This Saturday, 25 November, on occasion of the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the legendary three Dominican Mirabal sisters will be honored. Dominican-American best-selling writer, Julia Alvarez, in her book "In the Time of the Butterflies" immortalized for the world the story of Patria (36 years), Minerva (35 years) and María Teresa (25 years) Mirabal who dared to fight one of the fiercest tyrants known in Latin America, Dictator Rafael Trujillo. The sisters paid with their lives on 25 November 1960, but their death spurred events that lead to the end of the Trujillo regime, and his own assassination in 1961. On occasion of the 40th anniversary of their death, the sisters will be buried in a mausoleum built in the garden of the Ojo de Agua, Salcedo home where a museum honors their memory. The event is promoted by the United Nations, the Fundación Hermanas Mirabal and Fundación Manolo Távarez Justo. Military honors will be rendered, and the three sisters together with Manolo Tavarez Justo (husband to Minerva) will arrive in an entourage led by white horses. The three sisters are survived by their offspring Manolo and Minú Tavárez Mirabal (Minerva Mirabal and Manolo Tavárez), Nelson, Noris and Raúl González Mirabal (Patria Mirabal and Pedro González), and Jaqueline Guzmán Mirabal (Maria Teresa Mirabal and Leandro Guzmán). Their grandmother and the surviving sister, Bélgica Adela (Dedé) Mirabal (mother of former Vice President Jaime David Fernández Mirabal, Jaime Enrique Fernández Mirabal and Jaime Rafael Fernández Mirabal) raised them. For more information on the three sisters, see http://www.conectados.net/mirabal/ http://www.humanities.ccny.cuny.edu/grad/hila6712/ http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days00/why.htm (24 November 2000)
