The family lived on a prosperous farm near the city of Salcedo, where they also operated a coffee mill and a general store. By many accounts, the sisters were kidnapped at gunpoint and beaten before being killed. [5] Once Rafael Trujillo took power it was customary to have a picture of him in the household, however, the Mirabal house never had a picture of Trujillo and were subsequently considered people in disagreement with the Trujillo regime.[5]. [1] Minervas parents feared that her involvement with politics would ultimately get her killed so they did not allow her to register for law school, especially following her rejection to Trujillo. The assassinations of the Mirabal sisters, who were also known as The Butterflies, acted as a catalyst for the downfall of Trujillo's regime, which ended about a year after their deaths, because of their national popularity. Known as "Las Mariposas, or "The Butterflies," as per History, these women played an instrumental role in unseating Rafael Trujillo from his position as supreme leader. Minerva married Manalo Tavarez in 1955. Minerva and her husband, Manolo, were pioneers in the resistance movement against Trujillo. She thinks of him as animal-like, and his character is inextricably linked to the earth. For her part, Ded took pains to emphasize that although Alvarezs book spread the story of her family around the world, it was a novel. They married and had two children, Minerva Josefina in November 1955, and Manuel Enrique, in January 1960. They were taken to separate locations in a ravine so that the victims could not see each other's execution. She wrote, I could not stop screaming: Murderers! He is a "genial little man" and explains to Minerva why the uprising of young men failed. [3] They named it after a failed revolt against Trujillos government which was led by exiled Dominicans. The movement was created in support, and then in honor, of the Dominican emigrants that invaded from Cuba and were tortured and killed 14 June 1959. The regime's cover story of an "accident backfired. The men were placed in solitary confinement in a prison called la 40, which was notorious for extreme torture, including electric shock and pulling off pris-oners' fingernails. She and her father were freed anyway, but Minerva was kept under surveillance. Maria Teresa married Leandro Rodriguez in 1959. Alvarez tells the Mirabal sisters' stories through their own eyes. The Mirabals' maid, who continues to work for Dede in 1994. [citation needed], The 200 Dominican pesos bill features the sisters, and a stamp was issued in their memory. He seized power through a coup and a rigged election in 1930. According to Casas Museo Hermanas Mirabal, on January 21 of that year, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and both their husbands and the other members were arrested by the secret police only the women were released months later in August. [13][14] After Minerva's rejection of Trujillo, her parents prohibited Minerva from registering for law school due to concerns that she would get involved in politics and ultimately be killed. A mausoleum on the grounds is the final resting place of "Las Mariposas"and their husbands. Of Ded's own three children, Jaime David Fernndez Mirabal was the minister for environment and natural resources and a former vice president of the Dominican Republic. According to "Dominican Republic: A Country Study," from the Library of Congress, during the U.S. occupation, Trujillo was gaining power and rising through the ranks of the National Police. She left school when she was 17 and married Pedro Gonzlez,[6][7] a farmer, who would later aid her in challenging the Trujillo regime. She fights the dictator Trujillo and the rest of the regime with her life. After Manolo's death, he becomes a builder in the capital and gets out of politics. He took control of the economy, establishing monopolies in the production of salt, meat, rice and tobacco to benefit himself and his family. Ded Mirabal, left, with her youngest sister, Mara Teresa, who was just 25 when she was killed by Rafael Trujillos henchmen. They wanted their fellow citizens of the Dominican Republic to taste freedom from a dictator bleeding the country of its resources and murdering its citizens to maintain control. He would target young women as well. She dies twenty years after her three daughters. According to her daughter, MinouTavarez Mirabal, Minerva and her husband, also an activist, were frequently jailed simultaneously. She was the first woman to graduate from law school in the Dominican Republic.