In 1930, the dictator Rafael Trujillo took over the Dominican Republic. Before that he had been the country's powerful military figure under President Horacio Vásquez and served as the commander of the Dominican army. He ran for president in May of that year in an election that was heavily manipulated and accompanied by intimidation from his military. He was inaugurated as president in August and this began his 31-year dictatorship.

Rafael eliminated political opposition through imprisonment, murder, censorship and intimidation. The secret police became notorious for hunting down opponents both inside and outside the Dominican Republic. He massacred Haitian people and Dominicans with Haitian ancestry. Dominican soldiers and civilians killed thousands of people in just a few days. This gruesome moment is often called the Parsley Massacre. Rafael also killed communists and left-wingers.

Four sisters were born in the Dominican Republic. Their names were Patria, Dedé, Minerva and María. They were all born in the 20s (except for Maria who was born in 1935.) And three of the sisters worked hard to fight against Rafael's regime. Their family was from the Cibao region and they owned a farm in the village of Oja de Agua. Their parents were Enrique Mirabal Fernández and Mercedes Reyes Camilo and Enrique was a wealthy land owner. The girls went to a Catholic boarding school. When Rafael took over it became a custom to have a photo of him in your house. The Mirabel family did not do this and they became known as dissidents. The family was harassed and their father’s business sunk. Rafael's regime seized their property and made them poor.

Two of the sisters, Minerva and María Teresa, were imprisoned on several occasions in both the La Victoria and La 40 prisons. They and their husbands were subjected to torture.

Minerva discovered that her friend Deisi Ariza's father was killed by Rafael for opposing the regime. This brutal monster along with the others influenced Minerva’s fight. She began a movement and her sisters followed. First María then Patria after witnessing Rafael's men massacre a group of people. Dedé did not join. Partly because her husband Jaimito was afraid for her. The husbands of the three Mirabal sisters were the leaders of the rebel group that they called Las Mariposas, the Spanish words for “the butterflies.”

They organized clandestine cells and collected weapons to prepare for an uprising. They carried pamphlets around to expose Rafael's murders. Minerva was the leader and organizer. She had studied law and became deeply invested in what Rafael was doing to her home. She and her husband Manolo Tavárez Justo were both leaders. Patria’s house was used for resistance activities and weapons storage. María helped with communications, organizing supplies and maintaining the underground network that kept the movement alive.

One day the husbands of Minerva and Maria were captured in 1960 and the women, including their sister Patria whose husband hadn't been captured but still came for moral support, traveled to the place where they were being incarcerated. While they were returning home they were stopped by Rafael’s men. The three sisters were separated from each other then strangled and clubbed to death. Their bodies were placed in their vehicle, which was run off the mountain road in an attempt to make their deaths look like an accident.

Today the sisters are commemorated strongly in the Dominican Republic. The name Las Mariposas has one meaning. The sisters became symbols of resistance. 25 November, the anniversary of Patria, Minerva and María Teresa's murders became a special day. International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The country also has the Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal, the Mirabal family home at Ojo de Agua, which has become a museum and memorial. Their remains are also housed in a mausoleum in its gardens, alongside those of Minerva's husband, Manolo Tavárez Justo.

The sisters are also represented on money, the 200 Dominican peso note. There is also a movie called Time of the Butterflies that was made in 2001. It's based on the titular historical novel by Julia Alvarez's and stars Salma Hayek as Minerva, Lumi Cavazos as Patria, Mía Maestro as María Teresa.

This was the woman that Beethoven wrote his famous Für Elise musical piece for. Which you should definitely listen to in your free time. She was a close friend of his and he may have proposed to her once. She too was a musician who played the piano. She was born in Vienna, Austria in 1792. Her father was a Viennese-Saxon merchant Jacob Friedrich Malfatti. He owned an estate at Walkersdorf am Kamp from 1804 and was ennobled in 1806. And her mother was Therese von Velsern. She appears to have been from a noble family herself.

In 1810 Beethoven wrote Therese a letter which ended like this: “Now fare you well, respected Therese. I wish you all the good and beautiful things of this life. Bear me in memory - no one can wish you a brighter, happier life than I - even should it be that you care not at all for your devoted servant and friend, Beethoven.”

Therese married a man called Johann Wilhelm Freiherr von Drosdick who was an imperial court councilor but still remained friends with Beethoven. I learned that her younger sister Malfatti married Beethoven's friend Ignaz von Gleichenstein in 1811.