From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Three of the Mirabal sisters, Patria Mercedes Mirabal-Reyes, Minerva Argentina Mirabal-Reyes, and Maria Teresa Mirabal-Reyes, were well-known for trying to stop the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.
The fourth sister is named Bélgica Adela "Dedé" Mirabal-Reyes, and she did not have an active role in going against the dictator.
Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa became known as Las Mariposas, or The Butterflies, which was their conspiratorial nickname.
After numerous imprisonments, Trujillo decided to get rid of the sisters. On November 25, 1960, he sent men to intercept the three after they found their husbands in prison. The three women were unarmed. They were led into a cane field and beaten and strangled to death. Trujillo was assassinated six months later, partly due to what he did to the Mirabal sisters.
The United Nations proclaimed the say of the death of the Mirabal sisters as the Day Against Violence Against Women.
The sisters were portrayed in the 2001 movie In Time of the Butterflies, with Salma Hayek playing Minerva.
