68 pages • 2 hours read
Before We Were Free
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2002
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Introduction
Before We Were Free
- Genre: Fiction; middle grade historical
- Originally Published: 2002
- Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 890L; grades 7-9
- Structure/Length: 11 chapters; approx. 192 pages; 5 hours and 20 minutes on audio
- Protagonist and Central Conflict: Twelve-year-old Anita de la Torre struggles to be free while living in the Dominican Republic in 1960 under Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Violence; dictatorship
Julia Alvarez, Author
- 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
- Other Works: Return to Sender (2009); Finding Miracles (2004)
- Awards: National Medal of Arts (2013); F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Excellence in American Literature (2009); Pura Belpré Award (2004); Hispanic Heritage Award (2002)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- Perseverance Amidst Trauma and Loss: Family as Home and Community
- The Limits of Faith
STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:
- 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.
- 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.
