Due to her various memories on what her family had to endure under Trujillo's decree, Alvarez was able to construct many essays and novels in order to spread awareness about the trouble and dangers faced by Dominicans while living under a dictatorship. For that reason, I argue that Alvarez used her literature to educate the public about the reality of living in a dictatorship in order to promote a better understanding toward the evil that truly existed in the Dominican Republic under Trujillo's reign. In a dictatorship, the main concern Alvarez expressed in her work was that Trujillo showed a lack of humanism towards his people. Humanism is defined as a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively (Wikipedia). Also, Trujillo's dictatorship was hegemonic instead of systemic since him and his secret police dominantly controlled everything. This included all major industries, financial institutions, and he even renamed the capital city of Santa Domingo to "Ciudad Trujillo," which meant "Trujillo City" (bio.com). .
In her work, Alvarez informs her readers about Trujillo's secret police force known as the SIM, the disregarded civil liberties for Haitian immigrants, the complications encountered with trying to leave the country, and even the importance of privacy and dangers of being suspicioned for rebelling against the regime of Trujillo's rule. Without this vital information shared by Alvarez, the world may have never known the reality Dominicans faced living under a dictatorship. In Alvarez's novel, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," her chapter on The Blood of the Conquistadors, tells the story of how her family had to withstand a great deal of controversy when two SIM police officers showed up at her house looking for her father. At one point in the book, one of the little girls asks why her father had to put locks on the door.