I truly enjoyed this book.

Before reading it, I knew absolutely nothing about the killing of the Mirabel sisters in the Dominican Republic on November 25, 1960. My knowledge of the dictator Trujillo was mainly through Mario Vargas Llosa's book, "The Feast of the Goat". So, from a historical perspective, this book was a real eye-opener.

The Mirabel family had a prosperous business. However, when the dictator made inappropriate advances on Minerva, one of the daughters, and she rejected him, the family had to pay a very high price. As they uncovered Trujillo's dark side, they were drawn into the anti-Trujillo movement, and the consequences were tragic.

The book tells the story from each woman's unique perspective, with Dede, the only survivor, at the center. I found Mate's descriptions of prison in her diary extremely harrowing at times. One can understand how Patria tries to "smooth" things over with the local police captain to make life a bit easier. Minerva gets permission to go to law school only to find out that her degree is invalid, and as a result, she turns to the revolutionary side, keeping the fire of resistance burning in the story. There is a lot that happens in this book, and it seems to cover every aspect (sometimes for better or for worse).

Kudos to Alvarez for bringing each woman to life so vividly. Her own family was exiled in the same year as the Mirabel deaths, which adds an extra layer of depth to the tale.

I read this book in Spanish, which made the experience even more enriching.

When you pick up a biography to read and you already know the end, the only thing that matters to you is the story of their life, which requires two elements: 1. It must be engaging, 2. It must be based on the full truth.

In "In the Time of the Butterflies," it is engaging, but it is not a book that is 100% in line with the truth. The bad part of the story is that this fact is told to you in the last few pages of the book, after you have read all about the characters and gone through their ups and downs, cried and laughed, and then boom! Someone tells you that what you read was not very true and that the author, I, wanted to create a picture of them based on my own beliefs, so that they would not be so saintly and mythical. Of course, the writings in the book should not be too far from the truth, because after all, it is something that happened and the path that was taken; perhaps it only means that it did not happen exactly at the moment it is mentioned in the book and its consequences were a little less or more, but with all of this, the last few pages of the book were more frustrating for me than enlightening, and well, I didn't like it.

As for whether I recommend this book or not? First, we have to see what we are dealing with and what our expectations are from it. The story of the book is a narrative close to the truth that does not deviate too much from the revolutionary and combative nature of the characters and mainly focuses on the tragic aspect of their lives and gives us a hint of the details of their personal lives. It also does not add much more in terms of historical and political context compared to "The House on Mango Street." Of course, if you have read "The House on Mango Street" before this book, and if you have, you will probably agree with me that it is much more charming and readable than this book, and well, after all, it is Cisneros, of course! But well, what I liked in this book was the female spirit of the characters and the narrative, and what bothered me, the bother that perhaps makes me think that this book is worth recommending to others, was the part that said: "These are the people who were silent that day, just when only a small voice from each of them could be turned into a collective cry and the world could not ignore it...". The silence that led to the death of many and in the end, those who remained silent were left to eat the fruit of the tree that the Butterflies and the other fighters had planted. If the silent voice of our day sits on a tree and bears fruit, how easily that fruit can come down from our sadness! This was the part of the book that hurt me, and I think that yes, if it can bother someone like this, it is worth reading these days.