[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 119 (Monday, July 28, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S4993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RECOGNIZING JULIA ALVAREZ

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today, at a ceremony at the White House, 
President Obama awarded the National Medal of Arts to a distinguished 
author who calls the Green Mountains of Vermont home: Julia Alvarez.
  Born in the United States but raised in the Dominican Republic, Julia 
Alvarez grew up under the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. 
Fearing for their lives after her father became involved in the 
revolution to overthrow Trujillo, Ms. Alvarez and her family fled to 
the United States. Just months later, three of the leaders of that 
underground movement--Patria Mirabal Reyes, Minerva Mirabel Reyes, and 
Maria Mirabal Reyes--were brutally murdered. It was this series of 
events that compelled Ms. Alvarez to author, ``In the Time of the 
Butterflies.'' The fiction novel based on real-life events is a story 
incorporated into the curriculum of schools around the world, including 
many Vermont schools. Ms. Alvarez's novel explains the complexities of 
family and cultural divide, while celebrating strength in the face of 
oppression.
  Julia Alvarez has been a trailblazer in Latino literature. When Julia 
started writing, Latino literature was only considered an ``ethnic 
interest.'' Today, her work is well known in America and around the 
world, thanks to her passion and creativity.
  Ms. Alvarez first came to Vermont as a student at Middlebury College. 
She graduated with a bachelor of arts, summa cum laude. Years later, 
she has returned to Middlebury College as the author-in-residence. She 
continues to mentor students and gives back to the institution that 
nurtured her soul as a writer.
  Julia has now spent more time in Vermont than anywhere else in the 
world, and she calls our great State ``the mother of [her] soul.'' I 
can think of no more fitting recipient of the National Medal of Arts 
than Julia Alvarez. Vermonters are proud of the courage that her works 
display, and the passion with which she weaves her own personal history 
into compelling novels.

                          ____________________