On November 25, 1960, when three of the sisters, Minerva, Patria and Mara Teresa, were returning from visiting the prison holding their husbands, who were leaders of the June 14 Revolutionary Movement, the women were ambushed by agents of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) outside of Puerto Plata. The youngest sister, Mara Teresa Mirabal, attended the same university, but focused on engineering (via Casas Museo Hermanas Mirabal). They married and had two children, Minerva Josefina in November 1955, and Manuel Enrique, in January 1960.[4]. An old Spaniard who moved to the countryside near Mama's house with his wife Dona Belen from San Cristobal. "Santiclo" means "Santa Claus," and it is their code name for him. The entire Mirabal family was in attendance and became aware of the situation. With the exception of Ded Mirabal, all of the sisters spread political dissent alongside their husbands. Democracy was restored with the first free election being held in 1963 with the election of Juan Bosch Gavio. The father of Patria, Dede, Minerva, and Maria Teresa. Ded Mirabal, left, with her youngest sister, Mara Teresa, who was just 25 when she was killed by Rafael Trujillos henchmen. In 1997, the telecommunications company CODETEL (now Claro) sponsored a mural by Elsa Nez. The average Dominican citizen lived in a constant state of fear. She marries a journalist, Roberto Suarez, and they surprise Minerva by refusing to join the revolutionary movement. In her native Salcedo, both her political fervor and her beauty attracted attention. She gets her pharmacy degree and supports her younger sisters. She and her revolutionary husband, Manolo Tavarez, have two children: Minou and Manolito. By 1960, Patria, Minerva, Mara Teresa, and their husbands had become thoroughly enmeshed in the growing anti-Trujillo resistance movement that began to sweep the Dominican Republic. She is "such a thin woman with fly-about hair in her face.". The police catch her while she is leaving the convent. On November 20, 1955, they were married and moved to Monte Cristi. Eventually the women who were incarcerated, including the Mirabal sisters, were freed as a gesture of leniency from Trujillo. Leandro Guzmn Rodrguez, a.k.a. It is a consolation to me to think that my mother, Minerva, was not wrong when she would hear warnings about how dangerous it was to stand up to Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, she said in a 2006 speech, and would always reply with these same words: If they kill me, I shall reach my arms out of the grave and I shall be stronger.. Rafael Leonidas Ramfis, Trujillo's son, a full colonel in the army since the age of four. [5], At university, she met her husband, Manolo Tavrez Justo, who would help her fight the Trujillo regime. He developed a personality cult with statues of himself across the country and his portrait in every home, Biographics reports. She thinks of him as animal-like, and his character is inextricably linked to the earth. Mirabal Sister's Marriage Family Tree Patria married Pedrito Gonzales in 1941. No eulogies were read at the sisters funeral. He proceeded to make her life and her family's lives hell. He betrays them by reporting everything he hears at Security "for a bottle of rum and a couple of pesos.". as they were slowly electrocuted. Don Bernardo's wife, whom he takes care of. He also makes deliveries between revolutionary cells. By this point, Trujillo had lost face with the international community. Blgica Adela Mirabal Reyes was born on March 1, 1925, to Enrique Mirabal Fernndez and Mercedes Reyes Camilo. All four sisters completed their primary and secondary education in one of the most prestigious private boarding school in the Dominican Republic, El Colegio de la Imaculada, a Catholic school in the town of La Vega. 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. [6] She once said, "Perhaps what we have most near is death, but that idea does not frighten me. This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. After they were murdered by Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican Republics ruthless dictator, Ded Mirabal made sure that the world knew of their resistance to him. She spent her life telling the stories of her sisters, turning their childhood home into a museum, the Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal. The oldest of Carmen's children by Enrique Mirabal. Minerva marries Manolo and helps start the militant resistance movement, and she becomes "Butterfly #1." She has two children, Minou and Manolito. He roughly interrogates Minerva about Lio at the National Headquarters. November 25th 1960: [4] He also has remarried and started a new family. Pope Faxa was the elected General Secretary and Leandro Guzman who was Maria Mirabal husband was the treasurer. Jaimito's mother, who dotes on Dede, her daughter-in-law, so much "that Dede sometimes worried that Leila's five daughters would resent her.". The heroines thereof were three sisters: Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal. [1] Through their education, Minerva and her sisters began to recognize and speak out against the oppressive dictatorship of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. She often insists that wherever they go or wherever