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Chapter One
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Before We Were Free, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and Political Consciousness
Adulthood, Childhood, and Fear
Family and Politics
Storytelling and Trauma
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Papi goes to work early and takes Mundín along. Anita mopes at first, but then she hears the gardener singing and thinks it’ll be a good day. Suddenly, the gardener stops—six Volkswagens are coming up the drive. Men with guns pour out of the cars and ask Mami for Carlos García and his family. To Anita’s surprise, Mami acts like the Garcías should be home and allows the men to search the house. She won’t tell Anita who the men are. Anita finds Chucha, who says the men are SIM, the secret police. According to her, they “investigat[e] everyone and then disappear[] them.” When they search the bedrooms, the men act like they expect to find weapons. They enter Lucinda’s room without knocking and shove their bayonets under the bed. Lucinda still has her rollers in and a rash breaks out on her neck.
The arrival of the SIM agents is an understandably terrifying experience for Anita, especially since she doesn’t feel able to ask for much clarification. Just as she intuited before that Mami was lying to the García girls, here Antia knows for sure that Mami is lying; they all watched the Garcías leave yesterday, but Mami pretends that they might be home. In this situation, as before, Anita stays silent, knowing that Mami must have an important reason to lie. Chucha’s explanation raises more questions than it answers, such as what it means to “disappear” someone. In any case, though, the SIM raid makes it clear that not all is well in the Dominican Republic. Anita also has to confront the possibility that her parents might not be able to protect her—it’s probably terrifying to see Mami let the SIM in and allow them to poke around in Lucinda’s room.
Themes
When the men finish searching Lucinda’s room, Mami tells Lucinda and Anita to stay put. Anita wails; she’s terrified that the men will hurt Mami. One man turns to Anita and tells her to calm down, which makes Anita freeze. Once the door closes, Lucinda asks what’s going on. Anita shares what Mami said about the Garcías, but Lucinda grumbles that the SIM know where the Garcías are—they just want Papi. When Anita asks why, Lucinda looks at her like she’s dumb. But it’s comforting when Lucinda brushes Anita’s bangs back from her face. The girls wait until they can’t hear anything and creep out of the bedroom. They find Chucha, who looks ready to kill the SIM for dirtying her floors. The SIM trashed the compound and even destroyed Chucha’s coffin.
For a day now, Anita has wanted an explanation of what’s going on and hasn’t been provided one. Lucinda’s explanation, however, is both incomplete and terrifying; hearing that the SIM want Papi forces Anita to confront that her family is in danger. She also begins to see that the adults around her are involved in more deceptions than she knows—not only was Mami lying about the Garcías being home, but the SIM seemed to only be pretending to look for the Garcías, since they apparently want Papi instead. Lucinda drives home here how young Anita is, both by showing that she has a greater intuitive grasp on what’s going on than Anita does, and by comforting her as one would a small child—by touching her hair. With this, the novel offers hope that Anita and Lucinda will grow closer as Anita’s story continues.
Themes
Chucha says that the gardener and the cook are terrified and will leave. The SIM, however, stay parked at the top of the driveway. Later, Papi assures everyone that things will be fine. Anita doesn’t believe him, since she notices that no one eats. What’s even more concerning is that Mami and Papi make everyone sleep on the floor of their bedroom with the door locked. Anita wants to know why Mami and Papi are also sleeping on the floor and she’s concerned about Chucha, who’s alone in her own room. Mundín offers that bullets couldn’t penetrate Chucha’s coffin, frightening Anita even more.
Mami and Papi’s unwillingness to explain anything to Anita certainly exacerbates her anxiety. She’s confronted with all kinds of alarming new evidence that their lives are in danger, but nobody will say so outright, forcing Anita to try to piece together what’s happening by herself, which she’s too young to successfully do. Nonetheless, Anita is making good observations and connections, which shows that she’s on the cusp of learning to think critically.
