The End of the Butterflies

When a person fights for change, they do it in hopes of creating a better life for their loved ones. Love is the anchor in which no matter how far our dreams make us stray we come back. For the characters In The Time of the Butterflies freedom wasn’t just a dream. It was something that no matter the risk of death they were going to achieve freedom from under Trujillo’s horrible control. Throughout the book the details of the three sisters’ death seeped through the text. My only question that I was waiting to be answered was who was the last person listed in the memorial? Rufino ended up being the girls’ driver to and from their visits to see their husbands in jail. Rufino knew the risks that came with being the acting bodyguard of the Butterflies. Yet even when all of them had an eerie feeling about that visit and even through the smack in your face foreshadowing throughout the story, November 25^th 1965 was the day that the Mirabal sisters and Rufino lost their lives to the revolution.

                Manolo the husband of Minerva had taken on the presidential role as one of the big leaders of the revolution. With Minerva being his strong willed wife, Manolo became the voice of hope. Manolo used his voice to try and inspire all of those who had great losses in result of the revolution. Manolo a man who himself who suffered one of the greatest losses himself even continued to try and inspire others even in the wake of the lost of his beloved Minerva. “When you die for your country, you do not die in vain.” (Page 311) That was one of his signature signoffs of the rebel radio. I just wonder if he still really even believed that after the death of the butterflies. To what point do you keep fighting for change?

                I enjoyed this book, I couldn’t put it down. I wanted to know more. I wanted to get to the next chapter to hear the story from another’s sisters perspective. I thought the way that you were surrounded and embraced by each of the girls stories was so intriguing. How could you not mourn these hero’s after hearing the entire struggle they went through. And in the end they never even got to see the freedom they risks leaving their children orphans for. The real loss maybe the murders of Patria, Mate and Minerva but I feel the most grief for Dede. She was the one in the end who everyday had to suffer the consequences that came with the others risky lifestyles. She is the one whose marriage collapsed and who had to watch all the kids. Dede is the sister who never really got the chance to be on the frontline with her sisters. For when Dede was about to become involved the real task of having to put back the pieces of the family proved to be a harder task.