her husband goes, she is going, too. Why didnt they kill you? the children would ask. We lived in fear, she wrote in her memoir, and there is nothing worse than living in fear.. The invasion was enough to inspire the formation of a new group of determined individuals. [3] They named it after a failed revolt against Trujillos government which was led by exiled Dominicans. This time police held them in the Hotel Presidente, and her father was detained at Fortress Ozama. To those who ask me about the veracity of a situation, or about one detail or another, or about the portrayal of my husband in the novel, for example, she wrote, I always say that even though it was based on a real story, it is a work of fiction., Ded spent her life telling the story of her sisters and raising their six children with the help of her own mother. To make money, they start up a specialty business of making children's christening gowns. Blgica Adela "Ded" Mirabal-Reyes, the second oldest of the Mirabal sisters, and the only one to survive the Trujillo regime. While jailed, Enrique Mirabal developed a cardiac condition that is believed to have precipitated his early death in 1953.In 1952, a year before her father's death, Minerva finally began to pursue a law degree, but the government revoked her registration the following year. "[5] After this response Mara Teresa let him hold her hand and they eventually married after she finished her education. Today it is overseen by Patria Mirabal's daughter, Noris Gonzlez Mirabal. This "gringa" woman interviews Dede in 1994, and her questions provoke Dede to retreat into the past and remember the events that led up to her sisters' deaths. Alvarez tells the Mirabal sisters' stories through their own eyes. [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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The Mirabal family was well regarded and was invited to high-level social functions and activities, even one hosted by Trujillo. She would not permit it. Her father, by contrast, would carry her on his shoulders as he walked through the fields and often expressed his support for his daughters. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. The entire Mirabal family was in attendance and became aware of the situation. 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. Minerva became a leader of the resistance, and Patria and Mara Teresa soon joined her, even as they married and started families. [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]. For their underground (and later, above-ground) activism, the Mirabal sisters assumed the nickname of Las Mariposas (The Butterflies). Elsa's grandfather, who is in trouble with the police. The U.S. military withdrew in 1924, when a new democratic government could be established. On November 25, 1960, Minerva, Maria Teresa, Patria (who had decided to accom-pany them out of solidarity), and their driver, a young anti-Trujilloist named Rufio de la Cruz, set off by jeep to visit their husbands in Puerto Plata. The mother of the Mirabal sisters, who defends her daughters with a passion. In her native Salcedo, both her political fervor and her beauty attracted attention. When Dede and Minerva meet him, he has just returned from Venezuela, where he earned his medical degree. 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. Maria Teresa's and Sonia's landlady while they store deliveries from Leandro, still attending classes at the university. The puppet president, Joaquin Balaguer, remained in power, and the Dominican Republic remained in a state of chaos until the United States returned once again to restore order in 1962, as reported in "Dominican Republic: A Country Study." 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. According to the Manchester Historian, November 25 is commemorated each year as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in their honor. People all over the country were outraged that Trujillo would go so far as to kill women. Today they are hailed as feminist heroes with numerous books, films, and landmarks that commemorate their sacrifice, the most well known being the 1994 novel, "In the Time of the Butterflies," by Julia Alvarez. In 1994 the house became officially recognized as a museum. 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.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. According to Biographics, the people were beholden to propping up the dictator's ego - those that did not suffered dire consequences. But she, unlike the rabbit, is not used to her cageshe knows she wants to get out and can't wait until she gets the chance. [1] Like her older sisters, Minerva also received an education at El Colegio Inmaculada Concepcin, at the urging of her mother, Mercedes Mirabal. Patria, Minerva and Maria became known as THE BUTTERFLIES or in Spanish LAS MARIPOSAS. 