Previous
Anita’s Diary
Themes
and Colors
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
Anita is sitting in front of the TV at the Hotel Beverly. Her grandparents, Mamita and Papito, are renting an apartment here, and Anita and Mami have been here about six weeks. It’s September 18, 1961. Anita watches as much TV as she can to distract herself, but this annoys Mami. The first time that Anita saw a commercial for Chiquita bananas, she was terrified. She thought the Chiquita banana lady was saying, “I’m Anita Banana and I’m here to stay.” Lucinda explained that the lady is Chiquita Banana, and “she’s here to say.” Anita feels like she’s seeing signs and ghosts everywhere, and she doesn’t have Chucha to help decipher them.
Anita is terrified by the commercial seemingly because she interprets it as a sign that she has come to the United States for good and will not be able to return home to the Dominican Republic. It distresses her to be seeing so many mysterious signs, especially without having Chucha to help her understand them; Chucha has always helped her to make sense of the world, and without her, Anita feels lost. Her fear and anxiety are a result of her traumatic flight from the Dominican Republic, and they’re also a natural reaction to living in a new place. She doesn’t know how to interpret even normal things like commercials because everything is so new to her.
Active
Themes
Mami is on the phone with Mr. Washburn. She calls him twice a week for news of Papi and Tío Toni. Once again, he has no news. Once Mami hangs up, she says that the U.S. is trying to make Trujillo Junior leave the country and release the prisoners. Papito reacts to the news hopefully, while Mamita sobs. Lucinda, Mami, and Anita cry too.
At this point, Anita’s family feels like they have no choice but to lean on each other and grieve—it seems clear that Papi will not be returning home, even though the still hold out a sliver of hope. As they cry together, Anita is reminded that she has lots of people here who will support her and care for her going forward, even if Papi never comes.
Active
Themes
Anita says that on the day she left the Dominican Republic, she had no idea she was leaving. The men in the house weren’t the SIM; it was Wimpy and some paratroopers coming to airlift Anita and Mami to safety. They flew to a tarmac where Wimpy helped many people board a plane. As the plane took off, Anita wondered if Oscar would know that she was gone. She also thought of all the people and places she might never see again. As she went through Immigration, Anita wondered how she’d make it in this cold, unfamiliar world—but when she saw her entire family waiting for her, she knew she’d be okay.
It’s now the end of September and the family hasn’t heard anything about Papi and Tío Toni. Mami refuses to move to Queens (a neighborhood in New York) with the Garcías. That’s where people go when they decide they’re going to stay in the U.S. To give the children something to do, Mami arranges for Anita, Lucinda, and Mundín to sit in on classes at a Catholic school. Anita ends up in a second-grade class led by a teacher named Sister Mary Joseph. Sister Mary Joseph introduces Anita as a “special” student who came to the U.S. to be free. She asks Anita to tell the class about the Dominican Republic, but Anita can’t. She’s too sad. Instead, she thanks the class for letting her into their country.
Active
Themes
Get the entire Before We Were Free LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Sister Mary Joseph asks Anita to write a composition of what she remembers from the Dominican Republic. She shows Anita how to dedicate her work to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph by putting a cross and J.M.J. at the top of her page. Anita adds Papi and Tío Toni’s initials. She pretends she’s writing in her diary and writes pages. She makes lists of things she misses and writes out Chucha’s sayings. Anita thinks she can hear Chucha telling her to fly free, but she doesn’t know how to be free without Papi. Sister Mary Joseph tells Anita she did a good job, even though she marks up the page in red.
Active
Themes
By the end of October, nothing has changed. All Anita knows is that Trujillo Junior refuses to cooperate with the Americans, so she decides to write to Oscar for information. She tells him about fall in New York and then asks how things are in the sultan’s court. But when Anita gives the letter to Papito, he explains that there’s no mail to or from the Dominican Republic. Anita tears the letter up and tosses it out the window. It looks like snow. Though the García girls have told Anita she’ll see snow by Christmas, Anita believes she’ll be home before then. As time passes, Anita wonders if she’ll be here longer than she thought.
Active
Themes
On the way home from school, Anita stops to visit the grocery store. It makes her feel excited and happy to fill a cart and then put everything back. But today, a big man shouts at her. Anita tries to act old enough to be grocery shopping and thinks she has a good chance, since a lady in the elevator recently thought she was 14. The man, however, tells Anita to stay away unless she has an adult with her. He pats her down, looking for stolen items, but Anita screams that it’s a free country when he gropes her chest. Anita wonders if it’s a free country for anyone who isn’t American. The thought of being deported and killed by Trujillo Junior makes Anita run all the way back to the apartment.
Active
Themes
When Anita gets to the door, she hears Mamita crying. Mundín opens the door and says that Mr. Washburn is here. Anita fears that Mr. Washburn is here to deport her after the grocery store incident, and everyone inside is crying. Papito takes Anita’s hands and says that Papi and Tío Toni are dead. Mr. Washburn explains that just after the Trujillo family agreed to leave, SIM agents seized the final six prisoners. They took them to the beach, tied them to palm trees, and shot them. Then, they dumped the bodies in the sea. Mami sobs uncontrollably. Anita doesn’t cry until Mr. Washburn is done with his story. Then, she joins the rest of her family in a tight hug.
Active
Themes
