Minerva Mirabal

María Minerva Mirabal Reyes (March 12, 1926 - November 25, 1960), or Minerva, was a Dominican political activist and revolutionary. She was the third of the Mirabal sisters, Minerva and her sisters began to speak out against the oppressive dictatorship of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and conducted clandestine activities against his regime. Like her older sisters, Minerva also received an education at El Colegio Inmaculada Concepción, at the urging of her mother, Mercedes Mirabal.

Education and early life Minerva Mirabal was born in the town of Salcedo, Dominican Republic to Mercedes Reyes Camilo and Enrique Mirabal. When she was 22, Minerva had a personal experience with Trujillo, at an elitist party. She and her family were invited to, turning down his sexual advances, causing her to be jailed and not able to practice her law degree. The police then faked a car accident to cover up the assassination. The Mirabal sisters were on their way home from visiting their husbands in prison at the time of their death. Their deaths were considered one of the most heinous acts committed during the Trujillo dictatorship.

Legacy After the death of the three Mirabal sisters, their legacy has been commemorated due to the large amount of gender-based violence within Latin America. In 1981, the day of their death was turned into a day dedicated to the fight against women's violence. The United Nations has also designated November 25 to be memorialized as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Their story also inspired the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, written in 1994 by Julia Álvarez and eventually adapted into a film in 2001.