In the Time of the Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterflies focuses on the authoritarian regime of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, which lasted from 1930 to 1961. As a megalomaniacal dictator who created a personality cult around himself, Trujillo’s personality takes over every aspect of Dominican life. He also becomes the personal antagonist for the Mirabal sisters in the novel. Throughout the novel, Alvarez shows the various ways a dictator affects both politics and daily life, that range from the fear of challenging him politically to the fear of saying anything negative about him in public. She also compares Trujillo to other, more notorious dictators like Hitler and Mussolini. Trujillo functions as both a character— as when he tries to seduce Minerva—and as the embodiment of oppressive authority who uses fear to silence an entire country.

Trujillo first took power when, as the head of the nation’s army, he helped to overthrow the former president Vasquez and then set himself up as president without being elected. He ruled for 31 years after that, using puppet presidents at times. He cultivated an image of himself as the nation’s “Benefactor” and rewrote history books so that his birth became the point towards which all of Dominican history had been moving. He went even further by renaming the country’s capital “Trujillo City,” and naming streets after his family members. Statues of him were erected all over the country, and even churches had to post slogans saying that while God is in Heaven, Trujillo is on Earth.

Though Trujillo’s reign was a time of economic prosperity and stability, most of the economic upturn actually benefitted Trujillo’s own family and close friends. Moreover, the price of this stability was the loss of civil liberties and the establishment of a system of espionage, torture, and murder which resulted in the “disappearing” of thousands. In the novel, the Butterflies challenge this dictator, and the plot of the novel consists of their struggle against Trujillo’s pervasive presence in their lives on both a personal and national level. 

Religion is an important theme throughout the novel. It is also a driving force in the lives of many of the characters in one form or another. Religion even pervades the politics of the Dominican Republic, which is a predominantly Catholic nation. Patria is the most religious of the sisters, and goes through the most profound religious struggles in the novel. As a young woman, she wanted to be a nun, but gives this dream up to get married. When she gives birth to a stillborn child, she loses her faith, but later regains it when she sees a vision of the Virgin Mary. Throughout the novel, she notes that her sisters have lost their faith as a result of the violent oppression perpetrated by Trujillo’s regime.

In the novel, the Catholic Church remains neutral with regards to Trujillo for as long as it can. This is a major factor in the distrust and bitterness evidenced by those sisters who lose their faith. Patria’s growing participation in the resistance movement, however, coincides with that of her priest, Padre de Jesús, and other Catholics who decide that they cannot wait for the archbishop to denounce him before taking action. After they witness a massacre during a religious retreat, Patria and her fellow congregants are moved to join the resistance. Soon afterward, the Catholic leadership finally decides to take a stand against Trujillo, and the clergy condemn him from their pulpits. The regime responds with a war against the church, so that even priests are not safe from Trujillo.

Alvarez also explores another interesting aspect of religion in the novel, which is the connection between Trujillo and God. Part of Trujillo’s cult of personality involves associating himself with God. He implements the slogan, “God and Trujillo,” and is referred to as the country’s “Benefactor.” People come to think that Trujillo is constantly watching over them, whether benevolently or malevolently. In Mamá’s house, as in most houses, there is a portrait of Trujillo hanging next to a picture of Jesus. This juxtaposition affects the religious Patria especially, who thinks of Jesus as divine justice and Trujillo as earthly power. The two figures represent a dichotomy of good and evil. In the novel, Patria grows angry with God for allowing Trujillo to rule on earth. Eventually she even starts “praying” to Trujillo, asking him to spare her family. Though she tries to think of Trujillo as only a man, she eventually concludes that he must be the devil incarnate, just as Jesus is God incarnate.

The novel revolves around the four Mirabal sisters, who live in a very patriarchal society. Their personal struggles as women are part of the power of their story, as they stand not only as symbols of rebellion against Trujillo’s regime, but also as loving, independent and resourceful women with husbands and children. Alvarez shows how the resistance to women’s involvement in politics can be a double-edged sword. The perception of women as frail and incompetent, allowed them to organize the resistance without drawing attention to their activities. However, the novel shows that women themselves perpetuate negative attitudes to women in politics; both Mamá and Patria initially express the viewpoint that women are inferior to men in this regard, that politics is not a woman’s role, and so they should not sully their hands with it. In talking to the interviewer in the present day, Dedé says that, back then, women followed the dictates of their husbands. However, she knows that this is not the entire truth, as she is the only sister among the four who actually submitted to her husband’s authority. Alvarez also examines sexism in how Trujillo’s regime treats women, most notably through the secretary of state, whose real job seems to be picking out pretty girls for Trujillo to seduce or rape.

One of Alvarez’s goals is for the novel to portray the “butterflies” as real women, not just legendary martyrs or heroes. She does this by showing the personal lives of the Mirabal family as they come of age: menstruating, falling in love, obsessing over clothes, and other, every day human endeavors. They each get married, eventually, and have children, all while fighting against Trujillo. This in turn propels them to the status of national heroes. Though the “butterflies” are icons of Dominican culture, Alvarez also humanizes them as normal women who overcame daily obstacles and struggled against oppression in their personal as well as their political lives.