November 25 represents a fundamental date in the international calendar: the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This anniversary has its roots in a tragic story that profoundly marked Latin America and then took on universal significance in the fight against gender violence.
But Why is violence against women remembered on November 25th? Established on 17 December 1999 by the United Nations General Assembly, the choice of 25 November is not random, but commemorates the brutal murder of the Mirabal sisters, which occurred in the Dominican Republic. Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal. A story that began way back in 1960, when there were still few Las Mariposas (butterflies), those who with extreme courage opposed the dictatorship in support of women’s rights.
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Because the day against violence against women is celebrated on November 25th
They were the sisters Mirabal: Patria, born in 1924, Minerva, from 1926, and María Teresa, the youngest, born in 1935, raised with her sister Bélgica Adela and parents in Ojo de Aguaa fraction of Salcedo. It was the dictatorial era of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo who, having come to power in 1930 through rigged elections and with the help of the United States, over time applied harsh repression against his enemies: around 50 thousand people, including political opponents and rioters, were unjustly executed. A true cult was created around his personality, so much so that the name of the capital changed from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo.
In January 1960, Minerva held the first meeting of conspirators against the regime in her home, leading to the birth of the clandestine revolutionary organization June 14 Movementwhose president was her husband Manolo Tamarez Justo. The sisters Patria and Maria Teresa also joined the movement in the hope that their children would be able to have a better future, calling themselves “Mariposas“, Butterflies.
Theirs was an effective and painstaking revolutionary work, so much so that the dictator during a visit to Salcedo declared that he only had two problems: the Catholic Church and the Mirabal sisters.
The movement was discovered by the secret police of Trujillo, the Military Intelligence Service, and on May 18, 1960 Minerva, María Teresa and their husbands were imprisoned for sedition. Many of the prisoners were sent to a prison of torture and death, while the sisters were released a few months later and the husbands remained imprisoned.
On November 25, 1960, the Mirabal sisters, accompanied by the driver Rufino de la Cruz, went out to visit their husbands in prison, in the company of their sister Patria, who had wanted to accompany them even though her husband was locked up in another prison. Intercepted on the way back by SIM agents, they were led into a canebrake and subjected to cruel torture. Covered in blood, scarred by stab wounds, they were strangled, put back in the car in which they were traveling and thrown into a cliff with the aim of simulating an accident.
Their brutal assassination awakened popular conscience, so much so that on May 30, 1961, Trujillo was assassinated. The last sister, Bélgica Adela, died of natural causes in 2014.
The legacy of the Mirabal sisters
Today, those three Dominican sisters are an icon of opposition to violence, remembered in monuments, schools, streets, festivals and cultural associations and even depicted on a Dominican Republic banknote. Finally, one of the 32 Dominican provinces, the first one called Salcedo, has taken on the name of Hermanas Mirabal Province.
The story of the Mirabal sisters continues to be a powerful reminder of how the courage of a few people can grow into a global movement. Their sacrifice was not in vain: today, November 25, their “wings” continue to fly, inspiring millions of people around the world in the fight against gender violence. The day of November 25 reminds us that violence against women is not a private problem but a social and political issue that requires everyone’s commitment. It is a call to action, reflection and change, to build a more just and equitable society, where every woman can live free from the fear of violence.
