The Victory of the Sisters Who Resisted

On November 25^th 1960, three sisters died in a ‘car accident’. According to reports, Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal’s car plunged off a cliff. At least this was the story in El Caribe, a newspaper sanctioned by Rafael Trujillo’s government. He was the cruel tyrant who took control of the Dominican Republic in a military coup. The Mirabal sisters were prominent members of a clandestine group opposed to Trujillo. Yet everyone knew the deaths of the Mirabal sisters were no accident.

As middle-class women, wives, and mothers, the Mirabal sisters were not obvious revolutionaries. Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, and their sister Dedé, grew up in Ojo de Agua, Salcedo Province. Their parents owned and maintained a thriving farm, a coffee mill, and a general shop.

Minerva attended college in the capital, Santo Domingo, where she studied law. She was aware of the injustices that prevailed during dictator Trujillo’s regime.

Trujillo served as the army’s commander-in-chief before seizing power in 1930. The prosperity, modernisation, and stability brought about by Trujillo came at a cost. He took control of the country’s economy and funnelled the profits to his own family and followers.

Trujillo abolished civil and political liberties. While only one political party, the Dominican Party, existed. Worst of all, Trujillo’s deadly secret police silenced opponents. They used intimidation, incarceration, torture, kidnapping and rape of women, and murder.

His government was responsible for tens of thousands of fatalities. Including the 1937 massacre of an estimated 20,000 Haitians. Professor Elizabeth Manley once said:

“There was a huge danger during that period. People were being disappeared and jailed and killed.”

Resistance to the regime continued to grow. Men made up the majority of revolutionaries. Although many women also joined the movement. And this included the Mirabal sisters…

Joining the Resistance

Officials detained Minerva at the end of 1949 for suspected opposition activity. She also irritated Trujillo by declining his sexual advances. She married fellow activist Manolo Tavárez Justo in 1955. Minerva and her husband led the fight, while Patria, María Teresa, and their husbands followed suit. Dedé did not join her sisters as her husband did not want her to.

They helped organise the 14^th of June Movement in early 1960. Named after the date of a failed rebellion against Trujillo. Created to support and honour Dominican rebels, killed trying to overthrow Trujillo.

Everyone in the Mirabal family distributed pamphlets about the people Trujillo had killed. The family also obtained materials for guns and bombs. The sisters named themselves ‘Las Mariposas’ (The Butterflies). But Trujillo learnt of the secret organisation and had Patria’s house burnt down. He ordered the arrest of the sisters.

Trujillo began mass arrests of resistance activists. Though he often released female detainees as a ‘lenient’ gesture. He portrayed himself as a man who cared about women and women’s rights. And, for the most part, people believed him. Hurting women was one line he would not cross.

Officials sent Minerva and María Teresa to jail but they were not tortured. Patria was never arrested but her husband and son were, along with the husbands of Minerva and María Teresa. It was once written:

‘No matter how many times Trujillo jailed them, no matter how much of their property and possessions he seized, Minerva, Patria and María Teresa refused to give up on their mission to restore democracy and civil liberties to the island nation.’

Trujillo ordered the assassination of Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt, although the attempt failed. After this, the Organisation of American States severed diplomatic ties with the country. While America withdrew its support for the administration.

Trujillo was also losing support at home. The influential church condemned his government’s actions. Officials released Minerva and María Teresa from jail.

Unfortunately, their freedom would not last long.

The Death of the Butterflies

On a stormy night in 1960, the Mirabal sisters were going home after visiting their husbands in jail. But on one lonely road, a group of Trujillo’s henchmen stopped the sister’s car. The men pulled the driver, Rufino de la Cruz, from the car and killed him.

The men took Patria, Minerva and María Teresa from the car and separated them. The men strangled the three women and clubbed them to death. The henchmen put the four bodies in their car and pushed it off a cliff to make their deaths look like an accident.

But nobody was buying it. Everyone knew the deaths were no accident. Patria died aged 36, Minerva died aged 34, while María Teresa was 24. One of the murderers later said:

“I tried to prevent the disaster, but I could not because if I had he, Trujillo, would have killed us all.”

It marked the beginning of the end of Trujillo’s brutal regime.

The Aftermath of the Murders

Overnight, the Butterflies became martyrs. Trujillo’s plan backfired. Rather than restoring order, it injected renewed vigour into the movement against him. These deaths helped to cement resistance to Trujillo both at home and abroad. Manley said:

“Killing women… was just beyond what people could stomach, and that catalysed a lot of people to become more active in the movement.”

Trujillo portrayed himself as a supporter of women and mothers. He granted complete female suffrage in 1942. He also sent one of the first female delegates (from any country) to the United Nations in 1945. Manley added:

“He touted these things and said they were an element of his progressivism. So this failure to protect women and [going] against this kind of maternal politics was a serious blow.”

On May 30^th, 1961, seven men ambushed Trujillo’s car and assassinated him.

Trujillo’s death did not restore democracy to the Dominican Republic. His successor, Joaquin Balaguer, maintained the authoritarian regime until the late 1970s. Democratic elections held in 1996 were the first in almost four decades.

But no one ever forgot the sacrifices many people made to get there.

Dedé

Dedé Mirabal carried the crushing weight of her sister’s deaths for almost 50 years. As the only Mirabal sister to survive Trujillo’s tyranny, Dedé had to deal with the guilt and find meaning in her life. She accomplished this by carrying on her sisters’ legacies.

She spent the rest of her life caring for their children. And ensured everyone recognised what the Mirabal sisters did.

Dedé kept their memories alive at the Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal. There, she told visiting children how her sister’s deaths sparked a revolution. One that led to Trujillo’s overthrow in 1961, opening the path for the restoration of democracy. The children often ask:

“Why didn’t they kill you?”

To which Dedé always responds:

“I stayed alive to tell their stories.”

Dedé died as recently as February 1^st 2014, aged 88.

The Victory of the Sisters Who Resisted

November 25^th is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. It commemorates the 1960 assassination of the Dominican Republic’s incredible Mirabal sisters.

Trujillo once said he had only two problems. The Catholic Church and the Mirabal sisters. They fought against Trujillo, regarded as one of Latin America’s worst dictators. He ordered the murders of at least 50,000 people.

He stole and destroyed the property of the Mirabal sisters. He imprisoned them. And he had them killed. But until the end, they remained determined to restore democracy in their country. Today, Dominicans consider the sisters national martyrs. Their images are everywhere, from coins to stamps.

More so, the sisters have touched women across the world. They stressed the need to speak out against oppression and violence against women. They established a precedent that every woman has the right to a life without violence.

The echoes of the Mirabal sisters are still heard across the world.

“If they kill me, I’ll reach my arms out from the tomb and I’ll be stronger.”
– Minerva.

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