Patria Mercedes MIrabal de Gonzales was the last of the sisters to become a butterfly. FIghting hesitance, an ongoing battle of mind and faith, fear for her children and husband, and fear for her sisters. And despite her being Mariposa #3, Patria hed just as much as importance as her sisters Minerva and Mate in the downfall of the tyrannical dictator, Rafael Trujillo.
Patria had at one point in her life lost her faith, and what had seemed to be at one point a permanent decision, had done a complete 180, and, in actuality, brought Patria into the depths of revolution more than she’d ever had imagined before. Her turning point, you may be wondering? The lost f a child not of her own. On a religious retreat to the mountains, which had previously
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Everything had been calm.
.
And that was when the shells dropped.
The women clambered down to the ground, shaking and afraid, waiting out the bombings. All praying silently. When the ground had stopped shaking and with their ears ringing, they’d gotten up to find half their cabin destroyed, and many of the retreaters needing medical assistance. Outside, they could hear yells and shouts and gunfire, and they could see men running towards the cabin. Liberators attacking the guards and campesinos who’d backed trujillo out of fear. Shots rang out and everyone huddled into a corner, fear stricken.
That was when Patria saw it. A young boy, no older than her daughter Noris, shot down and lying dead. Patria’s heart, the heart of a mother, ached With a sullen heart, and voice dead in her throat, Patria and the women trekked down the mountain. Patria had looked up at the sky, searching for God, but finding smoke. The view up the mountain had been wonderous, but the view down it, had been poignant.
“...here in that little room was the same Patria Mercedes, who wouldn’t have hurt a butterfly, shouting, “Amen to the