[1]. When Sinita approaches Trujillo with a bow and arrow during the girls' performance, Ramfis jumps up and breaks her bow. Within the group, the sisters called themselves "Las Mariposas" ("The Butterflies"), after Minerva's underground name. [citation needed], After the assassinations, the surviving sister, Ded, devoted her life to the legacy of her sisters. He asks Minerva to come away with him, and he sends her letters which Enrique Mirabal, her father, keeps from her. All of the 4 sisters had children with their spouses. Minerva became a leader of the resistance, and Patria and Mara Teresa soon joined her, even as they married and started families. Prior to this, beginning in 1916, the United States occupied the country in an effort to prevent Germany from taking control and launching attacks during World War I,as per the U.S. Department of State. The sisters were born in to an affluent family and were well-educated during . At home, that was the first thing I learned to hate Trujillo. At first she planned to enter a convent but then chose to marry Pedrito Gonzales at the age of 16. [1] The last day of that period, 10 December, is International Human Rights Day. The Mirabal family was well regarded and was invited to high-level social functions and activities, even one hosted by Trujillo. Ded in 2012. Patria was never arrested but her husband and son were jailed. The father of Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Teresa. The Tragic Assassination Of The Mirabal Sisters Explained. Minerva goes to her first revolutionary meetings at his home with Elsa, Lourdes, and Sinita. The Mirabal sisters' memory was commemorated for years in a very restrained manner, and the government treated the question of how and why they died guardedly. According to Vintage News, Minerva Mirabal eventually studied law at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. Julia Alvarez wrote a novel In the Time of Butterflies (1994), a fictionalized account of the lives of the Mirabal sisters that deals with this issue. The family began leaving the party after that confrontation an insult, since protocol demanded that nobody leave before Trujillo prompting military officers to detain Minerva and her father. With rumors rampant that an order for their death had been issued, the sisters traveled with an entourage that included children and elderly people, even though Minerva questioned whether the dictator would indeed dare to kill them. [12], Mara Argentina Minerva Mirabal Reyes (12 March 1926 25 November 1960), commonly known as Minerva, was the third daughter. Minerva and Maria Teresa have been released to house arrest; Minerva struggles to adjust to all the stimuli of Mama's house and finds herself overwhelmed. Following the formation of their "Movement of the Fourteenth of June" group, theVintage News reports sisters Minerva Mirabal and Maria Teresa Mirabal, along with their husbands, were rounded up one by one and sent to La Victoria Penitentiary in the capital. This is the moment Trujillo began his vendetta against Minerva. [17] Everyone in the family, including Patria's teenaged children, helped distribute pamphlets about the many people whom Trujillo had killed, and obtained materials for guns and bombs to use when they eventually openly revolted. The killings, he wrote, "did something to their machismo" and paved the way for Trujillo's own assassination six months later. One of the Mirabals' cousins and Berto's older brother. Their husbands Manuel and Leandro were transferred to a prison in Puerto Plata, a location much closer to their homes, which made visiting them frequently possible. Mara Argentina Minerva Mirabal, the third Mirabal sister, and the one most wrapped up in the revolution. The parents were business owners whose holdings included a coffee plantation, a warehouse, a processing plant for coffee and rice, cattle, and a butcher shop. [13] On a remembrance website, Learn to Question, the author writes, "No matter how many times Trujillo jailed them, no matter how much of their property and possessions he seized, Minerva, Patria and Mara Teresa refused to give up on their mission to restore democracy and civil liberties to the island nation. He is "a tall, handsome man with a worried face.". "[13], On 25 November 1960, Patria, Minerva, Mara Teresa, and their driver, Rufino de la Cruz, were visiting Mara Teresa and Minerva's incarcerated husbands. On Nov. 25, 1960, the Mirabal sisters went to visit their husbands imprisoned in Puerto Plata, accompanied by their driver, Rufino de la Cruz. Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes (27 February 1924 25 November 1960), commonly known as Patria was the oldest of the four Mirabal sisters. The Mirabal patriarch, Enrique, died after his political imprisonment, and Ded took over the family finances. Blgica Adela Mirabal Reyes, who goes by the nickname Ded, is the only sister to never join the resistance movement and to survive past 1960. . With the exception of Ded Mirabal, all of the sisters spread political dissent alongside their husbands. She was 88. The heroines thereof were three sisters: Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal. Minerva marries Manolo and helps start the militant resistance movement, and she becomes "Butterfly #1." She has two children, Minou and Manolito. Mara Argentina Minerva Mirabal, the third Mirabal sister, and the one most wrapped up in the revolution. Patria's husband, Pedro Gonzlez, escaped arrest by going into hiding. Two years later the family was re-arrested after Enrique Mirabal refused to buy a book praising Trujillo and his government. As a result, she was able to resume her law studies and in 1955, while still in law school, she married Manuel Tavarez Justo, a law school classmate and an activist in the movement against the dictatorship. [5] The police then faked a car accident to cover up the assassination. On Nov. 25, 1960, the Mirabal sisters went to visit their husbands imprisoned in Puerto Plata, accompanied by their driver, Rufino de la Cruz. An example of one of these organizations is the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center, a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the status of immigrant families.