11. Who were the caudillos? Why did they make new governments in Latin America unstable?…
As the mayor Don Lazaro explains to the families the situation, the families tie back memories to the massacre of Puente alto. This massacre occurred on December 4 of 1996, the guerrillas assassinated anyone who apposed them but the Guatemalan army decided to stop them. The soldiers would put all women, girls, and babies into the protestant chapel and burn them alive, in addition they tortured and killed all men and the little boys where thrown around a school and the chapel to rot.…
Allowing the reader to re-experience the Mirabel sisters lives, in their point of views gives a better understanding on what happened during the era of Trujillo's dictatorship in the Dominican…
Trujillo employed this method against people whom he believed had wronged him or to impede their efforts of defeating his government. The author demonstrates this through the unfortunate series of events experienced by the Mirabal family. For instance, after the incident where Minerva rejected Trujillo's improper advances by slapping him, her father is "sent to the capital for questioning," but in reality it was more than a matter of questioning. Minerva's father was subject to extreme torture as punishment for his daughter's audaucity, and it was later discovered that "he has gone mad" due to his imprisonment. Furthermore, the three Mirabal sisters exposed themselves and their family to greater danger as they commenced with their political activity. They were being constantly spied on, received numerous threats, and were eventually imprisoned. Likewise, other individuals were suppressed by the SIM. Trujillo himself has implied the use of cruel tactics to silence educators of communism or politics that contradicted his own, when he quotes "but we've been teaching those teachers their lessons all…
In Julia Alvarez’s “In The Time of the Butterflies”, the four Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Maria Teresa, Patria, and Dedé, struggle with accepting principles such as courage, freedom, andfear. As the sisters began to become symbols for freedom during a revolution, each must discover what these concepts mean to them and how to apply them in their fight against a dictatorship. When Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, sends three of the Mirabal sisters to prison in an attempt to silence their rebellion, Maria Teresa begins to develop a deeper understanding of her role alongside her sisters in the battle against Trujillo, as well as concepts of courage and bravery. In prison, Maria Teresa feels inspired and understands the true feeling of…
All except one are silenced but like the butterfly, their beauty, courage and sacrifice lasts after their death and transforms a country. The resulting publicity of the assassination of the Mirabal sisters only served to highlight their cause further and create more public and international interest in the political state of the Dominican Republic. Trujillo himself would not know that within a six month period, he himself would face assassination in 1961. The tale of the Mirabal sisters is an ongoing legacy of bravery and compassion in order to save the lives of many people in the Dominican Republic. They defied the flow of conformity and stood out as National…
The war against Dominican Republic and Haiti has been going on for years and years. Dominican Republic and Haiti did have a war on February 27,1884 when they also claimed independence towards their country. These two countries share the same land but not the same heart. Between these two countries there are always government issue and many times physical moments. As I and many other people believe that these two countries should get united and have a peaceful life. The harassment and the discrimination needs to stop between these two countries so the next generation can live the united,freedom and respected life.…
In his historical novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz illuminates the dysfunctionality of the hyper-sexualized culture of the Dominican Republic through the juxtaposition of the fukú, or curse, the fictional legacy of the deLeon family, and the historical oppressive regime of Rafael Trujillo. As the hostile dictator of the Dominican Republic for 31 years, Trujillo’s embodiment of a masculinity characterized by terror, abuse, and the objectification of women, develops into the image of a typical Dominican male. Manifesting the society’s conventional perception of the interchangeability of aggressive masculinity and authoritative power, Diaz asserts that although not entirely independent from his false masculinity, Trujillo’s…
The Dominican Republic of the mid 1950’s reflected on all horrible events a dictator . can bring. Dictator Rafael Trujillo worked his way up and caused his people great fear. Lord Acton once said, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Trujillo’s abuse of power caused him to become a corrupt man. In the novel In the Time of Butterflies written by Julia Alvarez, Trujillo’s abuse of power created loss of many substantial rights for the people of the Dominican Republic including loss of freedom of speech, loss of women rights, and loss of prisoner’s rights which proved that Trujillo was a bad man.…
Society, power, and discipline. These are all aspects which are very commonly abused by people who have power. They push their laws upon people because they believe in their way and not the peoples are the better way to run a successful country. When society, power, and discipline are abused many people get affected by it. Innocence is corrupted, families are broken apart, and rebellion occurs throughout the country; as shown in the novel In the time of the butterflies, the author Julia Alvarez shows how the Dominican republic’s, dictator Trujillo controls society, this control causes change in the Maribal sisters. Patria and Minerva being two out of four sisters are made into rebels trying to over throw the corrupted power Trujillo has on their country. Consequently when a society’s freedom is taken away there will be changes in many people.…
“All conflict in literature is, in its simplest form, a struggle between good and evil”-Anon. From what the reader can understand from previous knowledge (of reading literature) most conflicts are based on the fight between good and evil. For instance, in a book entitled Before we Were Free by Julia Alvarez, there is one main character name Anita, and her family, her mom, her dad, her sister- Lucinda all live in family compound with an American family called the Washburn’s (Has one daughter and on son). Anita’s family and the Washburn's live in the Dominican Republic. At the time the Dominican Republic was under a dictatorship by a ruler name Trujillo and was known as El Jefe. This dictatorship is currently over in the Dominican Republic, however in other parts of the world it is not over yet. Currently, North…
6.Munoz, Heraldo. The Dictator 's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet. New York: Basic Books, 2008. Print.…
Successive waves of Arawak migrants, moving northward from the Orinoco delta in South America, settled the islands of the Caribbean. Around AD 600, the Taíno Indians, an Arawak culture, arrived on the island, displacing the previous inhabitants. They were organized into cacicazgos (chiefdoms), each led by a cacique (chief). The final Arawak migrants, the Caribs, began moving up the Lesser Antilles in the 12th century, and were raiding Taíno villages on the island's eastern coast by the late sixteenth century.…
Julia Alvarez a Dominican-American novelist whose own father had escaped Trujillo’s reign during its death climax. She heard from her father about 3 sisters who were political activist. Julia Alvarez wrote a novel called In the time of the Butterflies to create her own form of justice towards the Mirabal sisters and Rufino de la Cruz their driver who was also killed with them. In her novel there are multiple themes present such as corruption and control which is a very significant theme since the Dominican Republic had a corrupt leader for approximately 30 years who did not allow anyone to really express themselves. It seems strange how something we do freely now still has the same consequence of death for justice and peace.…
Arenas writes this book through his imaginations and pastimes in Cuba as if it were his diaries. He analyzes his secrecy with artistic writing and sex. Reinaldo Arenas says, My sexual activity was all with animals. First there were the hens, then the goats and the sows, and after I had grown up some more, the mares (Arenas 149).” This shows the indifference towards women and the rest of the societies interests. In other words, Reinaldo was a homosexual and hid through his fear of the totalitarian government by taking his pain out with the animals. This book represents Reinaldo’s search for…
