Previous
Chapter One
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
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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 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.
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