“Before we were Free” By, Julia Alvarez

In “ Before we were Free” by Julia Alvarez, the lesson is to fight for what you believe in.   This book is set in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s during the Trujillo dictatorship.  The main character, Anita de la Torre, is a twelve year old girl who’s father is in a plot to take down Trujillo.  In the beginning of the story Anita’s cousins move away to America, while Anita’s family stays and plot how to fight the cruel dictatorship.  During all of the chaotic things that happen while trying to take down the dictatorship, Anita’s dad is killed and her sister moves to the United States for safety reasons.  By the end of the book what’s left of Anita’s family, Anita, her brother and her mom, are forced to leave the country.

  Anita’s dad is what you would call a freedom fighter because he organizes riots against the dictatorship of Trujillo, and participates in the assassination of Trujillo.  When Anita first learned this about her dad, she wanted to leave the country just like her cousins so they wouldn’t get killed by the government.  But the more she learns about the horrible way Trujillo treats the people of her country the more she wants to help her father take him down.  And in some ways she does, like the time when the SIM (the secret police that work for Trujillo) came to her house while her dad was having a meeting about organizing riots with other rebels.  She warned her dad who broke up the meeting and the other rebels left undetected.  Anita’s dad’s plan to kill Trujillo works, but the head of the military, the most important piece in the plan, double crosses the rebels.   He tells Trujillo’s son who was responsible for killing his dad.

     As you could expect, Trujillo’s son isn’t very pleased with his fathers death, so he places a price on all rebels and their families heads.  This is why Anita, her brother, and her mom have to flee from the Dominican Republic to the United States.  It takes a year but the United States government convinces Trujillo’s son to stop the bloodbath and give up his power.  In the end Anita’s dad got what he fought for, freedom for his country.  The dictatorship didn’t end right away, but it did all because the rebels fought for what they believed in.