In the Time of the Butterflies

The 20th century for the Dominican population were very difficult and fearful times since in 1930, Rafael Trujillo, also known as “El Jefe”, started a bitter dictatorial regimen that lasted 31 excruciating years. This era is considered one of the bloodiest times in Dominican Republic history since it caused the torture and eventually death of more than 50,000 innocent people and revolutionaries. This scenario is basically exposed and narrated in the 1994 historical novel titled “In the time of the Butterflies”, written by Julia Alvarez which was born in New York, but raised in Dominican Republic. In this novel the reader can uncover all the terrifying experiences the Mirabal family and sisters had to go through since they venerated the image of President Trujillo until they started to feel and discover the cruel truth behind Trujillo’s murderous regimen, which lead them to join the revolution. The Mirabal sisters are named Minerva, Dedé, María Teresa and Patria. From this novel, they created a film in 2001 directed by Mariano Barroso and written by a couple of people including Julia Alvarez herself. The Mirabal family actually existed, and they represent the fear of expression and opposition to the regimen imposed the Dominican Republic families had to go through in order to be safe from danger.

There are several differences and similarities between the movie and the novel “In the time of the Butterflies”. In the book, the spouses of Minerva and María Teresa are moved to a remote prison which lead these women to wanting to visit them. They go along with their driver, Rufino, despite how dangerous it was for Minerva and María Teresa to be seen together. On their way home, the sisters were separated, taken into a field and individually killed by strangulation and clubbed to death. Another fact is that in almost in the beginning of the novel, Minerva and Trujillo rolled a dice and whoever got the highest won the bet they made. In the book, Minerva got the highest number however, both of them rolled the dice again calling it even. Another difference is when Minerva and María Teresa are taken to jail, Leandro is taken to watch María Teresa be tortured, unlike presented in the movie. Basically, all these facts happened all the way around in the film.

In the movie, there were some things that were changed from the book. For instance, in the movie the two Mirabal sisters die by strangulation and by being clubbed, but instead of being killed individually like in the novel, in the book the driver and Mirabal sisters die together. Also, another scene that didn’t go according to the novel is when Minerva and Trujillo rolled the dice. The first time Minerva rolled the dice, she won. Later, she asked the president if he would like to try and be victor of the bet they made, which was if Minerva won, he would be granting her the freedom of her father and the opportunity of her attending law school. If Trujillo won the bet,