Book Review: In the Time of the Butterflies

November 25, 1960, sisters Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabel are found dead at the bottom of a cliff in the Dominican Republic, along with their driver, after visiting their husbands in prison. The Mirabel sisters, known as las mariposas, the butterflies, are part of an underground political movement to overthrow the dictator, Rafael Trujillo. A fourth sister, Dede, survives to tell their story.

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, tells a fictionalized story of the Mirabel sisters. From their childhood, to their time away at school, from their crushes to marrying the love of their lives, and, eventually, as they become outspoken adults who join the Movement of the Fourteenth of June. The story tells of the sisters, not as legends of a myth, but as genuine, relatable women.

Alvarez introduces the readers to Dede, the sister who survived, and now runs a museum that honors her sisters. She reminisces about their childhood and how close they were. We read Patria’s perspective, the oldest sister who fell in love and started a family at a young age. We read Minerva’s perspective, the first of the sisters to become involved in the political movement, through friends at school, and through her love interests. We read Maria Teresa’s perspective, the youngest sister, as she pours her soul into her diary.

The more we learn of the sister’s lives, the more we understand how they had to do something to protect their beloved country from a truly awful dictator. Minerva befriends a classmate whose family has suffered at the hands of Trujillo. This is the first time that Minerva learns of the damage that the dictator has caused the citizens of the Dominican Republic. As she grows older, Minerva witnesses another classmate become one of Trujillo’s mistresses. Minerva falls in love with Virgilio, a revolutionary who opens her eyes to the injustices of the government, before his outspokenness leads him to flee the country to save his life.

Eventually, Minerva rejects the sexual advancements of Trujillo, and she begins to experience first-hand the wrongs of the dictator. Her father is held prisoner and she is denied her license to practice law. Alvarez continues to tell the story of how the sisters became more involved in the political movement, how they, along with their husbands, make plans and gather supplies to overthrow the dictator, how Minerva and Maria Teresa are eventually imprisoned for their actions. And although I knew the fates of the sisters, I was on the edge of my seat, hoping for the best as Alvarez wrote of their last day, that last trip to visit Minerva and Maria Teresa’s husband in the prison on the road along the dangerous cliffs.    

In her acknowledgements, Alvarez describes her goal to write of real women, not to turn the Mirabel sister’s story into a myth, turning the sisters into legends whose actions are unachievable by ordinary people. Alvarez certainly achieved her goal. Through telling the story through each of the sisters’ perspective, each one become relatable. The reader can connect with the sisters as we too have experienced sibling relationships, becoming friends with our classmates, falling in love, overcoming hardships, no matter how small or big they are.  We can see how the sisters were able to achieve what they did, and how we too, have it in us to fight against inequalities.   

I don’t know much about the politics or history of the Dominican Republic. But I was fascinated to learn about the Mirabel sisters. They are women who saw injustice and fought against it. Their story is inspiring.