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. [3] In 1999, in their honor, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Rejected Princesses reports they also would collect materials to make weapons and even constructed bombs out of dismantled fireworks. Minerva's husband, who is also imprisoned as a revolutionary. [40], In 2021, Rosa Hernndez de Grulln, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in France, inaugurated a plaque in Paris in honor of the famous Dominican resistance fighters murdered under the Trujillo dictatorship in 1960. Ded Mirabal died on Feb. 1, 2014. He is murdered along with them. She sends them to Dr. Pedro Vinas. We have to fight against it, and I am willing to give up everything, even my life if necessary. Trujillo created monopolies by buying out farms, manufacturing, and production, all controlled by himself and his closest allies. When Minerva and her family were released, her father died shortly after. At home, that was the first thing I learned to hate Trujillo. The young attendant at El Gallo, where Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa stop to buy purses on the way to visit their husbands in Puerto Plata. "Something was wrong with the frail, old woman--she was forgetting the simplest things.". The world the Mirabal Sisters grew up in saw Trujillo's government bring prosperity and modernize the country. The sisters recruited their husbands in the fight. It should be noted that their home country, the Dominican Republic, belongs to the Global South, a popular term in transnational and postcolonial studies used to refer to "developing" nation-states that share a history of colonialism or imperialism; the term . He seized power through a coup and a rigged election in 1930. The eyes, the brows, the whole look had Mirabal written all over it." As the sole Mirabal sister who survived Trujillos regime, Ded was left to wrestle with her guilt and find meaning in being alive. Ded in 2012. Who could summon the energy to speak during such a difficult time? Ded wrote. According to "Dominican Republic: A Country Study," the nation was increasingly isolated, and people both within and outside its borders were denouncing Trujillo. Patria's husband, Pedro Gonzlez, escaped arrest by going into hiding. [13], After Trujillo was assassinated on 30 May 1961, General Pupo Romn admitted to having personal knowledge that the sisters were killed by Victor Alicinio Pea Rivera, Trujillo's right-hand man, along with Ciriaco de la Rosa, Ramon Emilio Rojas, Alfonso Cruz Valeria, and Emilio Estrada Malleta, members of his secret police force. [4] All four sisters attended primary school in their village, Ojo de Agua, and attended a Catholic boarding school, El Colegio de la Inmaculada, for their secondary education in the city of La Vega. I think we get the voices of all the sisters in the narrative. In 1948, Ded married Jaime Fernandez, whom she described as a violent and handsome man. Their relationship lasted 34 years, 18 of which she said were good. The last sister, Adela "Ded", who was not involved in political activities at the time, died of natural causes on 1 February 2014. When the three Mirabal sisters stood up against one of the bloodiest tyrants the Americas had ever seen, their only mission was to make the world a better place for their children. However, in May they were rearrested, taken to la 40" and sentenced to 30 years. An example of a hero is Minerva Mirabal, who fights in the Dominican Republic for change. After the death of the three Mirabal sisters, their legacy has been commemorated due to the large amount of gender-based violence within Latin America. The couple had only one son, who died shortly after birth. On 21 November 2007, Salcedo Province was renamed Hermanas Mirabal Province. They were also known as the "Butterflies,' the code name used by one of them during their underground political activities against the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the 1950s. While his voracious appetites earned Trujillo the nickname The Goat, he declared himself Father of the New Fatherland and used his troops to enforce his will through terror and torture. Minerva and her husband became resistance leaders, and Patria, Mara Teresa and their husbands soon joined them. The martyred sisters pricked the conscience of the Dominican people in a way that the deaths of Trujillos other victims had not. The official leader of the Fourteenth of June Movement and Minerva 's husband. The couple had only one son, who died shortly after birth. The speaker at the retreat where Patria goes with other Catholic women when, on the 14th of June, the church is attacked. At one point he is forced to watch as guards torture Mate, and he ends up giving up information in order to make it . [5], In 1960, Minerva and Mara Teresa were incarcerated from January 22 to February 7, then from May 18 to August 9. 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 charge was frivolous, as authorities claimed Minerva did not buy a book about Rafael Trujillo. Maria Teresa describes her as wearing "trousers and a beret slanted on her head like she is Michelangelo." The sisters peaceful rural upbringing was interrupted by Trujillo, who was the commander in chief of the Dominican army when he seized power in a coup in 1930. Taking advantage of the sudden rain that began to fall during the outdoor celebration, Enrique Mirabal gathered his family and left.Trujillo's particular rules of etiquette did not allow for anyone to leave his activities without his authorization or before his own departure. Leandro is an engineer who delivers weapons to Manolo and Minerva's house. She did not become involved with