[42]. He becomes involved in the revolution. A schoolmate of Minerva, in whom Trujillo takes an interest. Nevertheless, on November 25, 1960, the three sisters and their driver made the journey to Puerto Plata where the men were being held. Minerva and Mara Teresa were freed, but their husbands remained in prison. She becomes one of his many mistresses. She met her husband, Manuel Tavarez Justo, at university and later he supported and helped her in the fight against the regime. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, the dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. While the nation had been freed from Trujillo, they were not yet free of the regime's oppression. Ded Mirabal was not with her sisters when they were executed by Rafael Trujillo's men and is the sole survivor. The movement was created in support, and then in honor, of the Dominican emigrants that invaded from Cuba and were tortured and killed 14 June 1959. He is murdered along with them. She went on to raise all her sisters' children and dedicated her life to telling the story of the Mirabal's resistance. [5], In 1960, Minerva and Mara Teresa were incarcerated from January 22 to February 7, then from May 18 to August 9. He tells her that he, too, is "lost so that I can't show you the way." An old Spaniard who moved to the countryside near Mama's house with his wife Dona Belen from San Cristobal. She had to be pulled away from the cemetery. She sends them to Dr. Pedro Vinas. The three of them, Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes, Mara Argentina Minerva Mirabal Reyes, and Antonia Mara Teresa Mirabal Reyes, were assassinated on the 25t November 1960. . She graduated Immaculada Concepcion in 1946 and stayed at home with her father under duress. Realizing that creating a resistance movement required recruitment and orga-nization of other like-minded citizens, Minerva and her husband organized El Movimiento 14 de Junio, a name derived from a group of Dominican exiles whose invasion to overthrow the government was set for June 14,1959. They offered to let them go if Minerva met Trujillo in a hotel room; she refused. Ded, right, with her sister Minerva, who was a leader in the revolution against Trujillo. Trujillo also orchestrated the mass murder of thousands of Haitians living in the country near the Haitian-Dominican border. "[8], Antonia Mara Teresa Mirabal Reyes (15 October 1935 25 November 1960), commonly known as Mara Teresa, was the fourth and youngest daughter. Several towns and cities in the Dominican Republic and abroad have named streets in memory of their struggle. Denying the leader would result in the father losing his job, or worse - something Minerva Mirabal discovered firsthand. Their story also inspired the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, written in 1994 by Julia Alvarez and eventually adapted into a film in 2001. Patria and Pedrito's son, who becomes involved in the revolution and is arrested along with his father. November 25, the anniversary of their death, is commemorated, as the International Day Against Violence Against Women. She and her revolutionary husband, Manolo Tavarez, have two children: Minou and Manolito. I can say: I have raised an honest family., Overlooked No More: Ded Mirabal, Who Carried the Torch of Her Slain Sisters, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/obituaries/dede-mirabal-overlooked.html. Palomino. [3], The 137-foot obelisk that Trujillo built in 1935 to commemorate the renaming of the capital city from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo has been covered with murals honoring the sisters. Although their parents disliked Trujillo, who seized power in 1930, they. Not affiliated with Harvard College. [1] Through their education, Minerva and her sisters began to recognize and speak out against the oppressive dictatorship of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The economy improved, leading to better education, an expanding middle class, and public works. She spent her life telling the stories of her sisters, turning their childhood home into a museum, the Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal. Under orders from Trujillo, a group of six specially selected members of the secret military police ambushed the sisters and their driver and ordered them out of the car. Kissel, Adam ed. [4] [3] Manolo was also a law student who joined her in her revolutionaries. Padre de Jesus' replacement at Patria's church, who speaks of revolution from the pulpit. [39] In addition there is a school campus in Washington Heights, Manhattan, Mirabal Sisters Campus. Members of the Mirabal family had been arrested on more than one occasion. Three of them - Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa - gave their lives for their cause. Under orders from Trujillo, a group of six specially selected members of the secret military police ambushed the sisters and their driver and ordered them out of the car. [28], However, the details of the Mirabal sisters' assassinations were "treated gingerly at the official level" until 1996, when President Joaqun Balaguer was forced to step down after more than two decades in power. One of the nuns at Inmaculada Concepcion, who allows Sinita to go to school there for free.