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Las Hermanas Mirabal Las Hermanas Mirabal, or the Mirabal sisters--there were four of them. Three, Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa were killed by the dictator, Trujillo, in 1960. Their story was written in fictionalized form by Julia Alvarez in "In the Time of the Butterflies". The three women have since become national heroes in the Dominican Republic and beyond: UNESCO has promoted November 25, the anniversary of their assassination, as the International Day Against Violence Against Women.
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 Goshen College SST office |
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In another fascinating twist of history, a Santo
Domingo monument that Trujillo originally erected to himself
was painted with a mural of the three Mirabal sisters and re-dedicated
to them in 1997. See this NY Times article about
the re-dedication. |
Just
outside the town of Salcedo lies the the Mirabal Museum, housed
in the home of the Mirabal sisters who were killed by the dictator
Trujillo. The highlight of the visit was a conversation with the
surviving sister, Dedł Mirabal. 
The
three Mirabal sisters were killed by Trujillo's henchmen, and their
car pushed over a cliff to suggest an accident. The car frame (right)
is preserved in a small park a few kilometers north of the museum,
near the original Mirabal family home in Ojo de Agua. In the same
park, there's a 