With this knowledge, she finds parallels between her own burgeoning womanhood, her personal desire for freedom and the struggles of her oppressed country. As Anita bears witness to disturbing cultural shifts under Trujillo, she discovers her own family is part of a dangerous underground resistance against the government. The novel investigates themes of family, government corruption, superstition, and the power of the written word, all set against the backdrop of the months before and after. Mysterious things continue to happenfor instance, Anita and Sam see that someone is living in To Toni’s house. When Julia Alvarez’s Before We Were Free (2002) begins, the life of Anita de la Torre, an 11-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic, is about to change forever. Anita is 12 years old and living under the bloody reign of Rafael Trujillo, the real-world dictator who controlled the Dominican Republic until his assasination in 1961. The children return to school, where Anita learns that other countries have instituted an embargo (trade ban) against the Dominican Republic her teacher won’t explain why. The historical-fiction book centers on Anita de la Torre. With Before We Were Free, a coming-of-age tale published in 2002, Alvarez takes readers to the country that she knew as a young girl. Analyze short paired texts and other resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Perseverance Amidst Trauma and Loss and Limits of Faith.Julia Alvarez made a name for herself in the literary community with her critically acclaimed 1991 novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, which drew inspiration from her own family’s migration from the Dominican Republic to the U.S.Develop an understanding of political and historical contexts regarding the Trujillo dictatorial regime in the 1960s Dominican Republic that impact the freedom of the protagonist, Anita, and her family.STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

Perseverance Amidst Trauma and Loss: Family as Home and Community.

(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.) Rating Seller Rating: Book Description Condition: New. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Excellence in American Literature (2009) Pura Belpré Award (2004) Hispanic Heritage Award (2002)ĬENTRAL THEMESconnected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit: Before We Were Free Alvarez, Julia Published by Ember (2018) ISBN 10: 0399555498 ISBN 13: 9780399555497 New Softcover Quantity: 1 Seller: GF Books, Inc.

Awards: National Medal of Arts (2013) F.

Other Works: Return to Sender (2009) Finding Miracles (2004).

Bio: Born in New York City in 1950 but returned to her parents’ native country, the Dominican Republic, shortly after her birth at 10 years old, escaped the Dominican Republic with her family during the Trujillo regime earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Syracuse University.

Before we were free by julia alvarez