Mirabal Sisters

In the Time of the Butterflies is a book about a family of sisters that fight to take back their right of freedom in the Dominican Republic. The Mirabal sisters grew up in a prosperous family and were well cultured and educated women at a time when most women did not obtain a good education. It is important to know what the Mirabal sisters did for their country and how their past actions still affect and impact the people today in the Dominican Republic. To win this freedom, the Mirabal sisters had to give up their well-being, give up their childhoods, and give up their lives. Julia Alvarez, the author of the book, takes the readers through these sisters’ journeys of fighting against their dictator Trujillo, and the many adversities while
under this political subjugation. It is evident in the book that some sisters had to be the leaders of the group and some had to be the followers. The Mirabel sister that is believed to be the leader and the strong one is Minerva. Who I have chosen to write about. Minerva, although strong-willed, is still not as strong of an individual as she would like to believe she is. Minerva is the individual that always makes sure that she is perceived as strong; however, in reality this strength and desired image is only a ruse of herself. Many heroes, courageous leaders, and brave characters in stories never have health problems or other character flaws exploited. However, Minerva is shown in the book to always have problems with her health. She is always described as being sick, weak, and needing rest. “I was hurt that he hadn’t even said goodbye…Mama, of course, noticed the tightening in my face. My bad headaches and asthma attacks always worried her. “You need rest,” she prescribed one afternoon and sent me to bed in Papa’s room, the coolest in the house.”(Alvarez 87). Another down flaw of her character exploited in this book is that she gets captured and thrown in jail. Once in jail she breaks down – losing control of herself and ultimately losing her motivation that she once had. “Minou got hold of a piece of pipe and was rattling it against the galleria rail. It was a sound exactly recalling the guards in prison running their nightsticks against the bars. I ran out and yanked the pipe from her hand, screaming, “No!” My poor little girl burst out crying, frightened by the terror in my voice.”(Alvarez 259). These scenes in the novel show that Minerva can be broken and make Minerva a more average human being, rather than an audacious hero as everyone would like to believe.
Once out of jail, Minerva no longer fights the regime as she once did out of fear of death or lose of family and submits partially and enjoys just staying at home with her mother. “I couldn’t stand the idea of being locked up in any one life. So when we were released in August and put under house arrest, you’d have thought I was getting just the punishment for me. But to tell the truth, it was as if I’d been served my sentence on a silver platter” (Alvarez 257). Here, you see there is nothing else that she would rather do than to sit at home and be with her mother. Although this is good thing that she wants to be with her mother, it shows how jail got the better hand then her. It proves that she is not as strong as she thought she was, and it took only one obstacle in her life to break her down. Here, in this part of the book, she has even lost her driving force that she used to have. Being put under house arrest, one would have expected Minerva to find a way to break free from this and continue to fight for her freedom and everyone else’s. Instead, she is content and has been transformed from a courageous individual to a scared and calmer character. That is, inside that fighting, rebellious woman that everyone sees is just a little girl wanting love and care just as everyone else.
Within the group, the Mirabal’s called themselves Las Mariposas ("The Butterflies"), after Minerva's underground name.
Butterflies do not start out as the colorful flying creatures they start as weak and limited caterpillars growing themselves. Then they begin their process as a chrysalis confined in a cocoon and undergo a transformation known as metamorphosis. The Mirabal sisters are like this too. Under Trujillo oppressive regime, most people, including the Mirabal sisters, felt confined. “I mean in my head after I got to Inmaculada and met Sinita and saw what happened to Lina and realized that I’d just left a small cage to go into a bigger one, the size of a whole country.”(Alvarez 13). Upon realizing the truth about this dictator, Minerva and her other sisters begin to fight the order of things and are transformed. Indeed, Minerva's alias becomes the "butterfly" and we see this enclosed woman break free from the shackles of "El
Jefe".
There is in the end, a heavy price to be paid by all the sisters for spreading their wings showing their beautiful colors, but the effect is lasting.
All except one are silenced but like the butterfly, their beauty, courage and sacrifice lasts after their death and transforms a country. The resulting publicity of the assassination of the Mirabal sisters only served to highlight their cause further and create more public and international interest in the political state of the Dominican Republic. Trujillo himself would not know that within a six month period, he himself would face assassination in 1961. The tale of the Mirabal sisters is an ongoing legacy of bravery and compassion in order to save the lives of many people in the Dominican Republic. They defied the flow of conformity and stood out as National
Heroines.