Mirabal Sisters

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

"We've traveled almost the full length of the island and can report that every corner of it is wet, every river overflows its banks, every rain barrel is filled to the brim, every wall washed clean of writing no one knows how to read anyway."-Minerva

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

"And that's how I got free. I don't mean just going to sleepaway school on a train with a trunkful of new things. I mean in my head after I got to Inmaculada and met Sinita and saw what happened to Lina and realized that I'd just left a small cage to go into a bigger...”-Minerva

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

That room was silent with the fury of avenging angels sharpening their radiance before they strike.
The priests had decided they could not wait forever for the pope and the archbishop to come around.”-Patria

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

Minerva could tell. One day, we were lying side by side on the hammock strung just outside the galería. She must have caught me gazing at our picture of the Good Shepherd, talking to his lambs.”-Patria

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

"Sweet Patria, always her religion was so important."
"Always?" the woman says, just the slightest challenge in her voice.
"Always," Dedé affirms, used to this fixed, monolithic language around interviewers and mythologizers of her sisters. "Well, almost always."

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

I lifted the covers, and for a moment, I couldn't make sense of the dark stains on the bottom sheet. Then I brought up my hand from checking myself. Sure enough, my complications had started.

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

Ay, Dios mío, spare me." Mamá sighs, but playfulness has come back into her voice. "Just what we need, skirts in the law!"

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

I asked Minerva why she was doing such a dangerous thing. And then, she said the strangest thing. She wanted me to grow up in a free country.

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

I started crying, but I pinched my arms to stop. I had to be brave for Sinita.

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

A little while ago, I got up and dragged that heavy box out from under. It was nailed shut, but the nails had some give on one side where I could work the lid loose a little. I held the light up close and peered in. I almost dropped that lamp when I realized what I was looking at

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

You still don't get it? Minerva, don't you see? Trujillo is having everyone killed!"

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

Bang-bang-bang, their father likes to joke, aiming a finger pistol at each one, as if he were shooting them, not boasting about having sired them. Three girls, each born within a year of the other! And then, nine years later, María Teresa, his final desperate attempt at a boy mis

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

"People who opened their big mouths didn't live very long," Sinita said. "Like my uncles I told you about. Then, two more uncles, and then my father." Sinita began crying again. "Then this summer, they killed my brother."

[Mirabal Sisters @MirabalSisters]

"But Minerva, your own child—" I began and then I saw it did hurt her to make this sacrifice she was convinced she needed to make.