, Dominican Republic. The Mirabal family were from the central
Cibao region of the
Dominican Republic and had a farm in the village of Ojo de Agua, near the town of
Salcedo. Their parents Enrique Mirabal Fernández and Mercedes Reyes Camilo were landowners in the area. All four sisters attended primary school in their village, Ojo de Agua, and attended a
Catholic boarding school, el Colegio Inmaculada Concepción, for their secondary education in the city of
La Vega. When Trujillo came to power, the family lost almost their entire fortune. The sisters, especially Minerva, believed that the dictatorship was ruining the country, so they participated in the creation and organization of the 14 June Revolutionary Movement. Within this group, they were known as
Las Mariposas (The Butterflies). Two of the sisters, Minerva and María Teresa, were imprisoned on several occasions in both La Victoria and La 40 prisons. They and their husbands were subjected to torture during the Trujillo regime. Despite these facts, they continued to fight against the dictatorship.
Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes (27 February 1924 – 25 November 1960), commonly known as Patria was the oldest of the four Mirabal sisters. When she was 14, she was sent by her parents to a Catholic
boarding school, Colegio Inmaculada Concepción in La Vega. She left school when she was 17 and married Pedro González, a farmer, who would later aid her in challenging the Trujillo regime. Patria had three children.
Bélgica Adela Mirabal Reyes Bélgica Adela Mirabal Reyes (1 March 1925 – 1 February 2014), commonly known as Dedé, was the second daughter of the Mirabal family. Unlike her sisters, she did not attend college. Instead, she became a traditional homemaker, Dedé was the last surviving sister of the family. She died at the age of 88, and professed her entire life that it was her destiny to survive so that she was able to "tell their story".
María Argentina Minerva Mirabal Reyes María Argentina Minerva Mirabal Reyes (12 March 1926 – 25 November 1960), commonly known as Minerva, was the third daughter. At the age of 12, she followed Patria to the Colegio Inmaculada Concepción. After Minerva's rejection of Trujillo, her parents prohibited Minerva from registering for law school due to concerns that she would get involved in politics and ultimately be killed. However, after seeing how upset Minerva was, her parents relented six years later and she enrolled at the
University of Santo Domingo, where she later graduated summa cum laude. Minerva was the first woman to graduate from law school in the Dominican Republic. Due to her previous rejection of Trujillo's advances, when Minerva graduated, her diploma was stripped of her honors and her license to practice law was ultimately turned down. According to the historian Bernard Diederich, Minerva Mirabal was arrested twice. She was first jailed in January 1960, at the start of the wave of repression of 1J4 members where "hundreds of 1J4 members are rounded up and tortured". She attended the Colegio Inmaculada Concepción, graduated from the Liceo de San Francisco de Macorís in 1954, and went on to the University of Santo Domingo, where she studied
mathematics. Later in her life, María Teresa dated Leandro Guzmán. While dating, before Leandro was allowed to hold María Teresa's hand, she asked him how his family felt about Trujillo. Leandro responded, "... there's no problem. At home, that was the first thing I learned... to hate Trujillo." She greatly admired her older sister Minerva and became passionate about Minerva's political views. She once said, "Perhaps what we have most near is death, but that idea does not frighten me. We shall continue to fight for that which is just." ==Political activities==