Minerva's Timeline

Image: "Butterfly" by Moon Wynn

1938
- Minerva leaves home to attend the school Immaculada Concepcion.
- Minerva becomes friends with a girl named Sinita, who tells Minerva the atrocities that Trujillo has committed against her family. 


1941
- An older classmate of Minerva's becomes Trujillo's mistress, eventually the girl is forced out of the country so Trujillo's wife cannot harm her. He then relocates to Miami where she is raising their child. 
- Miverva, Sinita, and two other girls perform a skit in front of their school. It is so successful that they are to perform it in front of Trujillo. During the skit Sinita shoots an arrow at Trujillo as revenge. He is not injured and Minerva claims it was all part of the act so Sinita will not be arrested.


1946
- Minerva starts attending anti-political meetings at her friends grandfathers house.


1948
- Minerva meets and begins seeing Lio. She is attracted to him because of his political activism and opinions. 
- Lio is forced to go into hiding and leave the country, he gives a letter to Dede for Minerva asking her to come away with him. Dede burns the letter instead of giving it to Minerva.
- Lio keeps writing to Minerva but her father hides the letters from her.


1949
- Minerva discovers Lio's letters that her father had never told her about. 
- Minerva attends the Discovery Day Dance on Trujillo's request. She agrees to dance with him, while dancing she tells him of her aspirations to become a lawyer, and denies ever knowing Lio. When Trujillo makes sexual advances on her, she slaps him in the face in front of everyone.  Minerva and her family leave the dance quickly, but she forgets her purse there. Her purse contained the letters from Lio.
- Minerva is called in for questioning about Lio, and she tells then she honestly has no idea where he is now. Her father is then arrested in connection to this incident. Minerva meets with Trujillo in order to free her father. She makes a bet with him that if she can beat him in dice she will get to attend law school. She wins and is allowed to attend. Her father is then released.


1953 
- Minerva's father dies as a result of being weakened from his imprisonment a few years before.


1954
- Minerva begins to study law at the capital, she also meets Manolo who is also a revolutionary. Together the both get further involved in the anti-political movement.


1955
- Minerva and Manolo get married.


1956
- Minerva gives birth to a daughter named Minou.


1957
- Minerva graduates form law school, but was denied her license to practice law by Trujillo. (Essentially making her degree useless.)


1959
- Minerva gives birth to a son named Manolito.


1960
- Manolo is arrested.
- Minerva and Mate are then arrested, both for their roles in the revolution and so the government can use their arrest to get their husbands to confess secrets about the movement and other members.
- The sisters are granted a pardon, but Minerva will not let them accept it. While in jail she maintains morale about the movement and that they are doing the right thing. She is put in solitary confinement many times for refusing to comply with the prison guards orders.
- The sisters are released from prison and placed under house arrest. Prison did have a negative affect on her and she becomes more withdrawn from the political movement. Many people however begin to view her as a symbol of hope and strength.
- The sisters then work towards getting their husbands released from jail. While returning from visiting their husbands one day, Minerva, Mate, and Patria are assassinated under Trujillo's orders. The sisters become martyrs in the eyes of the Dominican people.