told in this novel? 

Stamp featuring the Mirabal sisters

(Doña Dede with niece Dominican Congresswoman Minou Mirabal)

Adela Mirabal, better known in her native Dominican Republic as Doña Dede, died Saturday, February, 1, 2014 of pulmonary complications at a hospital in Santo Domingo. She was 88. Doña Dede was the last surviving of four sisters known as the butterflies that fought to overthrow one of the most blood-thrust dictators in Latin America. On November 25, 1960, three of the four Mirabal sisters were killed by the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, setting up an uproar in the country that ultimately led to the assassination of the dictator in May 30, 1961.

The story of the Mirabal sisters has been told numerous times. Notable American-Dominican author Julia Alvarez told their story in her 1994 best-selling novel In the Time of the Butterflies. This novel was the basis for the 2001 film of the same name, starring Salma Hayek, Edward James Olmos, and Marc Anthony. In 2010, Michelle Rodriguez starred in Tropico de Sangre, another film depicting the lives of the Dominican heroines. In 2009, Chilean film maker Cecilia Domeyko also produced a documentary of the Mirabal Sisters. In the documentary, Code Name: Butterflies, filmmaker Domeyko interviews family, personalities and friends that give a recount of the lives of the deceased sisters and their movement to restore democracy in the Dominican Republic. In 1999, the sisters received recognition by the United Nations General Assembly, who designated November 25, the day the sisters were killed, as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The province of Salcedo in the Dominican Republic, where the sisters were born and lived until they died, has been renamed Hermanas Mirabal, in honor of the sisters.

Born on February 29, 1925 to a middle class family in the small province of Salcedo, in the Dominican Republic, Doña Dede was the second child of four sisters. Unlike her sisters, she never attended college, and took instead a more traditional homemaker role, including helping to run the family business in agriculture and cattle. She married and had three children, one of which, Jaime David Fernandez, is the current Minister for Environment and Natural Resources and former vice president of the Dominican Republic.

Julia Alvarez 25th Anniversary In the Time of Butterflies interview https://youtu.be/0kDhCm_ySAU