Themes
The Volkswagens sit at the compound’s entrance for days. One always follows Papi to work and back. Anita constantly asks Mami if the SIM are really policemen. If they’re police, Anita reasons, they should trust them—but Mami just shushes her. Mami also keeps the children home from school “because something might happen,” even though Anita reminds her that Papi wants them to carry on as normal. Mami begs for Anita to stop asking questions she can’t answer, so Anita goes to Mundín. Mundín seems more anxious than usual; he’s started biting his nails again. He sends Anita to ask Papi.
Anita’s questions about trusting the police again betray her youth—just as she gained false confidence from the portrait of the country’s dictator, El Jefe, she now believes that if the SIM are really policemen, then they can’t be as bad as her family thinks. This shows that her lived experience is in conflict with the political beliefs that she has been taught in school (namely, that she should love and trust her government). It’s not totally clear if Mami and Papi won’t outright contradict Anita because they want to protect her from the truth that the government is dangerous, or because they’re afraid that saying what they believe out loud could endanger the family. Regardless, Anita has found herself in a terrible vacuum of information, and everything that she sees and hears is confusing and terrifying to her.
Themes
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Anita follows Papi into the living room when the phone rings one night. She hears something about “some butterflies in a car accident” and asks about it. Papi is tense, but he explains that the butterflies are “special ladies” who were in an accident. Finally, Anita goes to Lucinda and offers a back rub in exchange for information. On the patio, Lucinda explains in a whisper that the SIM probably hid microphones and are listening to their conversations. Anita notes that they haven’t done anything wrong, but Lucinda whispers that it’s about Toni, their uncle whom they haven’t seen in a few months. She spells Toni’s name in English.
While so far it has seemed like everyone was keeping information from Anita because of her youth, now it becomes clear that there’s more to the story—her family can’t speak freely about what’s going on because their house may be bugged. Answering Anita’s questions honestly could put the family in danger. Lucinda is closer to Anita’s age and she may be willing to finally fill Anita in because she understands better than their parents how not having any information could make Anita more afraid rather than less. But this information is still confusing to Anita because she thinks of her family as good people—she can’t understand why the government would target them. Lucinda’s insistence that they’re in trouble because of Tío Toni makes her consider that her family might not be as innocent and as normal as she thought. The butterflies Papi talks about refer to the Mirabal sisters, who led the resistance movement against Trujillo (whose nickname is “El Jefe”) until they were assassinated.
Themes
Lucinda explains that Tío Toni was involved in a plot to get rid of their dictator, but she won’t say Trujillo’s name. Anita is confused. She thought they liked El Jefe (whose real name is Rafael Trujillo), since his picture hangs in their entryway. Anita notes that even Mrs. Brown has a picture of El Jefe in the classroom, but Lucinda explains that everyone has to hang his picture since Trujillo is a dictator. Anita isn’t sure what a dictator does, but she doesn’t ask. Lucinda says that the SIM uncovered the plot and arrested Tío Toni’s friends. No one knows where Toni is; he might be in hiding or he might be in custody. Lucinda shudders when Anita asks if they’ll “disappear” Toni. This is why the extended family left—the SIM are after them. When Anita asks why their family hasn’t left yet, Lucinda says they can’t abandon Toni.
In Anita’s understanding, people hang portraits out of admiration for the person depicted. However, Lucinda upends this simplistic understanding, suggesting that the adults in Anita’s life are only pretending to admire Trujillo—another example of adults being deceptive, seemingly to keep everyone safe. This also introduces Anita to the possibility that Trujillo is far more dangerous and powerful than she realized. He has the power to make everyone hang his portrait—even people Anita thought were strong and independent, like Papi. Anita’s youth also shows through when she doesn’t know what a dictator does. This, though, is probably by design—Trujillo probably won’t let schools teach something that might make him look bad. The notion that the family is still in the Dominican Republic because they can’t leave Toni is frightening—Toni is in major trouble with the government, and it has forced the entire rest of their family to leave. This hints at the severity of the situation in which Anita’s family has found themselves.
