Alvarez sheds light on the Mirabals In the Time of Butterflies flutters into Middlebury minds

Author: Annie Onishi

Middlebury College Writer- In-Residence Julia Alvarez gave a lecture entitled "Chasing the Butterflies" last Thursday to kick off the College's observance of the "16 Days of Activism Against Gendered Violence" campaign.

The '16 Days' Campaign is an internationally organized effort to eliminate violence against women. The campaign period spans World AIDS Day, the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre and ends on Human Rights Day. It started on Nov. 25, which marks the anniversary of the 1960 murders of the Mirabal sisters, three women who led a revolutionary movement against the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

Alvarez wrote the book In the Time of Butterflies, which tells the story of the lives of the Mirabal sisters. Alvarez's lecture included a slideshow and readings from a journal documenting the research that went into the book.

Alvarez began by recounting her very first memories of the Mirabal sisters. She remembers her father hiding a copy of Time magazine from her and her sister; she also remembers wanting to return to the Dominican Republic, but her parents would say, "We're lucky to be in America."

Alvarez's father had participated in the underground revolution started by the Mirabals, and barely escaped the same fate.

For Alvarez, her relationship with the Mirabal story began in 1986 when she was asked to write a paragraph about a Latina heroine for a postcard. Alvarez began to research the sisters and discovered that nothing had been written about the women.

"It's a very oral culture. Everyone has heard of them, but there is nothing written down about them," said Alvarez.

As Alvarez traveled around the Dominican Republic, visiting the house where the sisters grew up, the church where they were married and attended mass, the torture prison where they were held and eventually the site where they were killed, she felt that "the past became the present" and she said, "Everywhere I went it seemed I could reach out and touch history, and there were so many living voices who could tell their piece."

After the initial research trip, Alvarez wrote the paragraph for the postcard and put the project away. For Alvarez, the story was "too hard and too horrible."

Eventually Alvarez was led back to the story in 1992 when she met the fourth Mirabal sister, Bebe. For Alvarez, Bebe "was the one left behind to tell the story of the other three." After this meeting, Alvarez "decided once and for all to write the story of the Mirabal sisters… only by making them real and alive could I make the story seem real for the rest of us."

Alvarez's presentation included slides from the beautiful tropical landscapes of the Dominican Republic to the run-down shanty town where the sisters were murdered.

She recounted amusing anecdotes, like the time she was trying to gain access to the church in which the woman had been married, but couldn't find the priest with the key. It turned out that the priest was at a discotheque across the street - his explanation was that he "gets invited to these things and has to go."

By the end of the research trip, Alvarez had gained a profound understanding and respect for the sisters. "I felt that we had traveled the routes of their lives to the very place where they ended. By this time I had fallen in love with the girls; it was time to hole up in Vermont and write the story of the Mirabals."

At this point in the presentation, Alvarez switched gears and related her research for the '16 Days' campaign. She discussed the AIDS epidemic in the Dominican Republic, and said that 85 percent of all AIDS cases in the Caribbean are in the Dominican Republic. Because people can't make a living in agriculture, they turn to low-wage jobs in factories and sexual tourism to support themselves and their families.

In order to combat this trend, Alvarez and husband Bill Eichner started a sustainable coffee farm in the Dominican Republic to help small local farmers compete with the larger coffee plantations. In addition to helping the land, they started a public school for children as well as literacy programs for adults. The farm is called Alta Gracia and is named for La Virgin de Alta Gracia, the patron saint of the people of the Dominican Republic. Cafe Alta Gracia has partnered with the Vermont Coffee Company to sell the coffee stateside.

First-year Marie Horbar said of the presentation, "I've read a few of Julia Alvarez's books. They're really quite moving and I wanted to hear her speak. Plus I'm from Vermont and buy her coffee."

A collection of Alvarez's books is available at the Middlebury College Store, and more information about Alvarez, her work and Cafe Alta Gracia is available at her We site www.juliaalverez.com.