Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 26:1 (Winter 2012)
Article: Editor’s Reflections
Author: William David Spencer

PP 26:1 (Winter 2012) p. 2

Editor’s Reflections

William David Spencer

The recent premiere of news writer Emilio Herasme’s documentary La 40: Peor que el Infierno celebrates the memory of the Dominican Republic’s national heroes: Minerva, Patria, and María Teresa Mirabal. These three sisters stood up against the brutality of the dictator Rafael Trujillo at the cost of condemning themselves to execution at the hands of his death squad.

Faithful Roman Catholics, Minerva and Patria attended parochial high school, there encountering the children of families torn apart by political oppression. Minerva, moved by their stories, decided to study law and subsequently joined the anti-Trujillo underground. The first clash with the dictator resulted from what is often called popularly “an act of God”—a sudden downpour of rain at a party organized by Trujillo. The Mirabal family seized the opportunity to leave, deeply offending the dictator, who always insisted on leaving first. He had all of them arrested and forced letters of apology from them. Minerva refused and was interrogated for several days about her antagonistic attitude. The family was “well connected,” however, and Trujillo’s own brother interceded for them, securing their release.1 When Minerva subsequently enrolled in the University of Santo Domingo, the dictator had her watched and soon blocked her progress because of her work on human rights and Dominican law.2 A failed revolt by the Dominican Liberation Movement on June 14, 1959, led to the three Mirabal sisters, who were now all active in the underground and married to other anti-Trujillo patriots, forming the “Movimiento Clandestino 14 de Junio,” the sisters being known by the code name “Las Mariposas” (The Butterflies).3 Trujillo had all three of their husbands arrested and tortured. When the sympathetic Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt supported their cause, Trujillo attempted twice to assassinate him. In the meantime, on the domestic front, among other atrocities, Trujillo reportedly ordered 30,000 dark Haitians living in the Dominican Republic murdered in an attempt to lighten the complexion of the Dominicans.4 The Mirabals stepped up their campaign, even reportedly enlisting the priest of their home church to join their movement and oppose the violence of the government.5

By the evening of November 25, 1960, Trujillo had had enough from the Mirabals. Dominicans claim that the fatal rebuff came when Minerva (and, according to many, her two sisters as well) refused to succumb to sexual demand...