Before We Were Free

Module 3
February 1-7

Before We were Free
by Julia Alvarez

Alvarez, Julia. Before we were free. Random House, 2002. ISBN: 044023784X

Synopsis:
Twelve year-old Anita is taken out of school with her cousin Carla to learn that her aunt and uncle are going to America. This is the last of Anita’s extended family that has left for America. Anita has never questioned her loyalty to El Jeffe, the leader of the Dominican Republic. However, when the secret police search their home, twelve-year-old Anita begins to question the loyalty that she has always had for the leader. Anita also begins to realize that her parents do not have unquestioning loyalty towards El Jeffe. Anita realizes that her parents are plotting against El Jeffe, and they get caught after carrying out his demise. Anita is forced into hiding with her Mamita while her Papi and Tio Toni are captured by the secret police. Anita and her Mamita are in hiding for some time before they are smuggled out of the country to America. Once they have been there for a few months, Anita learns that the dictatorship has fallen in the Dominican Republic, but when it fell as a last act of vengeance, all the remaining prisoners were killed. Anita and her family decide to stay in America with her uncles and aunts until their wounds heal.

My View of the World:
This book is an excellent story of the life of people underneath a dictator. It gives the reader a story from a child of her perception of their life. Her parents rebel against the current dictator while trying to protect their children. She is aware of the bigger events without totally realizing what the implication of them. This is a great book for middle school and high school to help students understand how life is for people who do not live in a democracy. It is a very powerful story, and it was able to be told without being too graphic.

Book Reviews:
Before We Were Free (Knopf, 2002) provides a realistic story about what it might have been like for a young cousin of the Garcia girls who did not flee the Dominican Republic to live through the turbulent dictatorship El Jeffe. The account is related from the viewpoint of Anita, an observant but naive 12-year-old upper middle class girl. For the de la Torre family, the weeks following the Garcias' departure from their island home are filled with peculiar strangers, mysterious adult activities, strained social affairs and, ultimately, a horrible sojourn in hiding. Alvarez's protagonist is credible for her age, and the events that she witnesses-including El Jeffe's sexual advances on a slightly older girl, her own father's involvement with the revolution, and the terrors of living in hiding-are presented realistically. Alvarez reads her own work here, giving Anita a clear and determined voice. This is an essential addition to audiobook collections in schools and public libraries, both for curriculum support and as an engaging book enjoyment. Both the story and the performance are deeply satisfying and will spark interest in a variety of social sciences, as well as in Alvarez's related books.-
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. School Library Journal, November 1, 2004

By the morning of her 12th birthday, in December, 1960, Anita de la Torre's comfortable childhood in her home in the Dominican Republic is a thing of the past. The political situation for opponents of the dictator Rafael Trujillo has become so dangerous that nearly all of her relatives have emigrated to the U.S., leaving only her uncle, T'o Toni, somewhere in hiding, and her parents, still determined to carry on the resistance. Over the next year, the girl becomes increasingly aware of the nature of the political situation and her family's activities. Once her father's cotorrita, or talkative parrot, she grows increasingly silent. When the dictator is assassinated, her father and uncle are arrested, her older brother is sheltered in the Italian Embassy, and Anita and her mother must go into hiding as well. Diary entries written by the child while in hiding will remind readers of Anne Frank's story. They will find Anita's interest in boys and her concerns about her appearance, even when she and her mother can see no one, entirely believable. Readers will be convinced by the voice of this Spanish-speaking teenager who tells her story entirely in the present tense. Like Anita's brother Mund'n, readers will bite their nails as the story moves to its inexorable conclusion.
-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. School Library Journal, August 1, 2002.


In My World:
This book would be an excellent use for a read aloud over time. It gives a good description of life under a dictatorship that is failing. I would use it to discuss what life is like in other countries under different types of governments. I would also use it to teach about different types of governments. It would also be a good tool to talk about people’s differences. When Anita comes to America, she clearly does not fit in or feel like she should fit in.