Sixty four years ago, on November 25, 1960, three women activists — the Mirabal Sisters (Minerva, Patria and Maria Teresa) — were killed by agents of the government of the Dominican Republic, then under the dictatorship of General Rafael Trujillo. The sisters were leading critics and opponents of Trujillo’s dictatorial regime, and inspired by Fidel Castro and the revolution in Cuba they organised an underground movement to topple Trujillo’s dictatorship. The day was chosen to pay homage to and remember the heroic efforts of the three Mirabal sisters, popularly known as “the butterfly sisters” (Las Mariposas).
The Mirabal sisters became symbols of feminist resistance and 25 November came to be observed as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134). The day is observed worldwide wherein women activists call for an end to gender based violence and oppression.
Today, even as 25 November is commemorated by women activists all over the world, the fact that the Mirabal sisters were murdered fighting a dictatorial regime, is often erased out of public memory. This is what happens when certain days are institutionalized and appropriated by the States, who themselves are the worst violators of women’s rights.
The History Behind this Date
In 1981, the first Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Conference was held in Bogotá, Colombia. There, it was proposed to establish 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Years later, in 1999, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted for 25 November to be recognized as the day of the Elimination of Violence against Women. On February 7, 2020, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution and officially designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Trujillo’s Regime and the Mirabal Sisters’ Rebellion
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, US Marine trained soldier, seized control of the Dominican Republic in May, 1930. He assumed power by means of a rigged presidential election in which the number of ballots announced in favour of Trujillo exceeded the number of eligible voters in the country. Through civil intimidation and political muders he quickly established one of the most brutal dictatorships of the twentieth century.
The 31 years of Trujillo’s rule (1930-1961) were characterized by severe repression of workers and trade union movements, of Leftist and youth organizations, and of his political opponents and dissidents. Trujillo ruled with an absolute disregard for democratic rights. His regime tolerated no effective opposition, no free press, and no free speech. Political opponents were repressed by terroristic methods. It is estimated that his regime brought about the death of more than fifty thousand Dominicans and thousands of Haitians who were specific targets in the killings on October 1937, now referred to as the “Parsley Massacre.”
The Mirabal Sisters ignited a grassroots coalition composed of men and women which educated the public and exposed Rafael Trujillo’s brutal regime. In 1959, the sisters helped form an underground political group, Movimiento 14 de Junio/The Movement of the Fourteenth of June, with the explicit goals of defending democracy and freedom. They, along with other men and women comrades, worked and campaigned to overthrow Trujillo’s government. They held meetings in each other’s houses, always on the lookout for the secret police. They even stopped using their real names and used code names instead. The sisters were called Las Mariposas—The Butterflies—and gained immense reputation as warriors committed to the cause defending democracy and human rights within their country.
Despite their caution, the Las Mariposas’ rebel group was discovered, and many of the members were caught and thrown in prison, including the sisters and their husbands. In 1960, they and their group bore the brunt of political suppression and Trujillo’s campaign of terror. The Mirabal sisters, along with their husbands, were detained on several occasions, tortured in clandestine prison sites and raped by Trujillo’s soldiers.
Mirabal sisters were released from prison on parole but their husbands were not released. Trujillo suspected the sisters’ larger involvement in the conspiracy to oust him. He moved María Teresa’s and Minerva’s husband to Puerto Plata prison in a far off mountainous region and with his secret police hatched a ploy to kill the sisters.
On November 25, 1960, Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa went to see their husbands at the Puerto Plata prison. Trujillo’s secret police had laid a trap for the women. While returning home from the prison, while crossing a bridge they found their way blocked by Trujillo’s secret police. The women were dragged out from their car and taken to a nearby sugarcane field, where they were clubbed and strangled to death. The driver of the car was killed as well. The secret police then put their bodies back in the car and pushed it off the mountain to make the deaths look like an accident.
A message arrived for their fourth sister, Dedé, that said, her three sisters were dead—the Butterflies had flown free of this life.
The Butterfly Sisters: Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa
The kidnapping and murder of Mirabal sisters happened to be one of the most outrageous of the crimes committed during Trujillo’s lengthy dictatorship. It was the most widely reviled, of the countless crimes committed by his regime. The killing sparked a strong sense of indignation among Dominicans and mobilized international censure of his regime. Six months later, on May 30, 1961, Trujillo was assassinated in San Cristobal.
The death of the Mirabal sisters had a great impact on Dominican society, though it had not been officially acknowledged until the 1990s, when the country recognized Patria Mercede, Minerva Argentina and Antonia Maria Teresa as national martyrs, and incorporated them in history lessons. Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa became symbols of activism and feminist resistance worldwide. The fourth sister, Dede, continued to live till 2014, when she died at the age of 88.
Considered national martyrs, their faces grace the currency and stamps of their country.
Today when the right-wing politics has consolidated itself globally, the Mirabal sisters need to be remembered because they stood up against the oppression of a dictatorial state. Today, the Trujillos of the past seem insignificant when compared in magnitude to the oppression and violence on all marginalized communities, particularly women and children, unleashed by the likes of present rulers – Netanyahu, Biden, Putin, Erdogan, Modi and others.
It is important to remember that while individual cases of violence against women and girls by family members and intimate partners and such have to be fought against, the question of gendered violence cannot simply be reduced to only individualized cases. Violence, particularly against women and girls, and torture including rape, remains an important aspect of State policies that women worldwide confront every day. Both – the individualized and State violence – must be fought against concurrently.
The spirits of the Mirabal sisters haunts the tyrant rulers and their despotic puppet regimes even today. Women and girls, across the world, are in the forefront of struggles to build a better, fair and just world. Only through active solidarity with these resistance struggles against the oppressive states, can we remember and pay homage to the legacy of the Mirabal Sisters. As one of the murdered sisters, Patria Mirabal said:
“We cannot allow our children to grow up in this corrupt and tyrannical regime. We have to fight against it, and I am willing to give up everything, even my life if necessary.”
Sources and links from which the above article has been compiled and images taken
https://www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-50557784