She slowly becomes more aware that life under Trujillo has become increasingly dangerous for many, including her own family members who are a part of the movement to kill the dictator. In fact, at the start of the novel, Anita looks to El Jefe’s picture at times when she needs strength. In the beginning, Anita has little knowledge of politics and the underground movement to assassinate Trujillo. Anita de la Torre may be only twelve but she already knows what it is like to have her family members suddenly disappear and a secret police raiding her home. Some, like her cousins, the Garcias, flee the country, while others go missing or are arrested. Julia Alvarez’s Before We Were Free is a moving coming-of-age account of a young girl who grows up in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship in the late 1950s. In Before We Were Free, Alvarez explores the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic through the eyes of Anita de la Torre, a 12-year-old girl in 1960 whose family slowly reduces in number during the novel. Like many young children, she is curious and talkative. Anyone who has read Julia Alvarez’s adult novels will enjoy the connections made in Before We Were Free to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies. From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girls struggle to be free. In Julia Alvarez’s first young adult novel, Before we were Free, we meet 12-year-old Anita de la Torre.
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