Biography of Patria Mirabal

Biography

Patria Mirabal

She was born on February 27th 1924 in Ojo de Agua, Salcedo​ and she died on November 25th 1960 in the Dominican republic.​ She had a passion for the paint, with which she took refuge in the intimate and tragic moments of her life, by creating works of singular beauty, tenderness and harmony.​ She ended her studies of the intermediate education and received the title in the typing (the Science which studies tracks) in el Colegio Inmaculada Concepción de La Vega.

Minerva Mirabal

She was born on March 12th, 1927 in Ojo de Agua and also died on November 25th 1960 in the Dominican republic.​ Born into a middle class family, Minerva was an intelligent, young, political activist. She became also a lawyer. She also was one of the first women to obtain the title of Dra law during the dictatorship, a diploma that she had at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo.

Maria Teresa Mirabal

She was the youngest of the Mirabal sisters, was born on October 15th 1935 in the Dominican Republic.​ In 1954, she graduated from the High school San Francisco de Macorís in Mathematics, and then went to the University of Santo Domingo to study math. She also became involved in her sisters' political activities​. On January 20, 1960 she was detained at a military base in Salcedo and freed the same day. ​

She said a sentence which is very powerful : "… perhaps what we have most near is death, but that idea does not frighten me, we shall continue to fight for that which is just…"​

Adela Mirabal

She was the last one of the sisters to die: on February 01st, 2014 in Santo Domingo​. ​ After the murder of her three sisters in 1960, she became responsible for six sons of these, and raised with a lot of love as her own children. ​To pay them tribute, she created the House of the Museum of the Sisters Mirabal: residence where they had lived, before her tragic deaths on November 25th, 1960.

Context and actions

The beginning

It all began in the small island of the Dominican Republic. The MIrabal family's first met Trujillo at a party to which they were invited. They came and Trujillo being very insistent, danced with Minerva. When she refused his advances the family abruptly left the place. This infuriated Trujillo so he arrested Minerva’s father and incarcerated him in Ciudad Trujillo, the actual Santo Domingo. Every day Minerva was taken to the prison and interrogated by Trujillo’s men. She refused to write a letter of apology to Trujillo. Thereafter, Minerva struggled as Trujillo personally played with her life. Despite being a brilliant student, upon starting her second year at law school, Minerva found she was banned from classes until she gave a public speech extolling Trujillo’s virtues. She graduated finally but the government denied her license to practice law.

Who was Trujillo ?

He won the presidential election in 1930. After, the name Trujillo was praised throughout the country, for example families were obligated to hang portraits of him in their houses. It quickly became a totalitarian regime. General Trujillo had a reputation for being the cruelest dictator of the Caraibean region. He ruled the country as a tyrant for approximately 30 years. It were decades of oppressive rule consisted of torture, rape, kidnapping, violent killings and gruesome massacre. Minerva was the first to be tortured for her political activities. In this world of savage cruelty, the sisters risked everything to stop the crimes and so their participation played a major role in ending the dictatorship of Trujillo. They began a revolution, called 14th of June and used code names : «las mariposas » which means butterflies in english.

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