Julia Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies

Weekly Assignment 1. It was difficult to find out who was the narrator of In The Time Of The Butterflies was, seeing as how the book kept switching from the viewpoints of each of the Mirabal sisters. Although the Mirabal sisters spoke firsthand of what happened, it seemed as if we were being told how they felt, but not from the directly from the sister. Finally, I thought back to the very beginning of the story and realized that the narrator of the book was the reporter who went to Dede's house, which happens annually on November 25th. Through Dede, the reporter was an outsider who could tell the readers what happened, the sister's feelings and thoughts, and still talk about the story without speaking in the first person. When Dede invited the reporter in her house, the reporter walked the hallways of the house and observed the portraits on the walls. This was from an outsiders point of view, Dede wouldn't have noted certain characteristics of her own house. I believe the reporter is the narrator of In The
There where no indications of a relationship between the author and anybody in the story, but when I read further into the Postscript I found a possible relationship. The Postscript says that Julia Alvarez "heard" about the story of the Mirabal Sisters when she was a young girl, therefore I knew she was not involved firsthand in the actions of the revolution because the times would not have fit. Alvarez mentions that she moved to New York, but made many trips back to the Dominican Republic. Also, she "sought out any information" about the sisters. This lead me to believe she did some investigating(like reporters do), and where better to go to than Dede, the surviving sister? This showed me the relationship between the narrator and author. I believe that the reporter(narrator) and the author are indeed the same