The Butterflies

Julia Alvarez has said that one of the things that interested her while she was writing the novel was the question, ‘What politicizes a person? What makes a revolutionary risk everything for a certain cause? Alvarez has also said that one of the things she learned that what politicizes each person is different, and surprisingly, it’s not always a big idealistic cause or idea. What do you think ultimately politicizes the Mirabal sisters, including, ultimately, Dedé?

 

As the readers learn early on in Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies—and as those who knew them in life likely knew as well—each of the Mirabal sisters is immensely different in their approach to encountering the world, despite the subtle similarities that exist between them. It is not surprising, then, that the changes that Patria, Minerva, Dedé and Mate undergo are equally as based in varying motivating factors.  In class on Friday, we talked about these changes, and what in particular inspired each girl to make the decisions that she did.  Ultimately, in response to the above question, I would argue that the same motivating factors for change are what politicized each of the sisters, respectively.

Let’s start with Minerva: Minerva, as she is portrayed in the book, is the rebel-at-heart, the front line fighter, the face of the fight.  Despite the fact that her efforts are clearly targeted at the Trujillo regime, Minerva’s actions are largely based on principle.  Even in the first scene of the book that takes places prior to 1994, her resolve and unorthodox perspective is demonstrated in the words exchanged between her and Mama:

“Ay dios mio, spare me.” Mama sighs, but playfulness has come back into her voice. “Just what we need, skirts in the law.”

“It is just what this country needs.”  Minerva’s voice has the steely sureness it gets whenever she talks politics…. “It’s about time we women had a voice in running our country” (10).

She is, without a doubt, the revolutionary of the sisters.

Mate¸ who is, on the surface, the most similar to Minerva in actions, is not as much of a true rebel by nature.  As was discussed in class, Mate is inspired by people—as the youngest of the four girls, she looks up to her big sisters, Minerva in particular—and always has that curiosity and eagerness to be involved with what is going on. It is, therefore, Minerva’s involvement in the resistance movement that brings Mate into it—that politicizes her, so to speak.  But Mate, who outwardly seems the most influenced by the ideas of falling in love, of flirting and seeking out men, is also intrigued and pulled in by Leandro, who becomes her husband.  When he arrives at her apartment for the first time, she is taken.  Like with Minerva, Mate wants to be involved in whatever it is that he is taking part in, as she shows, saying after his first departure, “I didn’t know what us he was talking about, but I knew right then and there, I wanted to be a part of whatever it was” (142).

Mate is, in a sense, the impressionable of the four.

Patria is politicized and motivated by events, direct occurrences that she witnesses first hand.  While, again, Minerva might have been willing to fight for any cause she believed in or that was opposing the institution, Patria truly buys into her role after witnessing the brutal murder of a young boy in the mountains.  She has gone on a retreat with other members of her family when a horrific scene unfolds, as bombing and gunfire breaks out and a young boy is killed right in front her.  After this, Patria is changed.  She narrates, “Coming down the mountain, I was a changed woman. I may have worn the same sweet face, but now I was carrying not just my child but that dead boy as well…I’m not going to sit back and watch my babies die, Lord, even if that’s what You in Your great wisdom decide” (162).  For Patria, her resistance efforts are personal, and motivated by how her personal losses are mirrored by the losses to Trujillo’s regime.

Patria is the avenger—she is fighting this particular battle..

And then there is Dedé. Her politicization is much more difficult to describe, because her involvement with the resistance was so much more indirect.  Ultimately, she is involved because of her family; while her husband prohibits her from going along with her sisters, she is always with them in spirit and facilitating their ability to be active.  Again, as we discussed, if Dedé had not been so available to take care of her sister’s children and other affairs, they might have been less available to dedicate so much of their energy to their political efforts.

Dedé, then, is the lover—it is her deep, abiding love for her sisters that carries her in, through, and ultimately beyond the reign of Trujillo and the havoc wrought under his rule.  And, despite the fact that it takes a full thirty years before Dedé embraces the importance of her role as the storyteller, her persistence and dedication to the memory of her sisters say is a testament to her love for them.