dangermousie | The Mirabal sisters

This is definitely out of the blue, but this post is about Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa. All three were active and "high up" in the movement against the dictatorship of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. They were known as "mariposas" (butterflies) because of their code names. Minerva especially was a ring-leader. She and her husband, Manolo Tavarez Justo (who was killed in 1963), founded a 14th of June revolutionary group. They became symbols of resistance, and continued fighting through their and their husbands' imprisonment. They were murdered in 1960 after they've been lured to visit their husbands in a remote mountain jail. November 25th, the day of their murder, is observed in many Latin American countries as the International Day Against Violence Towards Women.

Most of the sites that talk about them are understandably in Spanish. I did manage to read them, but my Spanish is not that great, so I got only the gist. This seems to be the best English-speaking web page explaining the story:

There is a non-fiction book about Minerva that I want to look up and get, William Galvan's "Minerva Mirabal." There is also Julia Alvarez's brilliantly written novel "In the time of the butterflies" which is what got me interested in the story, and a movie made of it, which I haven't seen that stars Selva Hayek as Minerva and Edward James Olmos as Trujillo.

Minerva: