Summary: The novel opens up with Dede one of the four Mirabal sisters who sets up a meeting with a gringa dominicana. In the town that Dede lives there are no street signs or addresses because of the campesinos who are not able to read, therefore it would be pointless to have street names when they cannot make a use of them. When the gringa dominicana asks Dede how to get to her home, Dede gives her details on what should be surrounding her and where she should go. During the interview, Dede gives the woman a tour around her home, and gives and explanation to certain things in the home, like the pictures of all the sister. In which Dede realizes she misses her younger self more than her sisters. Dede tells the woman a brief summary of her life, starting from 1943 when papa her dad predicted she was going to be the millionaire of the family. She also says that she had to ask her parents for permission for everything, even to go away to school. Patria one of the sisters was the most religious she wanted to become a nun, mom approved but papa did not he always said it was a waste of a pretty girl. As Patria got her way to go to a conventional school, things begin to get complicated. Minerva is friends with a girl named Sinita, Sinita explains to Minerva that Trujillo a horrible dictator has killed her family. However, she has fallen in love with him and is expecting a baby from him. Also, she was to live in his house with the rest of Trujillo's girlfriends.
Maria's part is told through a diary, she reflects upon her school life and how the girls used to take her diary and make fun of her. Minerva also says that she has been hanging around with the revolutionary Hilda, and she must bury anything that involves Hilda because she has been caught hanging in the convent school. Next Patria discusses her struggles with sex temptations. During this time that she is trying to listen for God's call she meets Pedrito and knows she must be with him. She soon moves with Pedrito and they have children.
Quote: "A chill goes through her, for she feels it in her bones, the future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past, and she doesn't want to be the only one left to tell their story" (Alvarez 10)
Reaction: This quote comes up as Dede finishes telling the gringa dominicana part of her life. At first I did not quite get what she meant, I thought that she was just ending her interview with the woman, but she actually meant more by that. Dede was referring to the comment her father had made one night when the family was under the anacahuita tree, and her father has made a smart comment. They did not realize how much that comment would later mean, once her sisters started dying.
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