(no subject)

[skygiants]

You know when you read a novel about historical figures, and you're like, "you know, that was fine, but what I REALLY want now is the detailed biography with quotations and citations and big blank speculative spots where everyone's motivations should be because motivations are locked in people's heads and you can't ever really know them for sure?" Yes.

So I read In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez's novel about the incredibly fascinating Mirabal sisters, known as "las mariposas." Three out of four of the Mirabals became involved in the resistance against the Trujillo dictatorship and were murdered by said dictatorship; the date of their death is now the UN-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, although "shot for their role in the Resistance" actually seems to me to be to be one of the more gender-neutral violent deaths available to women. ... that was a very strange sentence, but I think you know what I mean? Anyway it also starts the 16 Days of Activism leading up to Human Rights Day on December 10th, so that's in theme.

Anyway! My point is, I would now like to know ALL ABOUT the Mirabals, but there do not seem to be any nonfiction books available in English that I could discover. And, I mean, the Mirabals are Dominican national heroes, not USian, so it's cool that most of the info about them is in Spanish and has not been translated! It's just also personally frustrating. (But if I'm wrong, and you know of a good resource, please let me know!)

I realize I'm talking a lot about the Mirabals and not a lot about In the Time of the Butterflies as a novel. Which, again ... it was fine! I'm not sure the balance of coming-of-age and domestic drama :: revolutionary activity worked particularly well for me, which is weird, because normally I'm all about balancing the dramatic moments of history with normal human concerns. I don't know, I kept getting this weird sense that Julia Alvarez was somewhat underplaying the actual revolutionary activities and accomplishments of the Mirabals in order to make them more generally relatable? But I have no basis on which to say that because I don't know any of the facts! tl;dr would like the biography.

Comments

[aberration]

This is one of my friend S's favorite books, but I know really little about it. Mostly it came up on the topic of the million Great Gatsby screen adaptations and how there hadn't been ones for our favorite high school books (mine being Invisible Man). And then we... got quiet.

That being said, there apparently have been screen adaptations of Butterflies/at least one biopic about the Mirabal sisters.

[skygiants]

There was an adaptation that had Frida Kahlo in it! Also the documentary that Heather's talking about below, which I will probably end up watching eventually out of desperation for facts, even though I find the biography-reading experience much more rewarding than the biopic-watching experience generally.

[thewickedlady]

There isn't a lot of books in English. I haven't figured out why! Dede, the surviving sister, wrote a book for Random House, but it still has not been translated in whole. Even did an audio book!

There's Codename: Butterflies by a Chilean director that supposed to be good and had interviews with both Dede and other members of the underground while they were still alive. Again, not a book, but if you want more info!

[skygiants]

I WOULD LOVE TO READ THAT BOOK. Translators! I am shaking a tiny entitled fist.

I've heard of the documentary! I probably will end up watching it at some point, although I tend to be a lot lazier about making time to watch docs than read books, because I REALLY DO want more info.