How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay

Julia Alvarez is a renowned Latina author. Like Miguel Guzmán in the Tía Lola series, she is Dominican American and was born in New York City. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), uses the lives of four sisters to examine the immigrant experience, the impact of class and gender on identity, and the struggles facing the post-colonial Dominican Republic. The bildungsroman draws from the author’s childhood on the island. Like Alvarez’s own family, the fictional Garcías flee to the US after their father is involved in a failed attempt to overthrow the brutal military dictator, Rafael Trujillo. Her second novel, In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), is a work of historical fiction set during Trujillo’s rule. The book is based on the true story of the Mirabal sisters, who were murdered for their opposition to the dictator and became national heroes known as the Mariposas (the Spanish word for butterflies). Her 2002 young adult novel Before We Were Free explores these themes from the perspective of 11-year-old Anita de la Torre.