The Trujillo Regime

The novel spans the years 1938 to 1994, a period dominated by the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (1891-1961) and the fallout from his rule. Trujillo governed the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. Prior to his rise to power, he was trained by American military forces, who had occupied the country from 1916 to 1924. In 1930, leveraging his role as head of the Dominican military, he seized control of the nation. To secure his election as president, his men brutalized political adversaries and intimidated voters. Trujillo solidified his authority by establishing a secret police force that violently quashed dissent, maintaining extensive spy networks, and controlling the press and national education. He monopolized industries and amassed a vast fortune. To bolster trade and his regime's strength, he supported American business interests in the country and upheld a staunch anti-Communist stance.

Trujillo's rule was marked by cruelty and fear. He frequently used torture and murder, instilling widespread terror among the Dominican populace through his police forces. The most notorious event of his dictatorship was the 1937 massacre of thousands of Haitian citizens. Haitian men, women, and children working as sugar-cane cutters or residing in Dominican territory were slaughtered by Trujillo's soldiers. Estimates of the death toll range from 13,000 to 20,000 people.

Trujillo's tactics also profoundly impacted the psychological and emotional lives of Dominicans. His presence permeated every aspect of Dominican life. For example, in 1936, he renamed the capital city Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo (Trujillo City) and erected signs proclaiming "God and Trujillo." Dominican children were taught to venerate him in schools. It was mandatory to display a picture of Trujillo in homes, with the inscription "In this house Trujillo is Chief" beneath it, as described by Alvarez in her essay "Genetics of Justice." People learned to censor themselves and lived in constant fear of retaliation. In the novel, Alvarez quotes a radio commentator who asserts that in authoritarian regimes, "The dictator manages to plant a little piece of himself in every one of us."

Political Resistance to Trujillo

Despite Trujillo's effective control, he could not completely eliminate criticism or clandestine opposition to his rule. He thwarted an insurrection in 1949 when exiled Dominicans attempted to overthrow the government. During the 1950s, an underground resistance movement emerged, organized into small units or "cells" comprising eight to ten members. While many members had Communist sympathies, others were simply committed to ending Trujillo's oppressive regime. An attempt by exiles to invade the country on June 14, 1959, failed, resulting in their deaths. These events gave rise to the Fourteenth of June Movement, which continued to resist Trujillo. Both the Mirabal sisters and Alvarez's parents were involved in the movement, which plotted to assassinate Trujillo in January 1960. However, their plans were discovered, leading to the imprisonment, torture, and often execution of movement members, while others fled.

Late in his regime, Trujillo faced increasing international criticism. In 1960, the Catholic Church began openly condemning him. The United States worried that his brutal rule might incite a revolution led by Communist rebels or sympathizers of Fidel Castro, who had overthrown Fulgencio Batista's government in Cuba and established a Communist regime. The Organization of American States was outraged by Trujillo's attempt to assassinate Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt in 1960. This, along with growing discontent among the wealthier citizens of the Dominican Republic, contributed to setting the stage for Trujillo’s downfall. On May 30, 1961, his car was ambushed by some of his former supporters, and he was shot and killed. Alvarez notes in "Genetics of Justice" that Dominicans refer to his death not as an assassination but as an "ajusticiamiento, a bringing of justice." In fact, the anniversary of his death is now a national holiday in the country.

The Post-Trujillo Era

Even after Trujillo's death, Dominican politics remained plagued by corruption. In 1962, Juan Bosch defeated Joaquín Balaguer, who had served as president under Trujillo, in the presidential elections. However, Bosch's liberal reforms faced opposition from the United States and the Dominican military. He was ousted by the military after only a few months in office. The subsequent years were marked by further turmoil, including rigged elections and civil war. In 1965, the United States sent Marines to occupy the country, and in 1966, Balaguer returned to the presidency in a corrupt election. Balaguer remained president until 1978, was re-elected in 1986, and served until 1996, despite being nearly ninety years old and almost blind and deaf. From 1960 to 1994, when the novel ends, political and economic reform remained elusive for the country.

