The Miraabal sisters killed during the Trujillato. Author: Álvaro Díaz Infante
November 25 is always a date when I think about how attitudes or "international days" can often be interpreted as background noise and easily forgotten, until you realize what this day means and where it comes from. November 25 commemorates the lives of three Dominican Sisters (Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal) whose lives were in reality destroyed by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Their story is too familiar, especially to anyone who has seen a woman fight against the power of a dictator that impressed on her that she should not be fighting back.
They did not wear capes and were not "super" people; rather, these were three very ordinary women with very ordinary lives, all of whom lived in a small village. They became fed up with people disappearing and they decided to make an effort to do something about it. Minerva Mirabal was the first sister to engage with others who were organizing to oppose the dictatorship, then her other two sisters joined her. They began calling themselves "Las Mariposas" (The Butterflies); which sounds really romantic and poetic but in the case of these three women, their reality was constant danger. Their houses were watched by the police, and their families were drawn into the events.
After their husbands had been imprisoned in 1960, the Mirabal sisters continued visiting their husbands despite the fact that everyone knew it was too dangerous for them to do so. One day while travelling back from prison, on a lonely road, police from the regime stopped them and beat them, ultimately resulting in their deaths, and making it all look as though it was a deadly car accident. No one purchased their product. While their voices alone could never have made such a significant impact and-in fact-after their tragic demise, it ultimately resulted in causing the end of the dictatorship in a very short amount of time!
To honour them is not merely an act of nostalgic remembrance. It serves as a constant reminder that acts of violence against women cannot possibly be defined as "personal dramas" anymore! These acts represent huge political problems. These acts influence the course of whole cultures, and so long as we make our voices heard, we must unite and work together to avoid further tragedies.
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