Before We Were Free

The revolutionaries choose the name “The Butterflies” because they wish to release the citizens of the Dominican Republic from their cocoons of oppression and help transform them into something beautiful and independent. But butterflies are also at their most vulnerable when they are unconscious and waiting inside their cocoons. When they emerge, they are capable of both flight and beauty, and serve as a reminder to Anita of her father’s wish for freedom, as she sees the outlines of the butterflies in the New York snow.

Chucha provides a stark counterpoint to the routine Catholicism of Anita’s family, and is a consistent reminder of the possibility of magic. She sleeps in a coffin, to be closer to the next world. But for Chucha, this is sensible, not morbid. She speaks in omens, riddles, and portents, and treats dreams as if they contain literal truths. But as the events of the novel unfold, Chucha’s predictions come true more frequently than those of the revolutionaries, raising the question of whether her powers and visions might actually be genuine.