Collecting Butterflies: Julia Alvarez's Revision of North American Collective Memory

Author(s): Steve Criniti

Source: Modern Language Studies , Winter, 2007, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Winter, 2007), pp. 42-63
Published by: Modern Language Studies

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27647894

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tice
I. Late in the summer of I960, back
the home
Alvarez famin the Dominican
Three
ily arrived in New York from thebeautiful
Dominican young women, who
members
Republic. A young Julia, a mere of the
ten years old same revolution
at the time, could not understand
ment asthe reasons
Alvarez's father, and their d
been
for the move and, naturally, brutally
wanted murdered. According t
to return
home. What she did not knowthis
at incident ? the horror of wh
the time was
that her father had been involved in an under
seemingly cowardly Trujillo would do
girls that
ground resistance movement ? incited more national an
vocally
opposed the Dominican Trujillo's
dictator,other
Rafaelcrimes. As Bernard
Le?nidas Trujillo. Her fatherputs it,
fled, "It did
with his something
fam to their m
They could
ily, to the United States because never
his life andforgive Trujillo
the lives of his family werecrime" (71-72).
in grave danger.As many Dominica
Just four months after the Alvarez it,
remember family's
the killing of the Mirab
arrival in New York, the news broke ? Alvarez
on November 25, I960, marked the
remembers her father holdingof thea end
Time for Trujillo, who would
maga
zine containing the story ? nated less than
of a terrible a year later.
injus

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 It is this story ? the story of Minerva,
Patria, and Maria Teresa Mirabal, the legendary But as happens with any story the charac
revolutionary sisters also called Las Mariposas ters took over, beyond polemics and
(the butterflies), their underground code facts. They became real to my imagina
name ? that Alvarez tells in In the Time of the tion. I began to invent them. And so it is
Butterflies. The murdered Mirabal sisters are that what you find in these pages are not
the stuff of legend in the Dominican Republic, the Mirabal sisters of fact, or even the
and in fact November 25, the day of their mur Mirabal sisters of legend.... So what you
der, has been celebrated as the International will find here are the Mirabal sisters of my
Day Against Violence Toward Women. creation, made up but, I hope, true to the
However, as obvious as the novel's grounding spirit of the Mirabais. (323-24)
in history is, it is equally unclear how much
documentary evidence Alvarez actually incor Alvarez, then, moves on to outline her objec
porates. Obviously, she could not know the tives in writing the book ? something of a
inner thoughts of the characters, which com taboo for serious authors. The first of two pri
prise a large portion of the novel, but outside mary objectives is to humanize the legendary
of that, her level of "accuracy" is difficult to sisters, because "by making them myth, we
verify. The fact of the matter is that despite lost the Mirabais once more, dismissing the
their status as legend (and therefore we must challenge of their courage as impossible for
assume that the story is largely passed on us, ordinary men and women" (324). Finally,
orally) not much documented material is avail her second major objective is to "bring
able regarding the Mirabais, especially not in acquaintance of these famous sisters to
English.1 There are two Spanish-language texts English-speaking readers" (324). She finishes
about the Mirabais that Alvarez acknowledges by addressing her Dominican readers saying,
as sources: William Galv?n's biography of "I hope this book deepens North Americans'
Minerva Mirabal and Ram?n Alberto Ferreras's understanding of the nightmare you endured
historical novel Las Mirabal.1 There is also a and the heavy losses you suffered ? of which
book by Miguel Aquino Garc?a, Tres Hero?nas this story tells only a few" (324).
y un Tirano, that acts as something of a This controversial declaration ? uttered
response to Alvarez's novel. Although Alvarez not in an interview but appended directly to
could not have referenced it, Tres Hero?nas the book itself ? has fueled desire on the
also clearly contains information about the part of the first wave of critics to judge, fairly
Mirabais. However, for English speakers there or unfairly, the book's success on whether or
remains essentially no way to access any docu not she fulfills the objectives in this
mentary information regarding the lives and Postscript: whether or not she is justified in
actions of the Mirabal sisters. They remain invoking her novelistic license to eschew
almost completely inaccessible to English accuracy and whether or not her stated objec
speaking North Americans. tives are met in the book.3 Certainly, not every
Other than these few Spanish-language criticism or praise of the novel stems from the
texts, we have only Alvarez's own "Postscript," Postscript, but, clearly, the Postscript has been
constituting the last three pages of the text, as problematic for a good number of readers.
evidence of her level of historical "accuracy." However, there is one major element of that
In that Postscript, she mentions this issue of pesky Postscript that most critics fail to con
accuracy: sider fully: the fact that the novel is written for

4 4 i I T il ? ! I S 3 6.2

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 English speakers, presumably in the United tive text, I merely intend to highlight several
States. It is telling that even in her address basic concepts necessary for my reading of
directly to Dominican readers in the Alvarez's novel.5 The first such concept is that
Postscript, Alvarez continues to keep English memory "is not a passive receptacle, but
speaking North Americans as the primary instead a process of active restructuring, in
focus of her purpose. In short, she is telling which elements may be retained, reordered,
Dominican readers outright, not in so many or suppressed" (40). Because memory is an
words, "this book is not for you." Therefore, active process of restructuring, it becomes
the criticisms of Alvarez as complicit in patri clear that that restructuring is strategic.
archal Dominican nation building, as inaccu Memory, then, is a kind of self-presentation in
rately representing the Dominican collective, which we decide, from the vantage of our
or as reifying Dominican women's domestic present self, how we would like to present our
identities, though not to be disregarded alto past self and the events contributing thereto.
gether, should at least be tempered by the This brings us to the second necessary
fact that Alvarez is not necessarily even writ concept: that events constituting collective
ing for Dominicans.4 memory "tend to be remembered in the first
In fact, it is my argument that she is not place because of their power to legitimize the
even attempting to represent or challenge thepresent, and tend to be interpreted in ways
Dominican collective at all; rather, she is lev
that very closely parallel (often competing)
eling her novelistic critiques of collective present conceptions of the world" (Fentress
memory and its creation at the United States' 88). Our notion of the present leads us to
collective memory of the Dominican shape the past in ways that legitimize what we
Republic, or lack thereof, as it were. In her have become, in ways that justify our present
novel, Alvarez is addressing the inadequacy of conception of ourselves. Finally, those with
North American collective memory regarding the most power in the present, due to their
the history of the Dominican Republic and need to legitimize their current wielding of
the United States' involvement therein. that power, have the most control over collec
However, more than just filling in a hole in tive memory of the past. As a result:
our memory, she is subtly reconstituting that
very memory. This becomes a critique of our These [bourgeois] discourses about the
process of creating and shaping North past are dominant, imposed on other
American collective memory and an advocacy classes from above, by public and private
on behalf of those who have been tradition means: schooling, newspapers, books,
ally excluded from that process. and radio and TV programmes [sic]. They
are linear in their conception of time, and
II. Before proceeding to Alvarez's novel, it is indeed ideological: very explicitly, all of
first necessary to look briefly at the study of them lead up to and legitimize the pres
collective memory. It is outside the realm of ent situation.... They are thus hege
the present study to engage fully in the issues monic, and totalizing: alternative
and debates of collective memory theory and memories are to be regarded as irrele
to offer a complete survey of this complex his vant, inaccurate, and even illegitimate.
torical subfield. Instead, using an oft-cited (Fentress 134)
recent study on collective memory by James
Fentress and Chris Wickham as a representa Based on these ideas, it becomes easy to see