Dominican Culture and Economy

The culture in which the Mirabals lived also imposed restrictions and expectations not directly related to Trujillo. The Dominican Republic is predominantly a Catholic country, and Catholic beliefs and rituals influence the lives of everyone in the novel, even those who are not overtly religious. There are also widespread societal views on the roles of men and women. Alvarez's characters frequently discuss the male "macho" ethic, which dictates that a man must demonstrate his strength, courage, and ability to manage his own life and family. In contrast, the roles of women, which the Mirabal sisters often challenge, are traditionally centered around domestic duties as wives and mothers. However, these limitations are not insurmountable. During the 1950s and 1960s, women were attending universities and many were pursuing professional careers. Nevertheless, societal pressures to marry and have children still significantly impacted their lives.

Economically, the country has frequently faced challenges due to its dependence on agricultural exports, which are vulnerable to changes in commodity prices. Farmers mainly produce sugar, but they also export coffee, cocoa beans, and tobacco. The economy further relies on mining exports, particularly gold and silver. During the 1980s and 1990s, tourism emerged as a significant sector, becoming the second-largest revenue source after agriculture. In the novel, Dedé even argues that the country has turned into "the playground of the Caribbean."

In the Time of the Butterflies is a fictionalized biography that follows the lives of four young women growing up in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Raphael Leónidas Trujillo. The book vividly portrays the terror and anxiety of that era. The main focus is on human rights, highlighting the devastating impact of a dictator's absolute control over a nation, where he holds the lives of its people hostage to his whims. Additionally, the book addresses the rights of women, the freedom to make choices, and the right to live in a free society. Violeta's prayer, "May I never experience all that it is possible to get used to," spoken while she is in a prison cell with her sisters, serves as a poignant reminder that people can lose their freedom if they become complacent.

Julia Alvarez, who fled to New York with her family as a child to escape Trujillo's regime, has observed that she feels her identity is divided. This is a common experience for those who must adjust to a new country and culture. In DISCovering Authors, she stated: "I am a Dominican, hyphen, American. As a fiction writer, I find that the most exciting things happen in the realm of that hyphen—the place where two worlds collide or blend together." This theme of seeking validation for one's identity is a recurring concern in Alvarez's work.

Raphael Leónidas Trujillo, born in 1891 to impoverished parents, is also known as El Jefe. He joined the Dominican Republic's National Guard in 1919, an institution established by the Americans during their occupation of the country from 1916 to 1924. The National Guard later became the Dominican Army, and Trujillo was promoted to general in 1927. After the Americans withdrew in 1924 following the election of Horacio Vasquez as president, Trujillo and the army ousted Vasquez in 1930, who had been seeking an illegal second term. Trujillo then orchestrated his own election to the presidency, marking the start of his dictatorship. His campaign tactics, which included using bands of thugs and army personnel armed with machine guns to intimidate the opposition, set the tone for his oppressive rule.

A month after Trujillo's election, a hurricane ravaged the country, and Trujillo exploited the disaster to strengthen his grip on power. With the national constitution suspended, Trujillo gained control over essential supplies like food, medicine, and building materials. He amassed personal wealth by seizing property and assets from his opponents and cemented his dominance over the nation. Thousands were killed, imprisoned, or tortured. The United States chose to overlook his human rights abuses due to the global depression and the rise of fascism, which led President Roosevelt to seek alliances with Latin American nations. Strategic interests, such as protecting the Panama Canal, made the U.S. willing to ignore human rights violations to maintain stability in the Caribbean. On the positive side, Trujillo managed to repay the foreign debt, balance the budget, reorganize the currency and banking system, and improve medical services. However, according to an article in DISCovering World History, "Murder, kidnapping, and imprisonment were established methods of dealing with dissent."