her sisters' political work. A fourth sister, Blgica Adela Mirabal Reyes, affectionately known as Ded, is the sole survivor of the four siblings and the caretaker of the family's legacy.Although the Mirabals' were very proud of their daughter Minerva's political commitment and integrity, her outspokenness made them apprehensive due to Trujillo's very repressive dictatorship, and they did not allow her to immediately proceed to law school. Family Life. She met her husband, Manuel Tavarez Justo, at university and later he supported and helped her in the fight against the regime. Dede's friend in 1994, with whom she tries to "catch up with what our children call the modern times.". When they were released weeks later, her father died as a result of ill health from being harassed and imprisoned. On Nov. 25, 1960, the Mirabal sisters went to visit their husbands imprisoned in Puerto Plata, accompanied by their driver, Rufino de la Cruz. He, along with all of the husbands, is imprisoned in La Victoria. With the expansion of the movement, secrecy became more vulnerable, and soon the secret military police uncovered the movement's activities, and arrested many of its leaders, including Minerva and Maria Teresa and their husbands, Manuel and Leandro, in early January 1960. The oldest of the Mirabal sisters, she is the most religious. Rafael Trujillo's regime was ripe with rape, torture, and extrajudicial killing of citizens. On their drive back home they were ambushed by a group of Trujillo's men, who forced them out of their vehicle. More people were drawn to their cause, and the international community gained more interest in the state of affairs in the Dominican Republic, as per the Real DR. Minerva had caught the eye of Trujillo, whose advances she frequently turned down. She wrote, I could not stop screaming: Murderers! Mara Argentina Minerva Mirabal Reyes, or Minerva, was the third Mirabal sister, born March 12, 1927 in the Dominican Republic to Mercedes Reyes Camilo and Enrique Mirabal. Among the Mirabal sisters, who are all normal, middle-class women encouraged to not make trouble, each sister must . Patria and Pedrito's son, who becomes involved in the revolution and is arrested along with his father. One of the Mirabals' uncles. Minerva encounters Trujillo in person as a young woman, when he tries to seduce her. After the murder of her sisters Ded took care of their children. No one believed the government's account. [38], In 2019, the southeast corner of 168th street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan was designated "Mirabal Sisters Way" by the Council of the City of New York. Trujillo's right-hand man, called "Magic Eye" because he lost an eye in a knife fight, and his "remaining good eye magically sees what everyone else misses." Although their parents disliked Trujillo, who seized power in 1930, they. One day, Minerva has had enough of this and tell her husband. 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. Seven former members of the armed forces took the opportunity to assassinate the dictator on May 30, 1961 (via History). [9][10] Unlike her sisters, she did not go to college but instead took the role of the traditional homemaker,[10] and helped her father with the family business. It was such a common occurrence that families would hide their daughters out of fear they might catch his eye because refusal was not an option. The following day, in an act that was repeated many times, Enrique Mirabal was jailed and his wife and Minerva were kept in a local hotel under house arrest. Once free, they continued their underground political work, albeit more discreetly. She is "grownup-looking for her age, tall with red-gold hair and her skin like something just this moment coming out of the oven, giving off a warm golden glow.". Ded has written a memoir titled "Vivas en Su Jardn," or "Alive in Their Garden," which was published in 2009. These women followed their convictions with bravery and selflessness to fight for what they believed. P atria, Minerva and Mara Teresa Mirabalthree sisters from a middle class family, all married with childrenmay not have seemed the most likely revolutionaries . In the Time of the Butterflies study guide contains a biography of Julia Alvarez, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. She is unable to read or write, though Maria Teresa teaches her a little. As the sisters headed home, Trujillos thugs stopped their car and killed the driver on the spot. Their childhood home was converted into the museum that Ded Mirabel headed. [citation needed], The 200 Dominican pesos bill features the sisters, and a stamp was issued in their memory. The husbands of Minerva, Mara Teresa, Patria were among the leaders of the 14th of June Movement, nicknamed 1J4. 