The Feast of the Goat

Urania Cabral, or Uri as she is now known, is a composite fictional character, the daughter of disgraced fictional Senator Agustín Cabral, who served as a high-ranking member of the Trujillo government before being ousted. Now a lawyer with the World Bank, Urania grew up in the Dominican Republic in Ciudad Trujillo, but at the age of 14 left on scholarship to attend boarding school in Michigan. After she left, she cut off all contact with her family and did not return to the Dominican Republic until decades later, although she continued to support her father’s medical expenses from afar.

Hardworking and standoffish, Urania attended social events in Michigan only as an obligation; at Harvard, free from that obligation, she threw herself into coursework and studies. She now lives a quiet life and spends her free time reading about Dominican history, with a particular focus on the Trujillo Era. Her colleagues describe her as cold, a criticism she disputes, as she feels she is only cold toward men who are interested in her—she has never dated in the years since she left. Sexual exploitation at age 14, when her father gave her to Trujillo in an attempt to regain his stature, has left her with passion only for intellectual pursuits, for physical fitness, and for her work.