A ft T ? C l ? S 4 5

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 why Julia Alvarez would feel the need to tity as a people always battling the establish
reshape collective memory. If collective mem ment for a sense of worth and, at times, even
ory is an active process, it is thus highly for their lives. Thus, the legendary stories of
changeable, and, indeed, those changes are the Mirabais fit with the campesinos' overar
wrought by the values and ideas of the present. ching social narrative.
Furthermore, in the third section of their Fentress and Wickham also assert that,
text, Fentress and Wickham explore what is most often, "the 'Great Events' of the past are
remembered by particular collectives and designated as such by people external to
why. Their overall answer is that events and most local societies" (96). Again, this is appro
details can be more easily remembered if they priate in regard to the present example, as the
fit into existing social narratives and therefore bourgeoisie of the United States ? a group
serve to legitimize that particular society's representative of those groups that have the
present. Perhaps a brief example would be power and means to shape "Great Events
the resonance of any rags-to-riches story in History"?do not form their sense of identity
the United States. The United States' overar around small, underground resistance move
ching narrative of independence and the self ments, nor do events such as those appear to
made person allows such tales about Ben be worth remembering. The result is that
Franklin and Andrew Carnegie to resonate North American collective memory ? driven
soundly and thus continue to be remem largely by the bourgeoisie of the United States
bered. Furthermore, such tales microcosmi ? chooses not to remember an event like the
cally represent North America's collective martyrdom of the Mirabal sisters, an event so
view of its present ? we are rich and power seminal to Dominican campesinos. In fact,
ful, but we began in a modest, hardscrabble U.S. collective memory rarely chooses to
state and earned our successes with hard remember much of anything about the
work. Within this larger social narrative, Dominican Republic. If anything stands out in
smaller narratives of the small-time American North American minds in regard to the mid
making it big tend to be easily adopted into twentieth century Caribbean region it would
our collective memory. likely be the events surrounding Cuba (Bay of
That said, it becomes clear that different Pigs and the Missile Crisis).
classes of people tend to remember differ The United States' occupation of the
ently. In regard to peasants, Fentress and Dominican Republic ended in 1924, and our
Wickham argue that they are more likely to country chose not to intervene much in
remember incidents of revolt, as "they tend to Trujillo's subsequent rise to power and estab
stress their social identity through images of lishment of his despotism.6 In fact, some have
resistance to the state, which are particularly questioned whether or not the United States'
unlikely to get into Great Events history" (96). 1916-1924 occupation of the Dominican
It makes sense, then, that the peasant-class Republic, designed to prepare the country for
campesinos of the Dominican Republic its post-colonial democracy, made it possible,
would transform the Mirabal sisters into leg via our establishment of a national police
endary figures. Las Mariposas become not force, for Trujillo to forcefully gain power in
only a symbol of the kind of resistance that the first place. Perhaps our lack of direct
freed the campesinos from the oppressive involvement in Trujillo's bloody dictatorial
regime of Trujillo, but also a representation of reign has resulted in the Dominican
their present conception of their social iden Republic's erasure from U.S. collective mem

46 MODERN LINfilJAfiE STUDIES 36.2

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ory as it does not fit with our present national tury Dominican Republic, we are likely to
collective identity as international cowboy law remember the militaristic rise of Trujillo and
man, an identity that does not include paving his assassination, including all the conspirato
the way for foreign despots. Furthermore, rial speculation about CIA involvement. In
when the United States did finally become short, the symbolic but small-time resistance
involved in Dominican affairs during the trujil posed by Las Mariposas and their husbands
lato (the local descriptor for the years span and cohorts does not even register with
ning Trujillo's regime) ? it is widely North Americans enough to warrant more
speculated that the CIA provided the weapons than a few vague pages of text in a few books
that Dominican conspirators used to assassi gathering dust on library shelves. We simply
nate their dictator ? we did so through the have no reason to remember, let alone cele
backdoor, through underground means. Once brate, the Mirabais' contribution to the take
again, this does not fit with the mainstream down of the Trujillo regime.
national collective's present identity concep
tion. In short, the United States collective has III. This is precisely where Julia Alvarez
had no reason whatsoever to adopt stories enters. She is looking to "jog our memory" (or
regarding the mid-twentieth-century rather create a "memory" where none ever
Dominican Republic into collective memory existed) about the lives and work of Las
Even those who situate themselves out Mariposas, and she does so by creating a text
side that U.S. national collective memory in that mimics collective memory. Obviously, the
order to more closely study the Dominican novel's form ? each of the sisters telling her
Republic and our relationship thereto ? that own memories of their story as channeled
is to say, academic historians ? ignore the through Ded?'s conversation with the gringa
Mirabal sisters. There has accumulated quite a dominicana and the artifacts in their home
collection of English-language biographies of museum ? is conducive to Alvarez's repre
Trujillo and texts about North American rela senting collective memory. The entire book is
tions with the Trujillo regime; however, I have told as a memory, and it is, of course, collec
only located two that even mention Las tive in that multiple voices participate in its
Mariposas. The definitive English-language construction. In fact, in the opening of the
Trujillo biography, by Robert Crassweller, epilogue, Ded? experiences an embodiment
includes a very brief (not even two full pages of the creation of collective memory. As she
out of the almost 450 pages comprising the sits at the house-museum receiving visitors ?
book) mention of the sisters' role in visitors not interested in learning from the
Dominican history. Also, Bernard Diederich, museum, but visitors who have come to con
in his less scholarly, more sensational account tribute ? Ded? explains, "Each visitor would
of Trujillo's assassination, provides a little break my heart all over again, but I would sit
over three pages of discussion on the on this very rocker and listen for as long as
Mirabais' legendary feats. Furthermore, both they had something to say. It was the least I
Crassweller and Diederich seem to mention could do being the one saved. And as they
the sisters not because they find their actions spoke, I was composing in my head how that
important or noteworthy but because of what last afternoon went" (301). Ded? becomes a
their death says about Trujillo. kind of crucible into which the community
In the end, if North Americans remember members deposit their contributions to the
anything at all about the mid-twentieth-cen collective memory and in which the variety of

