How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Possessed by the spirits of the girls, can you imagine! People were coming from as far away as Barahona to talk "through" this ebony black sibyl with the Mirabal sisters. (2.5.4)
Dedé is trapped in the past through her memory, but Fela brings the past to the present by "channeling" the dead sisters, letting them speak through her. Dedé calls her an "ebony black sibyl," referring to the elderly oracles of Greek legend.
Quote #8
Minou's eyes flashed with anger, and Minerva herself stood before Dedé again. "I'm my own person. I'm tired of being the daughter of a legend." (2.5.16)
Dedé and her mother raised her sisters' children after they died, and Minou, Minerva's daughter, looks so much like her mother that it is eerie. But even as she grows angry and channels her dead mom, she protests, demanding that she be recognized as her own person with her own identity. She too, is trapped in the past.
Quote #9
Nonsense, so much nonsense the memory cooks up, mixing up facts, putting in a little of this and a little of that. She might as well hang out her shingle like Fela and pretend the girls are taking possession of her. Better them than the ghost of her own young self making up stories about the past! (2.5.90)
Dedé sometimes mixes up her memories, referring to the memory as though it were a chef creating crazy dishes. She even doubts whether she is remembering or inventing her own memories. That doubt makes her a vaguely unreliable narrator and also gives the author some license to make up stories rather than sticking to historical fact.