Las hermanas Mirabal

Today we took a trip to Salcedo to the Hermanas Mirabel museum. For anyone who doesn't know, the Dominican Republic had a really ruthless dictator from 1930-1961 named Trujillo who killed thousands of people and really took away the people's basic human rights. Three of the four Mirabal sisters were married to political activists at the time and fought against Trujillo to try and end the dictatorship; the three sisters were known at the "mariposas" (butterflies). On November 25, 1960, on their way back from visiting their husbands in jail they were ambushed by Trujillo's people and brutally killed in a field.

The public outcry that followed and the massive amounts of people that attended the funeral sparked the real end to Trujillo's reign. After their death, the CIA got involved and helped to plan his assasination. Trujillo was then assasinated on May 30, 1961.

Anyways so this morning we went to Salcedo to the museum which is in the house that the girls spent their last ten months. The one sister that still remains (their were four Mirabal girls in total) lives in the house that the family grew up in.

I have to say that Julia Alvarez's book, In The Time of the Butterflies, has been a favorite of mine for a while so I was definitely interested to see the museum. But-- to make the day even better we got a suprise at the end. The sister that is still alive, Dede, came by and talked to us and signed stuff for those of us who wanted to.

Dede Mirabal signing momentos and talking to the Dominican groups at the museum

It was such a great experience; she really is living history and told us about how many liberties they were denied at the time of Trujillo and shared some memories of her sisters (who are now huge national heroes). All I have to say is that I hope that I am that awesome at 83!

But it was awesome to meet her and I think having a signed copy of En el tiempo de las mariposas was probably the coolest souvenir I could have gotten from here hands down. :)

Diane and I on the bus ride back with our signed copies :)