Dede in the Garden with her Family

Dear Diary,

Today, as my family and I sat outside our home, we heard some rustling in the bushes.  It must have been those guards.

Love,
Dede

In the Time of the Butterflies - Historical Context

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina (1891-1961)

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was born to a lower-middle-class family in San Cristóbal in the southern part of the Dominican Republic west of the capital, Santo Domingo.

In 1916, fearful that the Dominican Republic's faltering economy might destabilize the region, the United States sent Marines to occupy the island and protect shipping approaches to the Panama Canal, completed only two years earlier. During the American occupation, Trujillo was a cadet in the Dominican Army. He was trained by U.S. Marines, and rose quickly through the ranks. By 1925, he was the army's commander-in-chief.

In 1930, President Horacio Vásquez resigned after a revolt against his government. The seizure of power in 1930 confirmed Trujillo as the most powerful man in the Dominican Republic; control of the country was now in his hands. He ran unopposed in a bogus election. For the next three decades, he ruled as an absolute dictator who controlled both the government and the army either directly or through a series of hand-picked puppets.

Trujillo and his family also dominated every aspect of the country's economy, and amassed a great fortune while the masses of the Dominican people suffered from deprivation and political repression. Critics were subjected to torture, loss of property, and harsh prison sentences. In 1937, Trujillo ordered the massacre of thousands of unarmed black Haitians living in the Dominican Republic to racially homogenize the region, avenge old animosities with Haiti, and establish firm control of the country's borders.

By the 1950s, Trujillo's regime faced criticism from home and abroad. On June 14, 1959, with the help of Fidel Castro, Dominicans exiled to Cuba led a failed invasion of the Dominican Republic. Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt had been an outspoken critic of Trujillo, and the Dominican ruler despised him for it. Two assassination attempts orchestrated by Trujillo against Betancourt proved to be serious miscalculations, and fueled international outrage against Trujillo. The Organization of American States (OAS) voted to sever diplomatic ties with his regime and impose economic sanctions on the country.

Meanwhile, the underground revolutionary movement in the Dominican Republic continued to gain strength. As leaders in the group, the Mirabal sisters won admiration throughout the country for their efforts to restore democracy. Ironically, their murder on November 25, 1960, ordered by Trujillo, signaled the end of the dictator's power: six months later, Trujillo was assassinated on the road outside Cuidad Trujillo (now, again, Santo Domingo) by a group of gunmen, some of whom had been members of Trujillo's inner circle.

The Dominican Republic under Trujillo

1930s Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina becomes president of the Dominican Republic through rigged elections; in the same year a terrible hurricane hits the country, 1930.

Trujillo orders the massacre of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic, 1937.

World War II begins, 1939.

1940s The Dominican Republic declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy, 1941.

Trujillo arranges to repay all the foreign debt due to the United States, 1942.

World War II ends and the United Nations is established, with the Dominican Republic as one of its founding members, 1945.

1950s Julia Alvarez is born in New York City, 1950.

Trujillo orders every household in the Dominican Republic to display a gold plaque that reads, “In this house, Trujillo is chief,” 1955.

Dominican intelligence and secret police are combined to create the State Security Secretariat for surveillance and control of the population, 1957.

Exiled Dominicans stage a failed invasion that spawns the Fourteenth of June Movement opposing Trujillo's regime, 1959.

1960s Julia Alvarez's family is forced to leave the Dominican Republic for New York after her father's participation in the underground movement is discovered, 1960.

Government agents ordered by Trujillo murder Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal, November 25, 1960.

Trujillo is assassinated, 1961.

http://www.neabigread.org/books/timeofthebutterflies/readers03.php