Themes
Two weeks after the Garcías leave, Mr. Washburn visits. He remarks on the “little ole bugs” while looking at the Volkswagens. Then, he and Papi go to the study to speak in English. After a bit, Papi calls Anita in and says they’re going to have new neighbors: Mr. Washburn and his family are going to move into the compound. This means that the SIM might not bother the family anymore. The best part is that Mr. Washburn has two kids, Sam and Susie. Sam is Anita’s age. A few days later, Anita watches the Washburns through the hibiscus hedge. The workmen set up a trampoline and a boy with hair that looks bleached jumps on it. The boy yells “Howdy Doody!” at Anita when he notices her, shakes her hand, and is shocked she doesn’t own a TV.
Mr. Washburn’s comment about the “little ole bugs” is clearly some kind of code. Anita is pretty sure that she knows what he’s talking about, thanks to Lucinda’s explanation: he’s referencing the house being bugged, which is why nobody can speak freely about what’s going on. In this moment, it’s clear that Anita is losing her innocence—rather than feeling confused and frightened, or asking for an explanation that nobody will provide, she figures out what’s going on all by herself without saying anything that might endanger the family. However, despite her growing maturity, she’s also behaving like a child here. When the Washburn family moves in, it’s clear even to Anita that it’s to protect their family from the SIM. Nonetheless, Anita finds this news noteworthy not because it implies that they will be safer, but because it means that she’ll have a playmate. Anita still cares far more about being a normal kid and having friends than about the political issues engulfing her country or the danger that her family is in.
Themes
Anita tells Sam about the compound. Her grandparents bought it years ago and their children each built a house when they got married. She says sadly that her nuclear family is all that’s left, since everyone else is in the United States. Sam says proudly that he’s from the U.S. and it’s the best country in the world. Anita wants to argue, but she’s not sure anymore if the Dominican Republic is the greatest. She offers to show Sam the property and likes him immediately when he doesn’t make fun of her clumsy English. They spend the afternoon exploring the lily pond, the old Taino cemetery, and the empty plots. After a while, Mrs. Washburn calls Sam back. He says, “See you later, alligator,” which gets on Anita’s nerves because it seems like he's comparing her to an ugly animal. She now hates being called cotorrita (“little parrot”), too.
The compound itself illustrates how Anita’s family thinks about what family is and should be. According to her grandparents, each generation should provide for the next in whatever way they can—and since the grandparents did so by buying land, it had the effect of keeping the extended family geographically and emotionally close to one another. The current political crisis is ripping the family apart, though—it’s not clear to Anita whether family loyalty should mean going to the United States with her other relatives or staying to try to help Toni. Anita’s interaction with Sam recalls the opening scene in Anita’s classroom when Anita reflected that Dominican students (as opposed to white foreign students) always got the worst parts in the play. Here, too, Anita is made to feel inferior for being Dominican, since Sam implies that the United States is better than the Dominican Republic, seemingly without realizing how this might feel to Anita. And Anita’s reaction shows her growing understanding of her situation; she wants to defend her country, but she’s no longer sure how to do that since she has begun to mistrust everything she has ever been told about her government. Nonetheless, Anita knows that she wants to start demanding that people respect her—especially by having them stop using animal nicknames.
Themes
The next day, as Sam and Anita explore the orchid shed, Anita notices that Tío Toni’s house is open. It’s supposed to be locked up. Sam looks nervous. They creep to the door and can see someone moving inside. Terrified, they race back to the trampoline and decide that they won’t tell their parents what they found. That might frighten their parents and then they won’t be able to explore anymore.
It’s understandable that Anita and Sam would choose to keep their discovery a secret—they have no idea who is creeping around and what it means, and they don’t want to say anything that might keep them from playing together. This, however, suggests that they don’t fully grasp the magnitude of the situation—if someone is in Toni’s house, Anita’s parents probably want to know for everyone’s safety.
Themes
