Lexile = 910
OK, this is a true story! Great blend of fact and fiction... the fiction only because we can't KNOW who said what when. The story is real.
Minerva Mirabal (far right) became involved in politics as a young woman in the Dominican Republic in the late 50s. She worked undercover against Rafael Trujillo, who was the country's official president from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952. In reality, he was the dictator until his assassination in 1961. Minerva "recruited" her sisters to join in the underground rebellion. The young women were killed by Trujillo's thugs in 1960.
This novel gives life to these actual women--known as "las mariposas," or "the butterflies,". Today these women are remembered by their country men as valiant defenders of liberty. A fourth sister, Dede, lived to see the overthrow of the Trujillo governmnent and freedom in her country while she raised the children of all of her sisters.
On 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in honor of the sisters.
This novel is not a quick or easy read. This is history that I didn't know anything about. But isn't that what literature is supposed to do? Teach. Inform. Entertain.
And, there is a movie. Watch a clip HERE.
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