Charles D. McIntosh, writing for American Heritage, noted that "we Americans don't understand very well what it is to live under a dictatorship, so we tend not to become too disturbed when our government helps some general stay in power." Generalissimo Dr. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, who styled himself as Benefactor of the Fatherland and Father of the New Fatherland, ruled the Dominican Republic as a dictator for nearly thirty years, with support from the American Central Intelligence Agency. The rise of communism in Central and South America worried the U.S., which feared it would become one of the few democratic nations in the Americas. Consequently, the American government once again overlooked Trujillo's human rights abuses because he was staunchly anti-Communist. During this period, Trujillo was careful not to alienate his American backers.

McIntosh, who lived in the Dominican Republic from 1928 to 1939 while his father managed the National City Bank of New York, described life in the country in 1957 after returning to work for the Porto Rico Sugar Company. The week McIntosh began his new job, Trujillo doubled the minimum wage for sugar workers from $0.75 to $1.50 per day, much to the company's dismay. Trujillo's extensive spy network had precisely determined what the company could afford. The espionage was so pervasive that foreign employees living in the company compound were aware that their servants were spying for Trujillo. McIntosh remarked, "It took a while for newcomers to grasp that spies were everywhere and that one's tongue must be constantly guarded."

The gravity of the political climate hit McIntosh when his bicycle was stolen. After he reported the theft to the military police, the bicycle was recovered. During this process, he witnessed a brutal scene where an elderly peasant man, found with the bicycle, was savagely beaten. McIntosh detailed Trujillo's harsh stance on theft, begging, and prostitution. Anyone caught in these activities would vanish into La Fortaleza, a waterfront prison in Ciudad Trujillo—formerly Santo Domingo—never to be seen again. Bodies, often mutilated by sharks, frequently washed ashore near the prison's back wall chute. Complaining was out of the question.

Summarizing life under such a regime, McIntosh wrote, "Life in a totally controlled society buys its vaunted orderliness at an intolerable cost. That cost is the demise of the human spirit. Even for those who reside, as my wife and I did, as guests in a totalitarian regime, the pressure can become insupportable." If a foreigner, much better shielded than a native, feels this way, one can only imagine how much worse the native population suffers.

The Mirabal sisters began to despise Trujillo even before their family experienced personal loss. Patria's thoughts reflect this growing hatred: "There are the Perozos, not a man left in that family. And the Martínez Reyna and his wife murdered in their bed, and thousands of Haitians massacred at the border, making the river, they say, still run red—Ay, Dios santos!" As she starts to grasp Minerva's rebellion, the hatred is cautiously hidden to ensure their survival. The four young women will make different choices in their fight against Trujillo, ultimately playing a crucial role in his downfall. They refuse to let their human spirits be crushed.

In the postscript of the book, Alvarez noted: "November 25th, the day of their murder, is observed in many Latin American countries as the International Day Against Violence Toward Women. Obviously, these sisters, who fought one tyrant, have served as models for women fighting against injustices of all kinds."

• 1960: Trujillo governs the nation with an iron fist. There are no opposition parties, and no legitimate elections take place. Joaquín Balaguer serves as Trujillo's puppet president.
• 1996: Balaguer relinquishes the presidency after terms from 1966 to 1978 and 1986 to 1996, marked by fraudulent elections. Leonel Fernandez Reyna becomes the new president, elected with Balaguer's endorsement. The election is deemed fair. Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal, Dedé Mirabal's son, is the vice-president. Nelson Gonzalez Mirabal, Patria Mirabal's son, serves as the vice-president's chief aide. Minerva Mirabal's daughter, Minou Tavares Mirabal, holds the position of deputy foreign minister.
• 1960: A 137-foot obelisk is erected in Ciudad Trujillo by the dictator to honor himself.
• 1999: The obelisk, now located in the renamed Santo Domingo, is decorated with a mural of the four Mirabal sisters. It stands as a tribute to all who fought for freedom in the country.
• 1960: On November 25, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal are assassinated under Trujillo's orders.
• 1999: November 25 is declared the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in memory of the Mirabal sisters.