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. When a party was thrown in his honor in 1949 in San Cristobal, he made sure that she and her family attended. Patria's youngest son, named after Che Guevara of the Cuban revolution. According to her daughter, MinouTavarez Mirabal, Minerva and her husband, also an activist, were frequently jailed simultaneously. He becomes involved in the revolution. She has a little girl and is "pretty dark with quite a kink in her hair." Maria Teresa Mirabal and Patria Mirabal, along with both their husbands, joined their sister, Minerva, in the movement. On their trip to visit their husbands in Puerto Plata, the sisters and Rufino pick up the young soldier on the side of the road. He took control of the economy, establishing monopolies in the production of salt, meat, rice and tobacco to benefit himself and his family. The sisters became known as "Las Mariposas," or "The Butterflies." For over 50 years, Ded Mirabal carried a crushing weight: All three of her sisters were murdered in 1960 by henchmen of Rafael Trujillo, the brutal dictator of the Dominican Republic. Sometimes the most extraordinary acts of bravery come from the most humble of circumstances. Trujillo's secretary of state, whose real job is to round up young girls for Trujillo to take advantage of. Balaguer was Trujillo's protg and had been the president at the time of the assassinations in 1960 (though, at the time, he "distanced himself from General Trujillo and initially carved out a more moderate political stance"). This stability existed under an iron grip, with Trujillo using his secret police force to abduct and murder all who opposed him both domestically and abroad. Gregarious, good-looking, and politically active Minerva frequently visited the capital Santo Domingo to spend time with friends who shared her anti-Trujillo sentiments. [1] The last day of that period, 10 December, is International Human Rights Day. Maria Teresa's roommate at Dona Hita's. The novel was turned into a 2001 TV movie of the same name starring Salma Hayek as Minerva and Edward James Olmos as Trujillo; another drama about the Mirabals, Trpico de Sangre (2010), starred Michelle Rodriguez as Minerva. 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. [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. She was 88. The sisters were called "Las Mariposas" (the butterflies) as a covert way of referring to their work within and outside the organization. At his death, his empire had grown so large that he controlled nearly 80 percent of the countrys industrial production, the historian Frank Moya Pons wrote in The Dominican Republic: A National History (2010). He is married to Tia Flor and is the father of Raul and Berto. Every few years, the mural changes. Minerva Mirabal Activist #37822 Most Popular Boost Birthday March 12, 1926 Birthplace Salcedo, Dominican Republic DEATH DATE Nov 25, 1960 ( age 34 ) Birth Sign Pisces About One of three Dominican Mirabal sisters assassinated in November of 1960 for opposing the regime of dictator Rafael Trujillo. According to the New York Times, due to the popularity of the novel and the film, "In the Time of the Butterflies," Ded said she made sure to demystify the mythologies created around her sisters. [6], Last edited on 28 September 2022, at 01:24, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, "Violence and discrimination against women, a very serious problem in the Dominican Republic", "How the Mirabal Sisters Helped Topple a Dictator", "Biografa de Minerva Mirabal | El Da Nacionales", "The Mirabal Sisters: A Global Symbol of Violence Against Women", "In the Time of the Butterflies: The Mirabal Sisters", "The Murder of the Mirabal Sisters in the Dominican Republic", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Minerva_Mirabal_Reyes&oldid=1112769601, This page was last edited on 28 September 2022, at 01:24. She believes that she can commune with the three dead sisters, and she tells Minou what they say. He reacts by taking all of his belongings and leaving the house. Joyce, Meghan. [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. Trujillo's particular rules of etiquette did not allow for anyone to leave his activities without his authorization or before his own departure. The rainy weather is the physical incarnation of the metaphorical storm that began for the Mirabal family when Minerva slapped Trujillo at the Discovery Day dance: "And then the rain comes down hard, slapping sheets of it." Victor Alicinio Pen, the head of the northern division of the SIM. Today the Mirabal sisters are considered symbols of feminism in Latin America. 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. Minerva was the most vocal and radical of the Mirabal daughters. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, the dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. Dede's maid, who came to work for her when Jaime David was born. She was released but under constant watch by Trujillo's spies, notes Casas Museo Hermanas Mirabal. [10] Between 1992 and 1994 Ded started the Mirabal Sisters Foundation and the Mirabal Sisters museum to continue her sisters' legacy. In addition to her father being arrested, Minerva Mirabal and her mother were taken into police custody after the party. Denying the leader would result in the father losing his job, or worse - something Minerva Mirabal discovered firsthand. They would often send letters back and forth between their prison cells, as per BBC. [citation needed], The husbands of Minerva, Mara Teresa, Patria were among the leaders of the 14th of June Movement, nicknamed 1J4. She spent her life telling the stories of her sisters, turning their childhood home into a museum, the Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal.