Alive in Their Garden

The lives and legacy of the iconic Mirabal sisters, as told in an intimate memoir by the sister who survived

In 1960, the three sisters Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal, code-named “Las Mariposas” (The Butterflies) by a Dominican underground resistance movement, were assassinated by order of dictator Rafael Trujillo. Alive in Their Garden is the memoir of Ded Mirabal, their surviving sister, who for decades kept her sisters alive in Dominican memory. This is the first English translation of Dedé’s story, an intimate account of a tragedy and the international outcry that, for many, heralded the fall of the Trujillo dictatorship.

In her memoir, Dedé recollects her sisters’ lives and personalities, the optimistic beginning of the 14th of June Revolutionary Movement, and the tragic day of her sisters’ murders. She details the emotionally charged court proceedings that followed and the impact these events had not only on the Mariposas’ children and family, but on the world. Along her journey, Dedé grapples with the question, “Why did they not kill you too?” And as time goes on, she comes to recognize her own important role: raising her sisters’ children alongside her own and working to preserve the memory of a generation.

This edition features the memoir’s original introduction by Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies, a chronology by historian Bernardo Vega, and an afterword by Minerva’s daughter Minou Tavárez Mirabal. Adding a preface and explanatory notes that orient readers to the Trujillato in the Dominican Republic, translators and editors Ana Martínez and Heather Hennes bring a moving true story and valuable piece of history to new readers.

Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.