In a brief note at the end of In the Time of the Butterflies, Álvarez strikes a contradictory stance on the novels’ relationship between history and myth. She asserts that she sought, through her writing, to dismantle the mythical cult surrounding the Mirabal sisters: which is more of a Dominican phenomenon than an American one – in order to portray them as “ordinary” people (324). As such, there is an implication that there is a discrepancy between the historical Mirabals and the fictional Mirabals, pushing us to assume that Álvarez has over simplified or sentimentalized the relationship between the novels’ characters as well as softening the more gruesome and grittier aspects of their incarceration. As such, there are reasons to question
