Sunday, March 6, 2011
¡Vivan las Mariposas!
So I was thinking about the sister who survived- Dedé. She wasn't killed, because she didn't go back out on the mountain road that day to visit her husband. She didn't go visit her husband, because he wasn't in prison. He wasn't in prison because he hadn't gotten directly involved, as has Dedé's sisters and brothers-in-law, in the Dominican revolution to overthrow Trujillo. Instead, Dedé stayed home that day. She stayed with her kids, and Patria's and Maria Teresa's and Minerva's kids too. Not only did she never really expect they wouldn't come back, she never expected that, having once been in the middle of four girls, whose bond was way closer than most sisters' that I know, she would become an only child, left alone because she chose not to rebel against her husband's instructions. She actually had wanted to join, but Jaimito didn't let her- so which is better? Better to be the only survivor, and not have your mother and entire family completely wallowed in sorrow, for at least they still have you and the grandchildren? Or better to have died alongside your sisters, 3 of your closest friends, killed in a country whose government you were trying to overthrow so your children and their children could have a better life, having died for a cause in which you were a true believer?
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Wow. Sounds like quite a book. I read something by that author a little while ago and really liked it. So, in answer to your question I think that obviously neither one is a going to be a good option. But, if you are the only one left you might feel a responsibility to your sisters, their children, and your children to keep the family together and all that. And that feeling of responsibility might ease your pain.
ReplyDeleteWow, Polly, you took the words right out of my mouth in answer to that question and said them way better than I ever could have (which you see, as I tried very hard... haha). But I definitely agree, even thogh at the same time, I mean... poor Dedé, right? Left behind out of all her sisters... though I definitely definitely agree that that responsibility could do a lot to ease that pain, and the knowledge that a) your sisters live on in their children and in you and b) who will take of them, if not you?
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting!