Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of Butterflies tells the story of the three Mirabal sisters: Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa. María Teresa, nicknamed Mate, is the youngest of the sisters. Throughout the story, the reader follows her story through her diary as she grows from an immature child to a revolutionary woman.

In chapter 7 Mate continues to have nightmares after Papá dies. She is angry at the wedding that his mistress and illegitimate daughters attend. This anger impacts her dreams. In her dreams, she believes that it is her father’s funeral and that she is getting ready for her wedding, but she cannot find her wedding dress. She looks everywhere and eventually looks in Papá’s coffin to find the dress torn up. In her dream, she removes the pieces of wedding dress and finds her Papá beneath, smiling back at her.

María Teresa’s dream fits with her state of mind at the time. She claims to hate all men but also feels trapped by them. She begins asking about boys, but when she is told to pick one of her cousins, Raúl and Berto, she says she wants to go to school and not marry either of them. Eventually, she does marry a revolutionary and fights. Mate and her sisters are killed when they are ambushed as they are crossing the mountains to visit their husbands in prison.