Dominican Republic: resistance to the dictatorship of Trujillo in memory of the murdered Mirabal sisters

A concrete floor and some columns surrounded by a memorial garden is all that remains of a place that can be considered the home of the anti-Trujillo resistance, a meeting point of the clandestinity that fueled a movement against Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (1930-1961).

Home of Patria Mirabal and Pedrito Gonzálezin Conuco, Salcedo, in what is now the northern province of Hermanas Mirabal, hosted those meetings that led to the birth, in January 1960, of the Revolutionary Movement June 14, whose goal was to put an end to the tyrant.

This November 23, the Memorial Museum of the Dominican Resistance (MMRD) inaugurates an “unprecedented” exhibition about the history of the marriage “through her house, which was a house of resistance” and conspiracy, where, in addition to clandestine meetings, explosives were manufactured and materials were stored, the director of the centre, Luisa de Peña, explained to EFE.

It is a vision that goes beyond the well-known story of the Mirabal sisters, “the butterflies”international symbol of the fight against violence against women and assassinated by order of the satrap on November 25, 1960.

“It’s interesting because people think it was a suicidal romantic resistance… no,” De Peña said emphatically. “It was a planned resistance” that faced “the bloodiest and best organized dictatorship in Latin America in the first half of the 20th century.”

clandestine activities

Noris González Mirabal, daughter of Patria and Pedrito and who he was 15 when his mother and aunts were beaten to deaths, he was part of the struggle for freedom that took place in his home until then and, on the occasion of this exhibition, he shared with EFE the memories he keeps of his family’s manifestation of rebellion.

“We learned from an early age not to speak out loud about anything that was against the regime. You had to be careful because the walls could hear. It was always necessary to speak in a low voice», even though the great hospitality of Patria, with multiple visits, in order not to arouse suspicions about the activities of the House.

One of the tasks consisted of prepare explosive devices in a handcrafted wayHim, pulling the gunpowder out of the Chinese rockets sold in the grocery stores and which they fired at night, covered in radio music at a considerable volume once the service was retired and then leaving everything clean.

“We helped get the gunpowder out,” although the bombs were not prepared with a desire to destroy or kill, but “to make noise and attract attention. I participated in that activity and took care of cleaning it so that the next morning the remains of the explosive would be visible”. “Oh, if the service sees it!” she said.

When the clandestine movement was discovered and a large part of the family was taken prisoner – Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal, Pedrito, Nelson (the couple’s eldest son), several cousins ​​and brothers-in-law – and many other men and women opposed to the regime, Patria was the only one left outside the prisonso that she alone was in charge of keeping the resistance alive.

This implied informing those in prison (first in 1940 and then in La Victoria) of what was happening outside, through written messages that he hid in his clothes: he unstitched the hems (the bottoms), introduced rolled up sheets and sewed them again. accomplish this dangerous mission.

The family’s assets were taken away and the house was auctioned off in a fictitious but real way Trujillo gave it to Alicinio Peña Riverahead of the Military Information Service (SIM) for the northern region, who dismantled that resistance fort, leaving it in ruins, as seen today, to use the wood for a house that was being built.

Peña Rivera was the one who, later, directed the assassination of the Mirabals, captured on the Marapicá bridge together with Rufino Ruíz, who was driving the vehicle in which they were travelling.

Homeland, rebel to the end “he ran away from those goons” sent by Trujillo and “rushed into a Social Security truck: ‘Tell the Mirabal family they want to kill us,'” he told its occupants before they snatched him from there to execute the elaborate plan. “It’s the strongest part of the story” for Noris.

keep telling the story

On the occasion of this exhibition, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Patria and Pedrito came to the MMRD showing the unity of a family that has inherited its values ​​and, in the case of one of Noris’ daughters, an impressive physique to be the spitting image of his grandmother, with whom it also shares the name.

Always intent on keeping the memory of what happened alive, “I tell the boys that they must take up the torch” because “after I lose my mind, I disappear, they must tell” so that, Noris insisted, never repeat it again.

EFE Agency

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