Reviews: (by author)

Alvarez, Julia. Before We Were Free. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002. Paperback.

An ordinary eleven year old girl's life is completely upturned in Julia Alvarez's coming of age novel, Before We Were Free. Set in a very unstable Dominican Republic, the book chronicles an oppressive dictatorship in the 1960's as told through the eyes of Anita De La Torre. The upheaval begins while Anita's cousin is suddenly pulled from their classroom to immediately flee with her family to the United States. Devastated, Anita looks to the picture of her revered leader General Trujillo that hangs on the wall of all Dominican homes. She prays for courage.

Anita's life continues to unravel when the secret police savagely raid her home and she overhears her father's strange whisperings on the phone in the middle of the night. She begs her parents for answers but, is told "Not now, Anita!" Her parents tell her to live life normally. Anita wonders how normal it is to sleep with her family on the floor and to have to worry about talking too loudly because the maid might be a spy. Her big sister Lucinda finally clues her in: Their family is involved in an underound movement to remove Trujillo from power. Now Anita feels torn between not wanting to be treated as a little kid, and wishing she still were one so she wouldn't know the complications of the adult world.

Told in the first person by Anita, her spirited voice brings a unique perspective to the victims of tyranny. In juxtaposition with the political turmoil, Alvarez beautifully weaves in Anita's transition into young adulthood. We walk with Anita as she steps into the uncharted territories of her first love, menstruation, and finding her identity.

Wanting to impress her love, Anita is excited to be wearing one of her big sister's dresses at a quinceanera party. The party is quickly ruined when the dictator crashes the fiesta. His lustful eye targets Lucinda, and she is forced to flee the country to escape his advances.

Anita does not quite know what to do with all the emotions that are building inside of her. She turns inward, sharing her feelings only with her diary. ("It's like my whole world is coming undone but when I write, my pencil is a needle and thread and I am stitching the scraps back together.")

Eventually, Anita and her mother make it to New York and meet up with Lucinda, but her father and uncle do not. After struggling in a new land, Anita finally finds a moment of peace in her heart as she remembers her father's words: "I want my children to be free, no matter what. Promise me you'll spread your wings and fly."

Julia Alvarez has crafted a remarkable work of fiction while giving a powerful history lesson. Young readers will have the opportunity to realize their freedom is not to be taken for granted and to have compassion for the victims and oppression violence. She also uses the setting of Anita's classroom to breakdown deeper political issues without making it boring or complicated.

This narrative will keep young readers' attention with its suspense, action and well-developed characters. It is beautifully written with stirring detail: "Mami's face is a china cup someone has dropped on the floor." There are also humorous moments that break up the tension, like the American consul's son telling his friends that he has amnesia when he really means amnesty. Most importantly, young readers will identify with our protagonist, enabling them to experience the effects of tyranny that unfortunately still goes on in parts of this world. This is a story close to Alvarez's heart because at a similar age she was forced to flee her native Dominican Republic. Many of her family and friends were left behind and it was for them that she wrote this book. Their gift becomes our gift.

Shelley Moreno, March 2006

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