Mirabal sisters
The last sister, Adela, commonly known as Dedé, who was not involved in political activities at the time, died of natural causes on 1 February 2014.
[2] Of the sisters, Minerva was the one who had the most active role in politics, being the founder of the 14 June Revolutionary Movement together with her husband Manolo Tavárez Justo [es].
Their remains rest in a mausoleum that was declared an extension of the National Pantheon, located in the Hermanas Mirabal House-Museum, the last residence of the sisters.
[3] In 1999, in their honor, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
[1] The Mirabal family were from the central Cibao region of the Dominican Republic and had a farm in the village of Ojo de Agua, near the town of Salcedo.
The sisters, especially Minerva, believed that the dictatorship was ruining the country, so they participated in the creation and organization of the 14 June Revolutionary Movement.
[citation needed] However, after seeing how upset Minerva was, her parents relented six years later and she enrolled at the University of Santo Domingo, where she later graduated summa cum laude.
[13] Due to her previous rejection of Trujillo's advances, when Minerva graduated, her diploma was stripped of her honors and her license to practice law was ultimately turned down.
While dating, before Leandro was allowed to hold María Teresa's hand, she asked him how his family felt about Trujillo.
María Teresa was influenced by her older sister Minerva's political views and was involved in the clandestine activities against Trujillo's regime.
"[7] While attending the Colegio Inmaculada Concepción, Minerva discovered that her friend Deisi Ariza's father was killed by Trujillo for opposing the regime.
[5] Minerva became involved in the political movement against Trujillo, who was the country's official president from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952, but ruled behind the scenes as a dictator from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.
[citation needed] The husbands of Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria were among the leaders of 14 June Movement, nicknamed 1J4.
The movement was created in support, and then in honor, of the Dominican rebels who were killed while attempting to overthrow the Rafael Trujillo regime.
[15] Everyone in the family, including Patria's teenaged children, helped distribute pamphlets about the many people whom Trujillo had killed, and obtained materials for guns and bombs to use when they eventually openly revolted.
[3] The secret movement was discovered weeks after its founding leading to Patria's house (where the group met) being burned to the ground and María Teresa and Minerva's arrests.
[19] The three husbands were incarcerated in January at La Victoria Penitentiary in Santo Domingo, and then, in November, two of them were transferred to Puerto Plata.
[citation needed] After Trujillo was assassinated on 30 May 1961, General Pupo Román admitted to having personal knowledge that the sisters were killed by Victor Alicinio Peña Rivera, Trujillo's right-hand man, along with Ciriaco de la Rosa, Ramon Emilio Rojas, Alfonso Cruz Valeria, and Emilio Estrada Malleta, members of his secret police force.
[24] However, the details of the Mirabal sisters' assassinations were "treated gingerly at the official level" until 1996, when President Joaquín Balaguer was forced to step down after more than two decades in power.
[3] The post-Balaguer era has seen a marked increase in homages to the Mirabal sisters, including an exhibition of their belongings at the National Museum of History and Geography in Santo Domingo.
Of Dedé's own three children, Jaime David Fernández Mirabal was the minister for environment and natural resources and a former vice president of the Dominican Republic.
[28] On 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in honor of the sisters.
[35] In 2019, the southeast corner of 168th street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan was designated "Mirabal Sisters Way" by the Council of the City of New York.
