In the Time of the Butterflies

The book begins in the present day (1994), when Dedé Mirabal receives a call from a journalist. The woman wants to interview Dedé about her sisters. She explains that she is a Dominican who has been living in the U.S., where no one has really heard the story of the Mirabal sisters. Though the woman has good intentions, and though Dedé is used to giving countless interviews like this one, especially on November 25th—the anniversary of her sisters’ deaths—she agrees to the interview reluctantly. It is March, and she really wants a break from the public interest in her tragic past.

Dedé cleans the house, which, like her life, has become an exhibit about the “sister who survived” (5). She is constantly asked how she survived. Dedé thinks about the fact that she has been divorced for ten years, and that she presently sells life insurance, which her niece, Minou finds ironic, given the family’s tragic past. As it turns out, everyone wants to buy life insurance from the sister who cheated death and survived. When the interviewer arrives, she slams her car door forcefully. The sound makes Dedé to jump, as it reminds her of a gunshot.