In the Time of the Butterflies Part 3, Chapter 10 Summary

Patria January to March 1960

  • Patria and Mate move in with their mother and all the babies, but three days later Mate is arrested.
  • She begins "praying" to the portrait of Trujillo hanging in the entryway (every house must have one by law), asking him to behave himself with her family members.
  • Captain Peña visits and tells Patria that Pedrito was offered his freedom in exchange for divorcing her, but he refused.
  • After three weeks of waiting, the whole family goes to church. Padre de Jesús has been arrested, but his successor, Padre Gabriel, reads a letter denouncing the regime. The family stays and attends every service that day. They find out that the letter has been read in every church that day.
  • In retaliation, the government sends prostitutes into the church to try to defile the communion. Patria kicks them out.
  • The next week they throw the contents of their latrines into the confessional booths. Dedé, Noris, and Patria clean it up.
  • One of the girls' half-sisters shows up out of the blue with a note from Mate. It says that she and Minerva are in Cell #61 in the jail called La Victoria, and they ask for some medicine and food.
  • That night Dedé, Patria, and Mamá prepare a package for the girls. Mamá doesn't think they should put Mate's fancy black towel in because it will tempt people to steal it, but the girls convince her.
  • Patria tells Dedé (but not Mamá) who brought the note, and it turns out Dedé knows about the other family; in fact, she and Minerva both gave half of their inheritance to fund their education. One of them works at the pharmacy.
  • The family is surrounded by spies at all times, so they play tricks on them like throwing bathwater on them or moving thorn bushes so they'll get stuck in the night.
  • Patria delivers the package for her sisters to the pharmacy.
  • Mamá and Dedé are thrilled after their next visit to the capital because they see the black towel hanging out of one of the jail windows.
  • In the paper, they read that some of the girls who were jailed with Mate and Minerva have been pardoned, and that Captain Peña has bought Pedrito's land from the government for very little money.
  • Patria asks her neighbor, Don Bernardo (who is Jacqueline's godfather) to help her by taking her to visit Captain Peña.
  • She asks if he can help get her son pardoned, and begins praying like mad.
  • He calls the capital and actually seems to pull some strings.
  • After several weeks, Captain Peña shows up and gives them visiting passes. He says he thinks Nelson will be pardoned.
  • He also says that the girls were offered pardons but refused to take them.
  • Patria says she'll invite Captain Peña over for a sancocho (a traditional stew) when her boy gets back.
  • Mamá is mad, but she decides she'll invite the neighbors, who've been ignoring her family ever since the trouble started. They'll say no, but when they see it's a dinner for Peña they'll feel awful for ignoring an invitation to meet with such an important person.
  • The family drives to the capital for the pardoning, and Noris insists on joining them to get her brother. Only when they get to the palace does Patria realize that it's a terrible idea to let El Jefe see a pretty young girl.
  • Nelson is released to his family, and their pictures are printed on the front page of the newspaper the next day.