The Mirabal Sisters

The Mirabal Sisters

In observance of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Butterfly Route, or Ruta de las Mariposas in Spanish, is traveled upon and includes stops in the Puerto Plata and Hermanas Mirabal.

The trip costs $RD 1,500 per person and includes transportation, lunch, cold drinks, museum entrance fees, a hat, a bag and t-shirt. For more information and details, call (809) 221-4141 Ext. 309/331/238.

The Dominican Ministry of Culture, through its Cultural Itineraries program, is sponsoring the annual “Butterfly Route” upon which visitors, both Dominican and foreigners, travel to the sites once visited by the Mirabal sisters before their untimely deaths. Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal were assassinated on November 25, 1960 by agents of the Trujillo regime. The route covers areas related to them and their family in their native city of Salcedo.

The program, put together by Japonesa Capellán, Director of Cultural Tourism, includes visits to the History Center of Puerto Plata, the Pelegrín Pharmacy (where comrades of the June 14th Revolutionary Movement hid) and the San Felipe Colonial Fort Museum where the Mirabal sisters were incarcerated and later assassinated

The route in Salcedo also includes a visit to the Mirabal Museum, the mausoleum, a monument erected in their honor, ruins of the original Mirabal home where they were born, the Salcedo city park and the murals dedicated to their honor.

Throughout this historic and educational route, the Ministry of Culture pays homage to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of these Dominican heroines, celebrated annually on November 25th. The objective of the Cultural Itineraries is to show the customs and traditions carried out by the inhabitants of each province in our country.

The cultural program’s excursion in Puerto Plata and Salcedo seeks to develop local tourism in the area through which sites and places of cultural and natural interest can be visited.

The trip costs $RD 1,500 per person and includes transportation, lunch, cold drinks, museum entrance fees, a hat, a bag and t-shirt. For more information and details, call  (809) 221-4141 Ext. 309/331/238.

United Nations

In December, 1999, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared November 25th the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in memory of the Mirabal sisters who were assassinated on that day in 1960. They were among the many victims of the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, the longest-running of all Latin America.

Women’s Rights activists have been celebrating this day since 1981. Nevertheless, Salcedo has always remembered the Mirabal sisters in poems, songs, music, paintings and sculpture. In the Dominican Republic and the world, these three brave women have symbolized struggle and resistance. Their assassination in the Dominican Republic marked a turning point in the fight against the dictatorship and opened the door to the final victory.

Mirabal Sister’s Sculpture