In the Time of the Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterfies is the story of Mirabal sisters during the time of

the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. The three revolutionary

Mirabal sisters were killed by Trujillo's National Guard in an alleged car

accident in 1960 because they were fighting against Trujillo's dictatorial

regime. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, nicknamed El Jefe, ruled as a

dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his murder in 1961. His

formula of power was simple: execute anyone who was against him. He

ordered the execution of more than 50000 people during his rule. He used

the National Guard to force his way into the presidency in 1931. After he

became the president he organized a secret police force to help the National

Guard to watch for any potential threats to his ruling. In order to have both

organizations under control, he had the secret police watched on the Guard

and vice-versa. The Maribal sister's fight for democracy was considered

deviant by the dictator Trujillo and was punished by death because the

sisters at that time became the national symbol- "Mariposa (Butterfly)"- of

the civil resistance.

In the Dominican society ruled by dictator Trujillo, deviant was everything

that was perceived as threatening to Trujillo's political position: printing and

distributing political flyers, meetings of people at somebody's house, even

talking about his politic. Deviance is a "violation of norms rules expectation"

and conformity is obeying those rules, so it is the opposite. From conflict

theory perspective, the group in power defines what is considered deviant.

Law and the criminal justice system (the system of police, courts, and

prisons set up to deal with people accused of deviance) are used by the

leading group, as instruments of oppression in order to maintain its

position of power and privilege. The poor and oppressed pose a threat, they

can rebel as a group, and for that reason Trujillo seldom used the death

penalty as a form of punishment of their deviance. Trujillo considered

deviant any person that refused him, that was not submissive to him. As

example, he punished Maribel's father who was arrested and tortured until

he was gone insane, because Minerva refused Trujillo's indecent proposal.

Her father died in three weeks.

In a totalitarian society, rules are different than in a democratic society. So

what is “normal “ in a democracy: freedom of speech, liberty, is perceived

as deviant in a society ruled by a dictator, who was enforcing his rules in

order to protect himself and his position as a detested president.

So deviance is relative. This is a major point of the symbolic interactionist

perspective. For example, Trujillo wasn’t elected democratic, he fraud

elections, but because he had the power, this fact wasn't considered a

deviance. On the other hand, the ones demonstrating against Trujillo's

crimes were arrested, tortured and killed. Everything that was perceived as

a an attempt to change the dictators rules was considered deviance and it

was forcefully punished, death punishment was considered "normal" and

well-deserved by dictator Trujillo. For example, Virgilio Morales (LIO)was a

Law teacher at University who believed in justice. When University students

led by Lio , were participating to a demonstration against Trujillo, they were

called :"enemies of the state, communists and subversive. Lio had to go in

exile. Later he was assassinated by Trujillo's police. When

Patria and Minerva were boarding students at Inmaculada Concepcion,

Minerva meets Sinita Perozo, who told her how Trujillo destroyed her family

—killing her uncles, her father, and her brother. Sinita who became

Minerva's friend, gave her a butterfly pin as a friendship pin, as a symbol of

friendship. The symbolic interactionist perspective of sociology views society

as a product of everyday social interactions of individuals. Symbolic

interactionists also study how people use symbols to create meaning. In

studying deviance, these theorists look at how people in everyday situations

define deviance. Minerva loved her friend Sinita and this was the reason she

was wearing the butterfly pin all the times. While in school, Minerva and her
friends are chosen to give a recitation performance for Trujillo at the

centennial celebration, but it ends bad when Sinita walks toward Trujillo's

chair, taking aim at him. Sinita disappeared after that incident, nobody

heard about her anymore. Minerva loved her friend Sinita and this was the

reason she was wearing the butterfly pin all the times. Later the Butterfly/

Mariposa became her conspiracy name and a symbol of belonging to the

civil resistance group. When Mirabel was in prison a female guardian gave

her in secret food and a butterfly sign. That simple sign gave Mirabel hopes

because the butterfly sign was a message that she is not alone, and that

the civil resistance is watching over her. Another time when she was in

prison, she saw through the prison tiny window a flag with a butterfly design

flapping in the wind that was giving hope to her and to the other politic

prisoners. The Butterfly also symbolize the metamorphose of the Maribel and

her sisters, from the traditional role of Dominican women to the active

revolutionary role of a militant for democracy and liberty. General Trujillo

thought that killing Mariposa's syster, he will kill the symbol of the resistance

fight. The result was opposite. More and more Dominicans formed rebel

groups or joined existing ones. At the beginning the rebels were poor

peasants but later businessmen, professors, students, and even some

priests joined too. The brutal violence and crushing repression that Trujillo

continued to use against his own people began to backfire, however. He was

assassinated in 1961.
The Maribal sister's fight for democracy was considered deviant by the

dictator Trujillo and was punished by death because the sisters at that time

became the national symbol of the civil resistance and fight for democracy.

In the Dominican society ruled by dictator Trujillo, deviant was everything

that was perceived as threatening to Trujillo's political position the group in

power defines what is considered deviant. Law and the criminal justice were

used by the leading group, as instruments of oppression in order to

maintain its position of power and privilege.