Independent reading review

Before we were Free

By Julia Alvarez

The book “Before we were Free” by Julia Alvarez won the Pura Belpré award for its writing and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award in 2004. This book also won the ALA Notable children’s books and ALA best book for young adults in 2003. Julia Alvarez published this novel in 2002.

       “Before we were Free” is about a 12-year-old girl named Anita Torre who lives in the Dominican Republic in 1960. Her family moved to The United States to escape the harsh treatment in the Dominican Republic. Her grandparents went first and they found a house in New York and lived there legally. The rest of her family left, therefore, it was just Anita, her mamá, her papá, Lucinda and her family’s maid Chucha (Chucha is like another family member, she has token care of basically all of her family, she even took care of Anita’s mamá). Soon or later things started getting even worse for Anita and her family that was still in the Dominican Republic. Secret Police called the SIM kept 24 hour watch on their house, their family, they were watching their every move. They searched every house looking for a man named Carlos Garcia and his family. The SIM rudely check people’s homes all the time; they walk in and destroy everything in their way, throwing things around. They will not stop until they find what they are looking for so they keep coming back to each house.

At the end of the story, Anita has to move out of her house because the SIM was after her family. They moved into the Mancini’s house for a few months, they had to be really carful and sneaky there. At the Mancini’s house, they had to hide in their bedroom closet, which was the safest place for Anita and her mother. Meanwhile her papi and her tio tony were fighting for their freedom. A month and a few weeks later, Anita and her mother moved to New York with her grandparents, where they were safe. Everybody in Anita’s family who moved from the Dominican Republic was there. While there, Mr. Washington who moved to Washington, came to visit them in New York and delivered the news that Anita’s father and uncle was dead. Since El Jefe were killed, his son was killing everybody in his way, He tied up everybody who was involved with trying to set people free to a tree and shot them until they were dead. Then he left the Dominican Republic. Now Anita is safe living in New York with her family members that escaped to the United States.

       My favorite character in the story is Chucha. This is her Anita’s clairvoyant nanny from Haiti. She is my favorite character because she is very wise; she is very different from the other characters in the story. She is a very spiritual lady. She wore purple all the time to protect her from the evil spirits; she also sleeps in a coffin, which I found very interesting. She is a fortuneteller, most of the fortunes she tell that are about the future, she use little riddles.

       My favorite character in the story is Chucha. The reason is, the whole family looked up to her, Chucha she took care of as they grew up. I have lots of younger children that look up to me. I used to help at a recreation center and help the staff watch the children and help the children with their needs. Chucha helped the family raise each other and they looked up to her because she was old and wise. They came to her for just about everything from advice to physical changes in their lives. I believe that readers should take from the book that there were harsh times in this world for some people and there still is some harsh moments. Some people didn’t have to go through what Anita had to go through at 12 years old and maybe people even younger than that and they should appreciate the fact that they are free and they don’t have to hide from the government. People should also appreciate that they live in their own houses and not a neighbors closet with a limited amount of things to do.

I could not relate to any of the characters in the story, but I can feel how they were feeling. The person that I really felt the most was Anita. The story was in her perspective and I knew every thought during the whole story. I have felt the way Anita felt when Oscar, her love, moved to the United States. Her heart dropped when she found out and she did not even get a chance to say goodbye to him. I had an experience like that when a person that I like moved to Georgia, it was unexpected and I did not know so I did not get a chance to say goodbye.

I did like the book. It was very interesting and had me wanting to read increasingly. I did not want to stop reading it, which is how interesting it was to me. Reading about something that other people experienced that I know I could not live like that, especially at her age is just amazing. I also would want to know how they handled being in that situation and what they thought about it. Some strengths of this book are, They keep the reader engaged, it explains almost every aspect of her life in the Dominican Republic in 1960, it has sympathy, and it has lots of dialogue so you can get a clue as to what the other characters’ personalities are. I if could change something in this book, it would be the way they explain the background of the story which, they do not. If they did explain the background then they should make it more obvious because I had no clue as to why were they fighting for their freedom, and the restrictions they had because they were not free and who were the SIM because I had no clue what they were either.

       I would recommend this book to other people. This book was very interesting, especially for someone who likes to hear or read about racist or unjust events that happened in the 20^th century. “Before we were Free” was told in a young girl’s point of view, so that is what makes it even more interesting. Some people may what to know how it was to live there as a child. So yes, I would most defiantly recommend this book to other people.