ARTICLES 47

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 those memories is transformed into a relat
able story.
That story becomes essential to the com
munity's sense of itself; it becomes a legit
imization of their present. Ded? captures this
essentiality and connection to identity when
she claims, 'After the fighting was over and we
were a broken people.. .that's when I opened
my doors, and instead of listening, I started
talking. We had lost hope, and we needed a
story to understand what had happened to us"
(313). Ded? becomes a representative of the
collective, then, when she tells the story, the
story that is the novel we hold. Her final
thought of the novel adequately sums up this
process: 'And I see them there in my memory,
as still as statues, Mam? and Pap?, and Minerva
and Mate and Patria, and I'm thinking some
thing is missing now. And I count them all
twice before I realize ? it's me, Ded?, it's me,
the one who survived to tell the story" (321).
This notion of passing on the collective
memory orally is also important for the novel.
Any collective memory must be passed from
generation to generation, and, of course,
these memories shift and mutate to fit the
individuals who are remembering and telling
them and their community's present social
identity construction. Thus this written narra
tive characterizing an oral relating of a collec
tive memory mixed with some documented
fact is, ultimately, hybrid. In attempting to fill
a particular gap in North American collective
memory, Alvarez chooses a hybrid form that
undermines our tendency to rely upon writ
ten, documented, history and to use media
sources (Ty movies, newspapers, the
Internet) to transmit collective memory.
Alvarez unsettles this preference by offering a
novel that balances the written and oral, the
factual and fictional, the historical and leg
endary, the political and romantic, the domes
tic and national, and so on.
In this regard, Kelli Lyon Johnson reads
4 8 pM: 0 M N -. a F s ?? 5 t r- >?!*?;*$ 3 6.2
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Alvarez as "privileging family over nation, liter
ature over history, and memory over material
and archival evidence," and in so doing,
'Alvarez inverts traditional hierarchies of value"
(85). While I agree that Alvarez is in the busi
ness of challenging North American hierar
chies of value (and on this point, Johnson is
unclear as to whose hierarchies of value she
refers), I do not read Alvarez as privileging
opposing values. Rather, I argue that she is
offering equal space to the sides of those afore
mentioned dichotomies in order that her
novel ring both utterly familiar to English
speaking North American readers as well as
simultaneously challenging to our preferences.
Alvarez is therefore allowing us to reconsider
those preferences and reshape our construc
tion of collective memory with a newly carved
space for orally passed, small-time resistance
stories that we might otherwise have no rea
son to remember. In writing down this popu
lar, even legendary, tale that is so central to the
campesino dominicano 's collective memory,
Alvarez is attempting to give us a reason to
remember these extraordinary women, and
she does so by appealing to national U.S. nar
ratives of identity construction.
In order to do so, she must begin with the
girls' humble beginnings. In her article
"Historiographie Metafiction in In the Time of
the Butterflies" Isabel Zakrzewski Brown con
cludes, 'Alvarez invents the adolescence and
early adulthood of the protagonists. It is
Alvarez's intention to construct a biographical
context for the myth that the legendary sis
ters eventually embody" (98, my emphasis). It
would appear that not much is known ? or at
least, not much has been documented ?
about the Mirabais' early life. In his biography
of Minerva, William Galv?n spends the major
ity of his chapter on Minerva's childhood, "La
Infancia de Minerva (1926-1938)," providing
social and familial context (i.e. Trujillo's status
at the time, the economic situation of the
Mirabal family, etc.) rather than specific anec that jail cell (232); however, the fact remains
dotes about Minerva herself. The only per that Alvarez converts the older engineering
sonal information provided in the chapter student Sina into the ahead-of-her-time revo
lutionary Sinita at Immaculate Conception
regards the birth dates of the sisters and their
schooling. Otherwise, readers have to wait boarding school and allows Sinita to play a
until Galv?n 's following chapter, about the greater role in the political development of
high school-aged Minerva for more specific the fictional Minerva.
personal information. Once Minerva has gone The fictional Sinita is not an exact analog
away to the Immaculate Conception boarding of her historical counterpart. We learn on page
school, Alvarez begins to demonstrate how 68 of Alvarez's novel that the fictional Sinita's
her experience there ignites the antitrujillist surname is Perozo (not Cabrai). According to
rebelliousness in Minerva that would change Galv?n the real-life Perozo family was severely
the way Minerva conducted the remainder of victimized by Trujillo. Three Perozo brothers,
her life. There are several key historical C?sar, Andr?s, and Faustino, were assassi
scenes and details during this period of nated, and Faustino's son Taber? was tortured
Minerva's life that Alvarez both appropriates and imprisoned. As a result, other members of
and alters for her purposes in In the Time of the Perozo family were forced to live in exile
the Butterflies. (Galv?n 96). In assigning the fictional Sinita
Alvarez's first major appropriation and the Perozo surname, Alvarez is subtly linking
consequent departure from historical evi her to an historical family that was a target of
dence lies in her creation of the character Trujillo's tyranny, thus strengthening Sinita's
Sinita. In the novel, Sinita is the igniter of claims about a tumultuous family life and lend
Minerva's revolutionary passion. A boarding ing further credibility to her antitrujillist
school classmate of Minerva, Sinita is charac beliefs and influence. Furthermore, it is Emma
terized as having endured a tumultuous fam Rodriguez's (a real-life boarding school class
ily life; she tells Minerva, '"People who mate of Minerva) grandfather Don Rafael who,
opened their big mouths didn't live very according to Galv?n, "fue una persona impor
long,' Sinita said. 'Like my uncles I told you tante en la orientaci?n pol?tica de Minerva
about. Then, two more uncles, and then my [was a very important person for Minerva's
father.' Sinita began crying again. 'Then this political direction]" (94).8 This scene, depict
summer, they killed my brother'" (18). The ing the schoolgirls visiting with Emma's
real-life analog of the Sinita character is (called Elsa S?nchez in the novel) grandfather
Tomasina Cabrai, whom friends called Sina. (renamed Don Horacio) is included in the
According to Galv?n, Sina was not a boarding novel; however, it is merely mentioned, as
school classmate of Minerva; rather, she opposed to figuring prominently in Minerva's
attended the university, as an architecturalpolitical development (Alvarez 39).9 Instead, in
engineering student, at the same time as the novel, it is Sinita who stands as the figure
Minerva (216).7 The historical Sina was most influential to Minerva's political awaken
involved in underground revolutionary activ ing and development.
ity and was incarcerated alongside Minerva As such, the fictional Sinita is something
and Mate in I960 (Galv?n 300); however, of a synthesis of all of the early political influ
Galv?n provides no evidence that her family ences on Minerva ? Minerva's boarding
was wiped out by Trujillo and his henchmen. school friends Emma and Violeta, Don Rafael,
Indeed, Alvarez also places the adult Sina in the plight of the Perozo family, and the real

ARTICLES 49

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 life Sina herself. Alvarez collects all of these Mirabais have become in the Dominican
influences into one political guru, Sinita, who Republic. While this may be true, and I will dis
in the novel is most responsible for the birth cuss the mythification of the sisters later in
of Minerva as a political being. In fact, another this study, there is another key reason why
departure from documentary evidence on the Alvarez would feel the need to provide readers
part of Alvarez cements this political birth. a glimpse of the girls' modest beginnings.
After first hearing Sinita's traumatic family his Alvarez's providing the fictionalized back
tory, Minerva remarks, "Sinita's story spilled story of the Mirabal sisters ultimately links
out like blood from a cut" (18). Sure enough, her story to the United States' formative nar
one page later, Minerva experiences her first ratives and thus increases the likelihood that
menstruation. Galv?n, on the other hand, the story can become incorporated into
places this event ? which he euphemistically North American collective memory. She pres
refers to as "los cambios bioqu?micos y psi ents the sisters as having been born into a
cosociales que marcan el paso de la ni?ez a peasant life in the Dominican countryside.
la adultez [the biochemical and psycho Even when giving directions to the gringa
social changes that mark the passage from dominicana in 1994, Ded? characterizes the
childhood to adulthood]"? as coincident continued "backwardness" (at least by North
with her initial trip to boarding school (86). American standards) of the area when she
Alvarez, then, briefly delays this event in the explains, "You see, most of the campesinos
life of the fictional Minerva in order to utilize around here can't read, so it wouldn't do us
this important physiological life change to any good to put names on the roads" (4).
represent symbolically the mental-political This sort of detail gives contemporary North
change that was occurring in the fictional American readers the notion that the girls
Minerva as a result of her encounters with came from nothing, so to speak. This is, how
Sinita Perozo.10 Alvarez uses these historical ever, not entirely true. In both the novel and
appropriations not only as filler for the largely the historical texts, the Mirabal family is
undocumented early life of the Mirabal sisters described as something akin to middle class
(especially Minerva), but she also utilizes by mid-twentieth-century standards. While it
their political implications to establish a sort is true that the family did not live in one of
of causal chain representing Minerva's devel the Dominican Republic's larger cities,
opment as a political being. Enrique Mirabal did own his own business as
If the revolutionary activities of the adult well as his own car thus setting the family on
Mirabal sisters constitute the part of the story slightly higher economic footing than neigh
most tied to the campesinos' identity con boring peasant-class campesinos. In fact, in
struction and, therefore, this is what they response to the family's business and there
choose to preserve in their collective memory, fore contribution to the country's economic
why, then, does Alvarez spend so much time system, Galv?n argues, 'les possible plantear
offering intimate details ? whether they be que Minerva pertenec?a obviamente a la
appropriated from later-life details or invented burgues?a [it is possible to establish Minerva
outright ? of the "backstory" of the sisters' as clearly belonging to the middle class]"
adolescence and young adulthood? Brown (178). Galv?n goes on to point out that the
speculates that Alvarez's filling in of the early battle between Minerva and Trujillo was not
lives of Las Mariposas serves figuratively to actually an inter-class conflict but an intra
enflesh the otherwise mythical figures that the class clash between differing political sectors

50 MODERN L?HfiwASE STUDIES 36.2

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 among the bourgeoisie (178).
Regardless of the class status of the Again, two pages later, Minerva describes her
Mirabal family ? both in the novel and in his leaving for boarding school as "how I got free"
torical texts ? Alvarez is counting on contem and only then does she realize, "that I'd just
porary North American readers to view the left a small cage to go into a bigger one, the
family's status as modest and even lacking. In size of our whole country" (13). Minerva's
fact, at one point, Alvarez poignantly exempli descriptions of the confinement of the girls'
fies this North American viewpoint via her modest beginnings and the need to "get free"
gringa dominicana character. After their are intended not only to set up the revolu
interview, Ded? offers to get into her car and tionary activities narrated later in the novel,
lead the interviewer out to the main road. but also to appeal to the value North
When the gringa dominicana responds with American readers are likely to perceive in
surprise that Ded? knows how to drive, Ded? transcending one's modest roots.
thinks, "They are always so surprised. And not What we see in Alvarez's invented adoles
just the American women who think of this as cence for Las Mariposas, as represented by
an 'underdeveloped' country where Ded? Minerva's memory of their childhood, is that
should still be riding around in a carriage with they are perfectly positioned for the ideal self
a mantilla over her hair, but her own nieces made-person, 'American Dream" story. They
and nephews and even her sons tease her are born into a situation in which formal edu
about her little Subaru" (172). While using cation is undervalued, economic stability is
Ded?'s point of view ironically to critique the hard to come by, and life is just plain hard.
North American view of the Dominican However, in Minerva's narration of these early
Republic, Alvarez is also counting on North years, we come to find out that they, and
American readers to be equally as surprised as especially Minerva, are unhappy with their sit
the gringa dominicana, who, after all, is an uation, so they take it upon themselves to
analog for Alvarez herself.11 better that situation. In this way, Alvarez's fab
This is the modest, again by contempo ricated narrative of the Mirabais' beginnings
rary North American standards, life into mirrors one of the foundational narratives of
which the girls are born; Minerva represents North American collective identity.
them as feeling penned-in by that life. In two What is more, the freedoms sought by the
instances, almost immediately after she takes sisters in the novel, while most certainly
over the narration for the first time, Minerva national, are also characterized as fundamen
describes the girls' adolescent life as one lived tally individual. Take again, the example
in a cage:12 Minerva provides in her analysis of leaving for
boarding school. In that passage, she does
Sometimes, watching the rabbits in their envision the entire country as a cage, a fright
pens, I'd think, I'm no different from you, eningly national concern; however, she also
poor things. One time, I opened a cage to sees her "escape" to boarding school as an
set a half-grown doe free. I even gave her internal, personal freedom: 'And that's how I
a slap to get her going. But she wouldn't got free. I don't mean just going to sleepaway
budge! She was used to her little pen.... I school on a train with a trunkful of new things.
was the one hurting her, insisting she be I mean in my head after I got to Inmaculada
free. Silly bunny, I thought. You're noth and met Sinita and saw what happened to
ing at all like me. (11) Lina" (13, my emphasis). In going to boarding

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 school, she is not only freed from her father's army tanks. He means our country begin
patriarchal household, but she also experi ning to prosper, Free Zones going up
ences a kind of intellectual freedom that everywhere, the coast a clutter of clubs
results from having seen governmental and resorts. We are now the playground
oppression first hand (as in Trujillo's claiming of the Caribbean, who were once its
classmate Lina Lovat?n as one of "his girls"). killing fields. The cemetery is beginning
Minerva grows into an individual, with her to flower. (318)
own mind, and a revolutionary mind at that.
Similarly, in one of her final reflections in Again, these images ? free elections, com
the Epilogue, Ded? is lamenting what she has merce, turning loss into gain, free speech ?
lost. In the aftermath of her sisters' murder, are images associated very closely with North
the passing of her parents, and the husbands American identity, even including the free
having abandoned Ded? to care for the dom to voice objection to the government
house-museum alone, she reflects: (represented powerfully by Ded?'s poignant
cynical line, "Was it for this, the sacrifice of the
And it helps, I've found, if I can count butterflies?") (318). Overall, in highlighting
[these losses] off, so to speak. And some Alvarez's linkage of the story of Las Mariposas
times when I'm doing that, I think, Maybe to North American narratives of collective
these aren't losses. Maybe that's a wrong identity, I am essentially arguing that Alvarez
way to think of them. The men, the chil rewrites a legendary Dominican tale using an
dren, me. We went our own ways, we utterly North American structure.
became ourselves. Just that. And maybe This formula, which I consider to be a
that's what it means to be a free people, positive attribute of the novel, has drawn the
and I should be glad? (317) ire of some critics, most fervently Lynn Chun
Ink. In her article on identity and nation in
This passage is brimming with images calling novels by Julia Alvarez and Edwidge Danticat,
to mind U.S. identity narratives: turning Ink ultimately concludes, "[Pjerhaps what is
losses into gains (or making lemonade from needed in addition to the destabilization of
life's lessons, as the North American clich? history and the terms of peoplehood is the
would have it), rugged individualism (every undermining of the very idea of collectivity"
one goes her own way), the ability to "be (805). As for Alvarez, Ink has very little to say
yourself," and the idea that becoming oneself that is positive. Ink's major problem with
is the true foundation of freedom. One page Alvarez, at least according to her reading, is
after Ded?'s above-cited reflection, in a con Alvarez's reification of the very patriarchy and
versation with L?o, he asks her to "Look at imperialism she is attempting to subvert in
what the girls have done" (318). Ded?'s her approach to the creation of the collective.
response, a mental inventory of the contem For Ink, 'Alvarez's text puts forth an ideal of a
porary (as of 1994) Dominican Republic, collectivity that crosses gender, race, and class
reads something like a description of the con lines, one that counters and critiques mas
temporary United States (complete with a culinized imagined communities; however,
kind of Democratic cynicism) : her revision of community tends to utilize
the very masculinist imperialist discourse it
He means the free elections, bad presi seeks to undermine" (790). She believes this
dents now put in power properly, not by to be the case due to a reliance on gendered

