Butterflies in the Caribbean

The sea of ​​cassava, cocoa, sugar or coffee plantations, which accompany the traveler who crosses the Dominican Republic from south to north along the colorful highway that connects the two great cities of the country, Santo Domingo with Santiago, plunges the traveler into a bucolic stupor. of admiration at the proverbial generosity of nature with the island. Faced with such beauty, it is difficult to even imagine the shock and terror that swept through the country when Rafael Leónidas Trujillo viciously and thoroughly persecuted his opponents. After three-quarters of the way between the two cities, when the road is left to start a last stretch towards Salcedo, the lush and beautiful tropical landscape, suggests where the inspiration came from for the alias with which the famous sisters would be called among the dissidents. Mirabal: Patria, Minerva and María Teresa. Known as butterflies, the beating of their wings unleashed the political variable of the famous natural effect that, from his cruel beating by henchmen of the dictator on any road between the reed beds, generated a melting pot of responses to the multiple challenges that The Dominican Republic had to face after the dictatorship. It was November 25, 1960.

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