Mirabal legacy enlivens Mead Chapel

Author: Aylie Baker

"Si me matan, yo sacaré mis brazos de la tumba y seré más fuerte," Minou Tavárez Mirabal exclaimed, her hands outstretched as though offering an embrace. Her words elicited a wave of passionate applause, and the audience was soon on its feet.

In the close of her address, "Violence against Women: The Example of the Mirabal Sisters," Minou repeated the brave sentiments of her late mother, the Dominican revolutionary Minerva Mirabal. Translated into English, the statement reads: "If they kill me, I will raise my arms from the grave and be that much stronger." Beside Minou stood Dedé Mirabal. At 81 years old, she stood resolute, beaming as her niece fielded questions regarding Las Mariposas. The Butterflies. They are her three sisters, whose brave, yet tragic resistance altered the history of the Dominican Republic and whose legacies are revered worldwide.

From 1930-1961, the people of the Dominican Republic suffered under the smothering dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. It was Minerva Mirabal, the third of the Mirabal sisters, who first defied his regime.

Breaking through traditional norms, Minerva persuaded her family to allow her to attend university. There, studying law, she began to take up social causes, particularly women's rights and democracy.

Undaunted by personal dangers, Minerva plunged into the resistance movement, encouraging her sisters and their husbands to join in the struggle. She was instrumental in the June 14 political movement and, despite several cases of imprisonment, she remained unwavering in her desire to undermine Trujillo's repressive regime. So great was her defiance that Trujillo once stated publicly, "Los únicos problemas de mi gobierno son la iglesia y Minerva Mirabal," (The only problems of my government are the church and Minerva Mirabal).

On Nov. 25, 1960, Minerva, Maria Teresa and Patria were returning from visiting their husbands in a remote jail, when their Jeep was ambushed. Dispersed within a sugar cane field, the sisters were beaten to death. While their deaths were framed as an accident by the Trujillo's regime, their tragic story soon seeped into public knowledge and was met with great anguish. Shortly after their deaths, Trujillo was assassinated, and democracy, though still in its early stages, was finally realized for the Dominican Republic.

The story of the Mirabal sisters, Las Mariposas, has been immortalized in the historical-fiction novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, Middlebury's writer-in-residence. Alvarez, whose family was lucky to escape the wrath of Trujillo when it fled to the U.S. in 1960, grew up hearing the story of Las Mariposas. From a family of four sisters, Alvarez described how she had always felt that they "were the lucky ones." When she visited the Dominican Republic and met Dedé, Alvarez felt compelled to tell their story, to preserve its place in history.

Instrumental to the preservation of her sisters' legacy is Dedé Mirabal. As the surviving Mirabal sister, she is truly the fourth butterfly, insisted Alvarez. Saddened though she was by the death of her sisters, Dedé took it upon herself to raise her orphaned nephews and nieces along with her own children. "It's in my character," she said. "I had a responsibility."

"She raised all her children to be whole, happy, humane beings, un-poisoned by hatred and revenge, imbued by a sense of freedom and a desire to help their country," said Alvarez, smiling. "She achieved that, imagine."

"It was incredible to see Dedé up there, at 81 years old, as strong and confident as ever," said Dana Weissman '07. "She's an inspiration to all of us, hearing about the amazing things that she's accomplished after all the hardships she's endured."

Now, nearly 50 years after the death of her sisters, Dedé is proud to see the leaders that these nine children have become. Her own son was vice president of the last administration in the Dominican Republic. Her niece, Minou, currently serving her second term in the Dominican Chamber of Deputies, continues her mother's work of empowering women and is postulated to one day become president of the Dominican Republic.

The visit was particularly thrilling for students of Dominican descent, who, like Alvarez, had grown up hearing the story of the Mirabal sisters. At a dinner held in their honor, Minou and Dedé joined in singing the Dominican national anthem with their fellow countrymen, and exchanged stories and jokes. "My aunt's name is Minerva - named after Minerva Mirabal," said Nadeghda Gonzalez '09 proudly, whose family hails from the Dominican Republic.

Yet reverence for Las Mariposas is not only shared by Dominicans - the Mirabals are truly international heroines. Alvarez's novel has been translated into over 10 languages, and in 1999 the United Nations proclaimed the anniversary of their deaths the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

"You place your thumb on the globe," mimed Alvarez, and suddenly, the "Dominican Republic disappears." That the memory of these three brave women has risen from "this tiny, tiny country" to figure prominently on the international stage is monumental.

Posthumously they remain emblematic not only as crusaders of women's rights and democracy but also as testaments to a darker, invisible tract of American history. Over the years, the United States has exhibited significant "amnesia about the rest of America," asserted Alvarez. What of the genocides on our side of the Atlantic? Those killed by Trujillo are but a small portion of the "lost generation" in South America. What of "Los Desaparecidos"(the disappeared) in Argentina, the deceased in Chile and Nicaragua? For too long, sighed Alvarez, the U.S has provided "democracy for our [U.S. citizens] consumption, and dictatorship for export." The American government's historic propensity to cloak its economic and political interests beneath a pretense of spreading democracy has severely crippled development in many Latin American countries.

Yet it seems that, finally, "the U.S. has changed the values they are promoting," asserted Minou. "Freedom. Democracy. Human Rights." Such principles are now shifting to the forefront of U.S. diplomacy.

Despite the incredible travesty that their family endured, it is peace and empowerment that Dedé and Minou Mirabal wish to promote. The future of the world is on the shoulders of today's youth, and above all they wish to continue to inspire change and promote social justice. The work of Las Mariposas is not yet finished, their legacy shall live on through Dedé and Minou. Ultimately, said Alvarez, "We must forgive, but we can't forget."