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“She’ll bury us all,” her father adds, laughing, “in silk and pearls.”
Papá’s prediction for Dedé in Chapter One foreshadows not only that Dedé will be the last of her family standing and the one to bury them all, but also establishes her conservative practicality. Papá makes this comment to her after she scolds him for giving away items from the store to campesinos who need them. Dedé worries that by giving everything away, the family could lose everything. This moment characterizes Dedé as someone who prioritizes the well-being of her family circle over that of the community, unlike her sisters who come to see the whole country as their responsibility.
“I don’t play,” she says rather more meekly than she intends. “I just watch.”
Dedé makes this comment to Lío in Chapter Five when she shows up to play volleyball wearing a dress and heels. Although she is talking about her aversion to sports, this moment symbolizes Dedé’s refusal to participate in the action around her and her conformity to her prescribed feminine role. In her desire to be attractive to Lío, she dresses extremely femininely, not thinking for a moment that she might actually be expected to play. Later, Dedé will use obedience to her husband as an excuse for not participating in the rebellion, once again sidelining herself.
Dedé would recount her plans for the future—how she would marry Jaimito; what kind of ceremony they would have; what type house they would buy; how many children they would have—until Minerva would burst out laughing. “You’re not stocking the shelves in the store! Don’t plan it all. Let life surprise you a little.”
This quotation from Chapter Five typifies Dedé’s love of stability that guides her life until her sisters’ deaths. Not only has Dedé planned her life out, but her plans involve entirely safe, normative choices. Even the man she imagines herself marrying is the very man her mother and aunt have both hoped for since she was a child. In stark contrast to the madness of the Trujillo regime around her, Dedé envisions her life as predictable and safe, emphasizing her resistance to anything that would upend her orderly dream world.
And she knew, right then and there, her knees shaking, her breath coming short, that she could not go through with this business. Jaimito was just an excuse. She was afraid, plain and simple, just as she had been afraid to face her powerful feelings for Lío.
In Chapter Nine, Dedé visits Padre de Jesús for advice on the rebellion and her marriage with Jaimito, only to discover that the priest is a radical and will likely counsel her to join her sisters. Unable to use the church as an excuse, Dedé is forced to admit that the real reason she has acquiesced to Jaimito’s demands and avoided rebel activity is because of her own fear. She has always chosen the “safe and predictable” over the “righteous, adventurous but unstable.”
He said—I remember it so clearly—he said, “This is your martyrdom, Dedé, to be alive without them.”
In the epilogue, Dedé recalls this statement Jaimito makes to her not long after her sisters’ murders. Dedé’s stubborn refusal to help her sisters has condemned her to life, just as her sisters’ bravery condemned them to death. Jaimito’s use of the word “martyrdom,” which is commonly associated with dying for one’s religious beliefs, emphasizes the kind of living death Dedé finds herself in after her sisters’ assassinations. Instead of moving forward with her life, all her actions involve caring for the past, whether it’s telling her sisters’ story, raising their children, or tending to the museum.