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 dichotomies ? the men scatter at the end terms against it as a reaffirmation of imperial
leaving Ded? to care for the house, the ism, I view her savvy appropriation of the
women are forced to sacrifice the domestic in terms and structure of the United States'
identity narratives as a productive way to
order to participate in the national (thus reify
ing the gendered private/public divide), and embed the story of three martyred
Alvarez ultimately settles for placing women Dominican sisters into North American col
in the established national community rather lective memory.
than reordering that community altogether. At this point I should point out that I am
Rephrasing her point later in the essay, Ink not advocating for some kind of colonization
asserts, "In the Time of the Butterflies ulti of the Dominican legend on the part of the
'American" author Alvarez. Such a notion
mately reaffirms imperialist notions of the
Dominican Republic by responding to the would seem absurd considering Alvarez's
United States presence in the same terms that own characterization of herself. She is not an
it attempts to contest it" (791). 'American writer" anymore than she is a
Where Ink points out that the collectivity "Dominican writer"; she possesses a unique
established by Alvarez that crosses race, class, interest in preserving both. In her collection
and gender utilizes imperialist discourse, I of personal essays, Alvarez admits to describ
would argue that in establishing such a "melt ing herself as a Dominican American writer,
ing pot" collectivity Alvarez is utilizing pre and "that's not just a term. I'm mapping a
cisely the discourse necessary for her to map country that's not on the map," she asserts
the Mirabais' story onto the North American {Something 173). She goes on to conclude
collective memory, a memory that is tied to a that it is the "tension and richness" of that
mythic "melting pot" narrative. Again, where contradiction that most interests her: "Being
Ink sees the women sacrificing their homes in and out of both worlds, looking at one side
and families for revolution as a reification of from the other side" (Something 173).
gendered spaces, I contest that this is further Therefore, Alvarez's desire to relate a
evidence of Alvarez's linking her story to the Dominican legend in a North American struc
North American myth of the self-made ture, so as to jog the North American "mem
woman: the rugged individualist striking out ory" of the historical event, does not
on her own, away from home and family, in constitute a North American colonization;
order to be true to herself and make a posi rather, it is a result of Alvarez's writerly situa
tive contribution in the national landscape tion, her unique capacity for "looking at one
that ultimately benefits the home and family side from the other side."
she had to sacrifice in the first place. And it Nor am I debunking Ink's argument
may be true that Alvarez simply settles for wholesale (or that of any critic of the novel, for
placing the women in the established national that matter), as this is not a flawless novel. The
community rather than reconfiguring that novel is, at times, slightly over-romanticized ?
community; however, as I have been arguing or as Echevarr?a more crassly puts it, "There is
in this section, Alvarez is indeed interested in indeed too much crying in this novel" (28) ?
placing these women in the United States and a bit less complex than it could be. This
national collective memory, and that very act lack of narrative complexity is partly because it
would work, albeit on a small-scale, to recon is narrated by participants in the historical
figure that particular collective. Finally, where happenings who cannot possibly possess the
Ink views Alvarez's use of the United States' critical distance necessary for complex meta

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 commentary.13 This is also partly because, as I by offering us extensive (fictionalized) back
will argue in the coming section, Alvarez is story and the (speculated) intimate thoughts
remythifying the Mirabais for an English of the sisters themselves. However, just as
speaking audience, and myth, by its very Ded? ends up turning her sisters' home and
nature, is more simple, straightforward, and lives into a kind of museum, Alvarez also gen
symbolic than other more critical types of nar erally fails to avoid mythifying the Mirabais.
ratives. This sometimes lack of complexity Nonetheless, Alvarez's failure to uphold one
most certainly accounts for critiques such as of her objectives by monumentalizing the
Ink's; it is reasonable for Alvarez's mythifying Mirabal sisters ends up strengthening her exe
to be read, within a Dominican context, as a cution of her other, more primary objective.
reifying form. However, I return to the idea In regard to Alvarez's mythification of the
that Alvarez is writing for a North American sisters, Isabel Zakrzewski Brown argues:
English-speaking audience, whose collective
memory she is attempting to reshape with the Alvarez, informed by social constructs
introduction of a forgotten yet powerful and characteristic of conventional occidental
necessary memory of governmental atrocities perceptions of ideal women, fashions
and peasant heroism in the Dominican stereotypes, rather than real people.
Republic. From her unique straddling position These include: the pious one, Patria; the
? "looking at one side from the other side" ? pragmatic one, Ded?; the rebellious one,
Alvarez is, on a personal level, attempting to Minerva; and the innocent one, Mate. The
merge her two identities, and in the process, four come together to form a perfect
on a cultural level, she is subtly challenging whole: the now legendary Mirabal sisters.
and reconfiguring a too-often jingoistic North (110)
American collective memory and identity. Her
challenge is not leveled via a blatantly metafic The implication here seems to be that, taken
tive, highly critical, politically charged ? together, the four sisters embody all the qual
essentially loudmouthed ? approach that ities that the ideal Western woman would
might easily be dismissed by detractors. possess. While I do not wish to go that far, I
Rather, she is subtly embedding a disruptive do agree that Alvarez ultimately crafts mythi
memory into North American collective mem cal, stereotypical characters and that her
ory with the hope of ultimately altering that doing so is influenced by Western, and even
memory's shape and constitution. North American, values and constructed iden
tities. She does so in order to "make the myth
IV Critics (such as Brown, Echevarr?a, and American," so to speak.
Ink) have consistently pointed out that Brown's identification of the sisters'
Alvarez reneges on her vow to humanize the stereotypes is quite accurate. Minerva is, obvi
often monumentalized Mirabal sisters. She ously, presented as the rebellious one. She is
professes an attempt to make them "living the catalyst for all of the sisters' revolutionary
breathing women," and this sentiment is activity in the novel. After she has gone away
embodied by Ded? who makes this her objec to boarding school, grown into a free thinker
tive in telling the story to the martyred sisters' (see lines quoted earlier), and witnessed first
children (64). Like Ded?, who worries that hand the work of Trujillo (via his appropria
she has told the children too much, Alvarez tion of the young Lina Lovat?n as lover), she
attempts to bring these mythic women to life strikes the first blow, literally, when she slaps

54 M 0 B E R N LANGUAGE STUDIES 36.2

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 Trujillo as he begins to make sexual advances ways. First, as Trujillo pulls Minerva even
toward her while dancing at a ball. This scene closer, tightening his grip in an almost violent
is an iconic one in both the novel and the leg manner, Minerva complains that his sash full
end on which it is based. There is much spec of medals is hurting her and asks him to
ulation as to what actually happened at that remove it, forgetting about "his attachment
Columbus Day party. Alvarez's version of the to those chapitas" (100). This gesture pres
party's events, for the most part, accurately ents an array of significant symbolic possibil
follows the account provided by William ities. First of all, Minerva disdainfully
Galv?n in his biography of Minerva: The characterizes Trujillo's medals as chapitas.
Mirabais being granted a table in a prime loca The term chapa can be translated as a metal
tion in the ballroom, Manuel de Moya dancing badge; however, Minerva's addition of the
with Minerva first and handing her off to suffix -ita, meaning little, displays her con
Trujillo, the rain beginning to fall, and the tempt for these insignificant little medals and
Mirabais making a quick but unauthorized the authority for which they stand.
escape from the party Alvarez utilizes the Furthermore, in requiring Trujillo to remove
overall structure of the historical accounting his medals, the fictional Minerva is stripping
of this fateful party. him of his power; she is refusing to acknowl
The exchange between Minerva and edge his self-imposed authority over her and
Trujillo while dancing, however, is more a the other citizens of the Dominican Republic.
matter of question and speculation. As the This gesture symbolically levels the dictator,
two participants were deceased not long after setting him on equal ground with Minerva
the event, there is no truly definitive account and signaling that she is neither fearful of nor
of that exchange. Galv?n 's account, based on inclined to show deference to Trujillo.
the testimony of Ded? and her husband The second major departure during the
Jaimito, includes the following: a) Trujillo party scene is, obviously, the slap itself. The
began to openly flirt with Minerva, and she fictional Minerva boldly slaps Trujillo across
denied his advances citing his marital status the face in front of hundreds of guests at the
and her religious convictions; b) there was an man's own party. This gesture is the stuff of
exchange in which Trujillo threatened to myth, and that indeed seems to be Alvarez's
"conquer" Minerva, a threat from which source for this detail. Galv?n biography
Minerva did not back down; c) the two dis makes no mention of such a slap, and Miguel
cussed Minerva's exiled revolutionary friend Aquino Garcia mentions it only to dismiss it as
Pericles Franco; d) and on the subject of com myth. In Aquino Garcia's book Tres Hero?nas
munism, Minerva wittily turned the tables on y un Tirano, the author states as his purpose,
Trujillo implying that he himself was a com "recoger la esencia de los hechos ver?dicos
munist (Galv?n 155-57). Alvarez's account que dieron forma a esta extraordinaria his
follows the same general line of discussion: toria [to discover the true meaning of the
flirting advances by Trujillo, an exchange verifiable facts that give form to this extraordi
about "conquest," a discussion of Pericles nary story] " (xiv). He attempts to uncover this
Franco (represented in the novel by the char "truth" because, he argues, this incredible
acter L?o Morales), and the mention of com story "ha sido fuente de mitos, leyendas y fic
munist agitators. ciones que han venido a llenar el vacio
After this, however, Alvarez departs from provocado por la falta de una fuente de
the historical renderings in two important informaci?n fidedigna de los hechos tal

