“Dede will bury us all in silk and pearls”
I wonder if when the girls heard their father make this prediction they had any idea how spot on he was about her future. Dede survived the assassination due to her ever present reluctance to participate in her sister’s revolutionary activities. As a result, her husband was not imprisoned and she did not have to make that deadly trip. However, as tragic as losing one’s family is having to live in their shadow for the remainder of your life while having to raise their children, seeing her sister’s faces in them every day, must be a living hell.
The ending the Mirabal sisters faced was just blatantly unfair. No one should have to endure the struggle they did, having been physically and emotionally ravaged by the regime of Trujillo, only to end up being tricked into death. However, the story never ended for Dede. It still continues to this day although still tragic, I cannot fathom the difficulty she faces in having to run that museum, or when she would attend a party celebrating the memory of her iconic sisters.
Dede must fight everyday to remember how her sisters used to be. Before they were national heroes and when they were just her sisters living altogether under one roof, dreaming of what they would one day become. I doubt that any of them envisioned, their father especially, the intricate role they would play their countries struggle for freedom. Let alone that they would be the source of inspiration for many Dominicans who longed to be free.
Dede goes on to wonder in the epilogue whether or not her sisters died in vain. It makes you think what would have happened if they had only been able to hold out until Trujillo was eventually assassinated himself, maybe they could have had a political future in the new Dominican Republic, or maybe they would have been able to use their statues as icons to steer the post-Trujillo world towards a more stable and bloodless path.
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