-
Trujillo used his power in the military to harrass and scare his opponents, in the presidential race, into not being able to campaign. He ended up winning the election with over 99 percent of the vote. It is often said that Trujillo had more votes than voters.
-
More than 20,000 men, women, and children were murdered at the hand of Trujillo's regime because some of his best spies were discovered and executed in Haiti.
-
Minerva meets Sinita at school and finds out that Trujillo killed her entire family and that is why she is a "charity" student.
-
Roosavelt proclaims the United States' neutrality in WWII.
-
Winston Churchill becomes the Prime minister of Great Britain.
-
The DR declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. They also became a charter member of the UN in the same year.
-
In another election that many people called a sham Trujillo becomes "president" of the DR for a second term
-
Trujillo arranges to pay back all of the debt that was accumulated from the United States.
-
Over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry are sent to Relocation camps because the government feared that they could be spies for the Japanese government.
-
He says that Dede will be the millionare of the family and that Maria Teresa will make men's mouths water.
-
Minerva and her friends win a contest to perform for Trujillo on Independence Day. As they are performing in the skit Sinita points her bow and arrow at Trujillo and gets the group into some trouble.
-
The allied forces invade Normandy.
-
Sweden gifts Trujillo and the DR a large number of armored fighting vehicles.
-
Maria Teresa uses this journal to write her thoughts about her life and what is happening. She writes about her up and coming friendship with a girl named Hilda and about her new realization that Trujillo and his guardia need to be feared.
-
After going on a pilgrimage to the capital Higuey Patria hears the voice of the virgin and her faith is restored.
-
After Pedrito and Patria get married they get pregnent and lose the baby. Patria begins to lose her faith in God and no longer trusts in Trujillo.
-
Trujillo's guards come looking for Maria Teresa's friend named Hilda because they figure out that she is working against the government. Maria fears that if they find out that she wrote about Hilda and her new realization in her journal they will take her away.
-
Trujillo cracks down on the DCP, the Dominican Communist Party, because of the United States' attitude towards it.
-
Lio and Minerva meet in a store and develop an attraction for one another. They end up getting into some trouble after they are found hiding behind some hedges. Minerva's parents forbid her from seeing Lio again after they find out that he is a part of a political party that is outlawed by the government. Lio must go into hiding.
-
Jaimito proposes to Dede in the car and finds out that Lio is hiding in the back and wants to give a letter to Minerva. The letter is asking Minerva to run away with him. Dede burns it to keep her safe.
-
Minerva learns that her father had a secret second family and she also learns that he had been hiding letters from Lio from her. Minerva takes the letters and puts them in her purse.
-
Minerva goes to the party and dances with Trujillo. Trujillo makes a sexual pass at Minerva and gets slapped. Minerva and her family flee from the party. Minerva realizes that she left her purse containing all of the letters from Lio at the party. Minerva's father is called in for questioning and doesn't return. Her father is eventually released many weeks later a broken man.
-
Trujillo's second elected term as president of the DR ends.
-
Trujillo is made a major amassador in the UN.
-
At the funeral of her father Mate learns of her father's second family and finds it shameful. She helps her mother write a letter to Trujillo informing him of her father's death.
-
Minerva marries a man named Manolo. Later on they have trouble in their marriage after Minerva finds that he was cheating on her. Also later on Trujillo refuses to allow Minerva to practice law so she and Mate join the resistance.
-
Minerva gives her child to Patria to look after because she wants him to stay safe as she gets more involved in the resistance. Patria offers her yard as a place to hold the resistance meetings.
-
The local church is bombed with the girls inside. Patria's views on the resistance are drastically changed after this happens and her seeing a boy gunned down in cold blood. Patria then lets them move the meetings inside the house.
-
Jaimito takes the children to his mothers and Dede is saddened. Minerva and Manolo take Dede to her children. Dede and Jaimito take another honeymoon and their problems are resolved.
-
Minerva, Manolo, and Mate are all arrested. Dede is finding it hard not to get involoved even though she doesn't want to.
-
Patria goes to Trujillo and begs him to release her family. A picture of Patria on her knees is taken and put in all the newspapers. Trujillo agrees to release some of them.
-
Minerva continues to cause problems in prison with her singing the national anthem, hosting a mock trial, and teaching a "little school."
-
Patria begins to pray to Trujillo and honor him in hopes that he will let her family out of prison. She begs Pena and sends in secret care packages to them.
-
Trujillo calls for the assassination of the president of Venezuela. After an attempt injures the president embargos and sconomic sanctions are placed on the DR.
-
The women all find out that they will all be released because they are political prisoners. The girls read the letter that Mate wrote about what the SIM did to her to make her lose the baby.
-
In a coup likely funded by the CIA Trujillo was killed.
-
Interviewers come and talk to Dede like they do every year about the events from the rule of Trujillo