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 como en verdad acontecieron [has been the cal rebel. This is perhaps best exemplified
subject of myths, legends and fictions that when her mother accuses Minerva of trying to
have come to occupy the void that results fight everyone's fight, and Minerva responds
from the absence of a reliable source of infor with the line, "It's all the same fight, Mam?"
mation about the facts as they truly hap (108). Even Alvarez's intermittent attempts to
pened]" (xiv).14 Furthermore, with the stated humanize Minerva by "lifting the veil" of
purpose of presenting the "truth" and rebelliousness result in a kind of stereotype.
debunking the fictions, Aquino Garcia pro For instance, after her release from prison,
vides this very example: Minerva herself recognizes the rebel role she
has been asked to play. She recognizes that
As? por ejemplo, el lector aprender? que "my months in prison had elevated me to
aunque no es cierto que Minerva superhuman status," and she responds
abofeteara p?blicamente a Trujillo accordingly: "I hid my anxieties and gave
como cuenta una de estas leyendas, ella everyone a bright smile. If they had only
s? le infligi? al dictador inauditas humil known how frail was their iron-will heroine.
laciones a trav?s de una bien estudiada How much it took to put on that hardest of all
actitud de rechazo a su persona, performances, being my old self again" (259).
incluyendo valientes e inteligentes However, despite these doubts, the old rebel
respuestas a preguntas directas que el lious Minerva returns rather promptly:
dictador le hiciera en medio de una 'Adversity was like a key in a lock for me. As I
fiesta. began to work to get our men out of prison,
[For example, the reader will see that it was the old Minerva I set free" (269).
although it is not certain that Minerva There are several items of note here.
publicly slapped Trujillo as told in the leg First, the latter quoted passage reveals that
ends, she did visit upon the dictator Minerva thinks of her rebellious self as her
shocking humiliations via witty personal true self, as the self she must free from all
rejections, including courageous and other human anxieties. Here we see Minerva
intelligent responses to direct questions actually monumentalizing herself. She essen
posed by the dictator during a party] (xv) tially denies that there is more to her than the
rebel; the rebel is her true self, and she feels
In his attempt to "set the record straight" in she must "rebel" against her inclination to be
light of all the myths and fictions regarding anything else. For Alvarez, the implication
the Mirabais, Aquino Garcia cites the slap as here is that even in attempting to add some
one such detail that has had a long run in the humanity to her character she winds up pre
realm of legend but seems to bear no factual senting an even stronger stereotype. We get
basis. In this way, Alvarez has intentionally the stereotype of the exhausted heroine who,
embraced an important mythic and symbolic despite thinking she cannot carry on, sum
detail despite its apparent lack of factual basis. mons the courage to continue the fight.
Here we see in Alvarez not only a departure Alvarez's attempt to humanize Minerva ends
from historical evidence, but also a kind of up feeling like a kind of tokenism (the token
purposeful mythification in her presentation moment of weakness that only serves to drive
of the legendary slap. the heroine further toward her goal) that ulti
From the moment of the slap forward, mately reinforces the rebellious stereotype in
the fictional Minerva becomes the stereotypi the end.

5 6 !* ?- ^ : . -? -, :-. >- i ; =- ; -; ? ^ - ; 3 6.2

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 We can see a similar pattern when analyz ticized and glossed over (and at times even
ing Maria Teresa. She is the innocent one, the blacked out) in the pages of Mate's naive jour
youngest sister, who initially enters the revo nal entries.
lutionary movement out of a sense of In regard to that journal, we do not have
romance. She joins the movement primarily access to its complete contents for the sake of
because she idolizes her older sister Minervacomparison. However, Galv?n ? who, like
and would do anything to impress her, not toAlvarez, describes Mate as "la m?s tierna y
mention the fact that she ends up falling in quiz? la m?s afectiva de las hermanas [the
love with one of the revolutionaries. Mate's sweetest and perhaps most affectionate of the
innocence and na?vet? are apparent from the sisters]"? does include brief, one-sentence
moment we begin to look into her journal. excerpts from fifteen of Mate's journal entries
Amid playful pictures of shoes and jewelry, spanning January 8, 1954, to February 11 of
she also records conversations such as: "I the same year (212). One example, an excerpt
asked Minerva why she was doing such a dan from the January 15 entry, is as follows: "Me
gerous thing. And then, she said the strangest siento muy deprimida y a veces quisiera
thing. She wanted me to grow up in a free desaparecer para no ver tantas injusticias
country. And it isn't that already?' I asked" de la vida [I feel very depressed and, at
(39). Even as Mate grows older, her na?vet? times, I want to disappear so as not to see so
does not lessen. Now amid pictures of bombs much of life's unfairness]" (213). This passage
and escape routes ? a rather effective and does not suggest that Mate is na?ve to the
jarring juxtaposition, "the innocent one" illus realities of life in the Dominican Republic
trating bombs ? Mate reflects, "If we made under Trujillo; rather, it demonstrates, like
up the perfect country Minerva keeps plan the other excerpts Galv?n presents, that Mate
ning, I would fit in perfectly. The only prob was fully aware of her family's hardships and,
lem for me would be if self-serving ones were despite her arguable immaturity (as evi
allowed in. Then I believe I'd turn into one of denced by the diction of the passage), she did
them in self-defense" (245-46). not always romanticize her sisters' situation.
Passages such as these display Mate's role In regard to Galv?n's excerpts, Brown has
as "the innocent." Even after she has entered found that, "a comparison of the language
the anti-Trujillist fight, she idealizes every used in the fictional diary versus the fragment
move her older sister makes, fails to recog of the real one quoted in Galvan's book
nize the governmental oppression of her peo shows that the former freezes her discourse
ple, and seems to believe a utopia is possible into that of a superficial, trivial, childlike
(as long as the self-serving ones are kept out, enunciator, as if to emphasize her 'inno
of course). While it is interesting that Alvarez cence'" (109). Brown goes on to assert that
chooses Mate to narrate the prison scene, a the excerpts are also "notable for their tacit
selection that highlights the role of an individ confirmation of Maria Teresa's admiration of
ual's perceptions in shaping her memory, this Minerva" (109). While, it is true that Galv?n's
choice only serves to deny the sisters a kind excerpts show a doting young girl who is
of complex humanity and ultimately to fur highly concerned with the movements of her
ther mythify them. A scene whose cruelty and older, idealized sister, it is also true that
brutality would surely illustrate the human Galv?n ? whose own focus is on the life and
pain and emotions endured by the women in character of Minerva, not Mate ? has
their revolutionary quest is essentially roman selected particular passages from Mate's diary

