Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Sacrifice

Trujillo was assassinated six months after the Mirabals were killed, followed by a civil war and the election of one of Trujillo's cronies as president.

In the epilogue, Dede says to herself after seeing Lio, "Was it for this, the sacrifice of the butterflies?" Do you think the Mirabal sisters died in vain? Was it worth it?
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3 comments:

cl said...

No, I think of when their co-conspirators began to call them the "butterflies," and that they were an important part of the early stages of the revolution — that they made a strong impression both as women and as sisters. From Dede's point of view, perhaps it was more her loss than anyone else's.

11:05 AM, October 28, 2013
kc said...

I had the impression that their example and their martyrdom was a big catalyst in getting rid of Trujillo. If these fragile butterflies, these "weak" women, could take such a stand, could make such a sacrifice, then what was the excuse of people higher up — or even lower down — who loathed Trujillo but who were doing nothing to stop him?

I was reminded by their jail terms of that exchange between Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson when Emerson visited Thoreau in jail on charges of civil disobedience. And Emerson said, “Henry, what are you doing in there?” And Thoreau replied, “Waldo, the question is what are you doing out there?”

The Mirabal sisters didn't articulate that question, but their whole trajectory and fate posed that question to the Dominican populace.

7:57 PM, November 02, 2013
Erin said...

Excellent connection! I think that's a great point. It was striking how people talked to the sisters, calling them "the butterflies," as if they expected them to save the country on their own. The sisters might have been resentful of that -- they were the ones taking all the risk. What was everyone else doing? But they didn't seem to have that attitude.

I think we can't underestimate the role of their personas, the way they captured the imaginations of the people. Trujillo obviously thought that made them more dangerous to him than their husbands, who were doing the same -- or more -- for the revolution.

10:52 AM, November 03, 2013

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