In the Time of the Butterflies

Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes is the oldest of the Mirabal sisters, and also the most religious. From an early age she wants to become a nun, but gives up on the idea when she meets Pedrito; she marries him at age sixteen. She has three children: Nelson, Noris, and Raúl Ernesto. Patria, like Dedé, originally resists the underground movement, but joins Minerva after witnessing the massacre of invasion forces while on a spiritual retreat in the mountains of Constanza. Though Patria is never imprisoned, she is murdered along with Minerva and Mate on November 25, 1960.

María Argentina Minerva Mirabal Reyes is the most outspoken and rebellious of the sisters. She is a free thinker, and the first to join the revolutionary movement against Trujillo. She desires freedom, both from her father’s rules and then from Trujillo’s police state. Minerva encounters Trujillo in person as a young woman, when he tries to seduce her and she slaps him. She graduates law school, but is denied the license to practice law by Trujillo. Minerva marries another revolutionary, Manolo, and helps to start the militant resistance movement. She becomes “Butterfly #1.” Minerva has two children, Minou and Manolito.

The youngest member of the family, Antonia María Teresa Mirabal Reyes, known as María Teresa or Mate, looks up to her older sister Minerva. As the youngest, she spends much of her time thinking about clothes and boys. She joins the resistance movement when she falls in love with Leandro Guzman, whose code name is Palomino. Mate becomes “Butterfly #2” and helps stockpile weapons. She is imprisoned along with Minerva, is tortured by Johnny Abbes and later killed with two of her sisters on November 25, 1960. 

Enrique Mirabal Fernandez is the father of the Mariposas. He is a wealthy farmer and merchant, who loves his daughters wholeheartedly. However, he cheats on his wife and has three illegitimate daughters. Papá tries to avoid making trouble with Trujillo, but is briefly imprisoned as a result of Minerva’s actions. After his imprisonment, he is never the same. Minerva realizes that while Papá puts on a show of being strong, he is actually the weakest of the Mirabals, and from that point on, she pities him. He dies in 1953.

Mercedes Reyes Camilo is the mother of the Mirabal sisters. Mamá originally avoids trouble with Trujillo and wants her daughters to get married young, but later in life she becomes rebellious and outspoken in response to Trujillo’s attack on her family. Originally illiterate, over time she learns to read and comes to believe that young women should be educated rather than being married off right away. She outlives the butterflies by twenty years, and helps raise their children after their deaths.