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 in order to show their "pat?ticos testimonios campesinos gathered in the church, and
de estos negros d?as para la familia Mirabal Patria finds herself hiding behind a toppled
[moving testimony of these dark days for the statue of la Virgencita. From there, she prays
Mirabal family]" (213). For this reason, his in order to keep her emotions in check, "but
selections are necessarily more serious than my prayers sounded more like I was trying to
some other passages that might display an pick a fight. Tm not going to sit back and
adolescent ebullience. In fact, Galv?n does watch my babies die, Lord, even if that's what
describe the entire diary as capturing "sus You in Your great wisdom decide" (162).
vivencias descollantes sean ?stas muy ale Throughout her sections, Patria characterizes
gres or muy tristes [her notable experiences her revolutionary struggle as a religious strug
be they extremely happy or sad]" (212-13). gle, a crusade of sorts. She views the conspir
These comments about the purpose behind ators as like "angels sharpening their radiance
Galv?n's selection of excerpts may, in some before they strike," and she characterizes their
ways, undermine the strength of Brown's ear mission as "[spreading] the word of God
lier claim regarding Mate's discourse; how among our brainwashed campesinos" (163,
ever, the fact remains that Alvarez is not 164). In an epiphanic, Plato's-cave moment in
faithfully following the diaristic document in which she decides to join the revolution, Patria,
her creation of the fictional journal and there again in a church, turns away from the altar:
fore voice of the Mate character. Despite the
fact that the dates on some of the fictional and saw the packed pews, hundreds of
Mate's journal entries match the dates of the weary, upturned faces, and it was as if I
excerpts provided by Galv?n, the content of was facing the wrong way all my life. My
the two "journals" does not coincide. Alvarez faith stirred....Here I am Virgencita.
is clearly departing from the source docu Where are you? And I heard her answer
ment in her creation and presentation of me with the coughs and cries and whis
Mate's journal entries; therefore, despite pers of the crowd: Here, Patria Mercedes,
Galv?n's method of selection, it is likely, as Tm here, all around you. Tve already
Brown argues, that Alvarez is overemphasiz more than appeared. (58-59)
ing Maria Teresa's innocence in order to
establish that quality as the basis of her She thinks of the cries of the people, people
stereotypical characterization. in need of the revolution, as la Virgencita
Finally, the same can also be said for answering her prayers. Her calling to join her
Patria, the pious one. All of Patria's sections sister's movement becomes a vocational call
are dominated by religious language and from above, and her mission with the move
imagery. Even when discussing the counting ment becomes to save not just lives but souls.
of ammunition or the composing of lists of While, her struggle with her faith may seem
weaponry, Patria utilizes religious imagery, as "real," may seem humanizing, the fact that
in the following example: "Mate and I drew Patria's entire involvement with the revolu
up the list [of weapons] ourselves in the tion is couched in religious terms seems
pretty script we'd been taught by the nuns for somewhat overdrawn.
writing out Bible passages" (168). Also, Undoubtedly, religious piety was impor
Patria's "conversion" to revolutionary think tant to the historical Patria, as it was for the
ing occurs in a church. She is there when a entire Mirabal family. However, Galv?n pro
group of Trujillo's insurgents open fire on the vides no evidence that piety outweighed

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 other virtues in the life of the historical Patria; source material via overemphasis ? striking
he does nothing to suggest that Patria could the same chord page after page ? in charac
be characterized through an overemphasis on terizing Patria by her one defining characteris
religious spirituality. Galv?n describes her as tic, piety.
"la mujer consecuente y solidaria [a solid Minerva's rebelliousness, Mate's inno
and consistent woman]" and as "el tipo de cence, and Patria's piety become almost their
persona capaz de dar la otra mejilla lone identity markers leaving them no choice
cuando recib?a una bofetada [the type of but to respond to plot situations in accord
person capable of turning the other cheek with their assigned roles. Clearly, the simplifi
when slapped]" (297). He also quotes cation of otherwise complex human beings
another writer's (Antonio J. Tatem Mejia) and the establishment of easily identifiable
description of Patria which includes the fol identity markers are effective strategies for
lowing observations: "la mujer de belleza embedding historical personages into a
est?tica y espiritual [an aesthetically andgroup's collective memory in a lasting way.
spiritually beautiful woman]," and "no era This is no exception in the United States' col
pol?tica... er a sencillamente una dulce lective memory, as we already have Honest
mujer dedicada por completo a su Abe, Nixon the crook, Benedict Arnold the
hogar, pero con gran esp?ritu c?vcico, turncoat, racist Strom Thurmond, sultry
profundamente religiosa y humana, Marilyn Monroe, and the list goes on. North
con un humanismo capaz de llegar al American collective memory is littered with
sacrificio por el bien de los d?mas [she historical people ? real-life, living-breathing
was not political...she was simply a sweet people in all their complexities and contradic
woman completely dedicated to her home, tions ? who are largely remembered based
but with a great gentle spirit, profoundly reli on one dominant characteristic.16 The critics,
gious and compassionate, with a compassion then, are correct that Alvarez is guilty of mak
great enough to sacrifice for the good of oth ing myths of these characters she so longed
ers]" (297).15 These descriptions do mention to humanize. However flawed Alvarez's char
Patria's spirituality and piety; however, those acterizations may seem as a result of this
qualities do not seem to take precedence stereotyping method, it ultimately aids her
over other qualities such as her sweet gentle ultimate purpose to bring acquaintance of
ness and commitment to family. In fact, these women to North American readers.
Miguel Aquino Garcia does not list piety as As a result, when Lynn Chun Ink critiques
Alvarez saying, "The text thus essentially
her most outstanding characteristic; rather,
he argues, "El aspecto m?s importante del admits women to an already established
car?cter de Patria era sin embargo su national community rather than a newly recon
inmenso sentido de familiaridad [The most stituted one," she is quite right (795).
important aspect of Patria's character was, However, I do not consider this a negative crit
nonetheless, her great sense of family]" (23). icism. Alvarez has indeed worked to admit
It is clear from the above passages that reli these women into the already established
giosity was an important part of Patria's North American (not Dominican) community,
makeup, but certainly not the only or even and she has attempted to place her legendary
most important part. Again, as with Mate's heroines into that community by helping
embellished innocence in her journal entries, English-speaking North American readers
we see Alvarez departing from historical "remember" an historical event they have oth

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 erwise "forgotten" (or even forgotten that they Mariposas into North American collective
had forgotten). However, to say that Alvaerz's memory necessarily changes the landscape of
accomplishment does not create a newly that memory and therefore the collective
reconstituted collective is not entirely true. responsible for the memory.
While it is true that she has not resorted to nar This, while not a wholesale debunking of
rative pyrotechnics in order to challenge the North American collective memory, is
construction of North American collective nonetheless a reconstitution; it is a reconsti
memory, she has subtly done so simply by jog tution from within that memory And Julia
ging the North American memory in regard to Alvarez relies most heavily on the power of
these legendary women. The very act of suc narrative, as opposed to direct engagement
cessfully bringing the Mirabal sisters ? and all with historical discourse, to level her subtle
they represent ? to the attention of the North challenge. In the novel, Ded? speaks of the
American memory is by its very nature a recon phenomenon of present identity construc
stituting act. As aforementioned, a group's col tion via memory of the past when she
lective memory is intimately related to that remarks, "I'm not stuck in the past, I've just
group's constructed identity and to that brought it with me into the present. And the
group's legitimization of their present status. If problem is not enough of us have done that"
Alvarez's readers come to think differently (313). Alvarez has taken it upon herself to
about the mid-twentieth-century Caribbean bring the Mirabal sisters'?and thus the entire
region (and consequently the United States' Trujillo-era Dominican Republic's ? past into
involvement therein), they must necessarily the North American present, because, frankly,
come to think a bit differently about how they, not enough of us have done that.
their group associations (class, race, gender,
etc.), and their nation have come to identify
themselves in the present. Inserting Las

60 M?StN U t? O ?l ? y ? s ? ?? ? j ? G 36.2

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NOTES
indeed, oral stories were a key source of information for Alvarez in composing this novel. In a short essay entitled "Chasing
the Butterflies" (now collected in her essay collection Something to Declare), Alvarez tells of her trip to the Mirabais' home
and her visit with Ded?, which likely serves as the basis for the gringa dominicana scenes. We know, therefore, that she
amassed some historical evidence via the interviews and oral stories she collected there.

