Patria, Minerva, Maria Teresa and Dedé were born in Ojo de Agua near the city of Salcedo, in the Cibato region of the Dominican Republic.  �Las Mariposas� (�the Butterfiles�), as they were called, were political activists and highly visible symbols of resistance to Trujillo�s dictatorship.  They were repeatedly jailed, along with their husbands, for their revolutionary activities toward democracy and justice.  On November 25, 1960, three of the Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Patria and Teresa were murdered, along with Rufino de la Cruz, their driver, by members of Trujillo�s secret police.  The three women were being driven by Rufino to Puerto Plata to visit their imprisoned husbands.  The bodies of the three sisters were found at the bottom of a precipice, broken and strangled.  The news of their brutal assassinations shocked and outraged the nation and helped propel the anti-Trujillo movement.  Trujillo was assassinated on May 30, 1961 and his regime fell soon after.

The Mirabal sisters have become symbols of both popular feminist resistance.  In the years since their deaths, they have been commemorated in poems, songs and books.  An exhibition of their belongings has been mounted at the National Museum of History and Geography in the Dominican Republic, a stamp has been issued in their memory and a private foundation is raising money to renovate a family museum in their hometown.  On March 8, 1997, International Women�s Day, a mural was unveiled on the 137-foot obelisk (that Trujillo has erected in his honor) in Santo Domingo.  It depicts the images of the four sisters.  The paintings on the obelisk is entitled �Un Canot a la Libertad� (A Song of Liberty).