2 There is some question as the classification of Ferreras's text. I choose to call it a historical novel for two primary reasons.
First, the form of the book would be odd for a historiographie text, as the author allows the "characters" to speak in first
person at times rather than relying solely on the typical descriptive third person explanation that we are accustomed to see
ing in historical monographs. The second, and much more obvious, reason is the notation on the book's jacket. The jacket
text proclaims Las Mirabal to be "una historia novelada de primer orden [a first-rate novelized history]." This jacket text
also refers to the fact that Ferreras created this text while at the height of his creative potential ("Ferreras, quien produjo
LAS MIRABAL en el momento en que se hallaba en el climax, al tope de su potencialidad creative"). Certainly it is possible
that the phrase "historia novelada" (as opposed to say, "historia ficticia") is referring to a kind of "creative nonfiction" as
opposed to a historical novel proper; nonetheless, this jacket text makes it very clear that the element of invention is preva
lent in this rendering of the Mirabal sisters, and that the author is not striving for the kind of historical "accuracy" that
accompanies straight biography. Interestingly, Las Mirabal is referred to as a biography in an article by Isabel Zakrzewski
Brown. Despite Brown's classification of the book as biography, for the purposes of this study, I will treat Ferreras's Las
Mirabal as a work of historical fiction and, therefore, not a historiographie source.
3 For example, Roberto Gonz?lez Echevarr?a, reviewing the book for the New York Times Book Review, after a long line of
abrasive criticisms, attacks Alvarez's stated lack of accuracy: "But the actual history in In the Time of the Butterflies is very
blurry. I find no connection between the specific dates Ms. Alvarez gives to mark periods in the Mirabais' lives and either
Dominican or broader Latin American history. Serious historical fiction establishes links between individual destiny and piv
otal political events" (28). For other reviews that register similar complaints about the Postscript see the following: Barbara
Mujica's review in The World & I, Joanne Omang's review in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and Elsa Walsh's review in
the Washington Post's Book World. Also addressing Alvarez's stated attempt to humanize the mythic sisters, Echevarr?a
remarks, "In fictionalizing their story she has availed herself of the liberties of the creative writer, to be sure, but alas, I am
afraid she did not escape the temptation to monumentalize" (28). In a full-length article in which she is positive about the
novel, Isabel Zakrzewski Brown nonetheless admits that Alvarez "is unable to avoid the mythification process she had pro
fessed to elude" (110). In her article on identity construction in the novel, Lynn Chun Ink levels a similar criticism but goes
even farther: "The story assumes mythic proportions because of its rendering of the women into larger-than-life ideals.
Rather than humanizing them, the text succeeds in making them more abstract" (795, my emphasis). As a final example,
Ignacio L?pez-Calvo debunks the entire Postscript: "In [writing the Postscript], however, she forestalls the hermeneutics of
her novel: although unintentionally, by 'explaining' the novel in her disclaimer, she is, in a sense degrading the readers, plac
ing them in a position of inferiority that disallows them to reach those conclusions by themselves" (102).
41 will address some of these criticisms in later portions of this article.

5 See the work of Maurice Halbwachs, the ostensible originator of collective memory theory. For a nice, concise introduction
to some of the debates surrounding the subfield, see Susan A. Crane's article "Writing the Individual Back Into Collective
Memory."
6 For a nice overview of the United States' relationship with the mid-twentieth-century Dominican Republic, see Pope Atkins
and Larman Wilson's The United States and the Trujillo Regime.

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 Inclicentally, page 216 is Galv?n's first introduction of Tomasina Cabrai, implying that it was not until much later that Sina
entered Minerva's life.

8 All translations appearing in this article are my own.

9 There is some discrepancy about "Emma Rodriguez's" name. In Miguel Aquino Garcia's account, he spells Rodriguez's given
name "Enma" as opposed to Galv?n's "Emma."
,()It should be noted that Alvarez performs a similar type of historical appropriation and alteration in regard to the more minor
character Lina Lovat?n.

1 'Aside from the obvious correlations, Alvarez also refers to herself as a "gringa dominicana" in one of the essays collected in
Something to Declare (175).
12 In this case, we are forced to take Minerva's perspective on the girls' early life as representative, because of the novel's form.
The sisters' narratives alternate and move chronologically. Therefore, because Alvarez allows Minerva to speak first (after
the "intro" by Ded? in which she converses with the gringa dominicana), Minerva has the responsibility of narrating the
earliest part of the story, the girls' adolescence.

13 In her review of the novel, Ruth Behar laments this lack of meta-commentary. She reasons, "Had Alvarez developed the
voice of her alias, the gringa dominicana who returns to her abandoned homeland to learn about The Butterflies from the
history-weary Ded?, she might have been able to offer a more nuanced view of what revolutions look like the morning after"
(7). Echevarr?a makes a similar speculation in his review; however, on par with his overall tone, his claim comes off a bit
more abrasively than Behar's. In the coming section, I will address some of these concerns.

14 It should be noted that Aquino Garcia continues to utilize such strong language ? true facts, real story, true essence ?
throughout his introduction and purpose statement. As a result, it appears as though he is unaware of the contingency of
"truth" and the role of individual perspective in shaping/creating "truth." In this way, his understanding of his purpose is
perhaps a bit simplistic.

'"* Throughout his text, Galv?n prints all of his quotations in boldface type; hence, I have replicated that type here when cit
ing one of his quotations.

16 In the case of Benedict Arnold, he is so associated with the character trait that his name has even become a synonym for
the characteristic in common parlance.

62 MODERN LANGUAGE SIWOIIS 36.2

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 WORKS CITED
Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies. 1994. New York: Plume, 1995.
-. Something to Declare. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 1998. 197-209.
Aquino Garcia, Miguel. Tres Hero?nas y un Tirano: La Historia Ver?dica de las Hermanas Mirabal y su Asesinato por
Rafael Le?nidas Trujillo. 3rd ed. Santo Domingo, DR: Editoria Corripio, 1996.
Atkins, G. Pope, and Larman C Wilson. The United States and the Trujillo Regime. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UF; 1972.
Behar, Ruth. "Revolutions of the Heart." Rev. o? In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez. The Women's Review of
Books May 1995: 6-7.
Brown, Isabel Zakrzewski. "Historiographie Metafiction in In the Time of the Butterflies y South Atlantic Review 64.2 (1999):
98-112.
Crane, Susan A. "Writing the Individual Back Into Collective Memory." The American Historical Review 102.5 (1997):
1372-85.
Crassweller, Robert D. Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
Diederich, Bernard. Trujillo: The Death of the Dictator. 1978. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2000.

Echevarr?a, Roberto Gonz?lez. "Sisters in Death." Rev. of In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez. New York Times
Book Review 18 Dec. 1994: 28.
Fentress, James, and Chris Wickham. Social Memory. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.

Ferreras, Ram?n Alberto. Las Mirabal. Santo Domingo, D.R.: Nordeste, 1982.
Galv?n, William. Minerva Mirabal: Historia de una Hero?na. Santo Domingo, DR: Editoria de la Universidad Aut?noma de
Santo Domingo, 1982.
Ink, Lynn Chun. "Remaking Identity, Unmaking Nation: Historical Recovery and the Reconstruction of Community in In the
Time of the Butterflies and The Farming of Bones." Callaloo 27.3 (2004): 788-807.
Johnson, Kelli Lyon. Julia Alvarez: Writing a New Place on the Map. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2005.
L?pez-Calvo, Ignacio. "God and Trujillo": Literary and Cultural Representations of the Dominican Dictator. Gainesville:
UP of Florida, 2005.

Mujica, Barbara. "The Sisters Mirabal." Rev. of In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez. The World & I Apr. 1995:
328-33.
Omang, Joanne. "For This They Died?" Rev. o? In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez. Los Angeles Times Book
Review 26 Feb. 1995: 8.

Walsh, Elsa. 'Arms and the Women." Rev. of In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez. Book World 27 Nov. 1994: 7.

ARTICLES 63

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