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Minerva goes to Inmaculada Concepcion with her sisters
Papa gave permission for Patria to go to Inmaculada Concepcion because she wanted to become a nun, so Minerva asks if she can go along. Minerva wants to "chaperone" her older sister Patria. She says, "you might as well get used to it. In a few years. we're all going to marry and leave you". Papa let her go so all three of the sisters could go. He says, "A daughter is a needle in the heart". Minerva and Papa show the development of their father-daughter relationship in the story in this event. -
Meets Sinita
She meets Sinita Perozo at school. They become friends when Minerva gives Sinita a shiny button. Sinita is called a "charity student" by the other girls but Minerva defends her. Sor Milagros allows them to choose beds next to each other. Sinita offers to "trade back the secret of Trujillo" after Minerva describes hygiene to her. I feel that this event is important in the character growth of Minerva because she creates a good bond with Sinita. -
Minerva learns about Trujillo's reign of terror
Sinita reveals the secret during the night while Minerva lies beside her in bed. Trujillo destroyed her family, killing her uncles, her father, and her brother. Sinita says, "You still don't get it? Minerva, don't you see? Trujillo is having everyone killed!" Minerva considers that Trujillo is not the saint he makes himself out to be, and she feels as if she is going to throw up. When she wakes up the next morning, she realizes that she has begun menstruating: "my complications had started." -
¡Pobrecita!
Minerva looks up to Lina, who is beautiful and is a couple of years older than her. Lina meets Trujillo and they fall in love. Unfortunately, Lina became pregnant, and Trujillo's wife went after her with a knife. Although Sinita exclaims that "Trujillo is a devil", Minerva thinks that he is just a man. She imagines that he feels remorse. At the end of the section, Minerva says, "downstairs in the dark parlor, the clock was striking the hours like hammer blows." This displays violent imagery. -
The Performance
Minerva, Sinita, Elsa, and Lourdes win a recitation contest with a centennial theme for the Dominican Republic. Minerva didn't want to go, but Sinita begs her to go, saying that their play is not about Trujillo but about "a time when we were free. It's like a hidden protest." They perform but it comes to a halt when Sinita aims a bow and arrow at Trujillo but is stopped when Ramfis, Trujillos' son moved "quick as gunfire" to stop Sinita. -
Discovers Father's other Family
Rumors are starting about her being a lesbian. "Papa discouraged boyfriends". She also realizes tension between Mama and Papa. He says, "We need you around". She is bored and jealous of Elsa and Sinita, who are studying in the capital. She begins to notice her father's Ford always parked in front of the same campesino family home. Four girls run out to the road, and she sees that they have Mirabal eyes. She finds that Enrique Mirabal is their father and that they are her half-sisters. -
Discovery Day Dance
Minerva has found an invitation to one of Trujillo's private parties in her father's coat pocket. While at the dance, she reluctantly becomes Trujillo's partner. He flirts with her and she tells him that she wants to study law in the capital. He implies that he would like to "conquer" her, she says she is "not for conquest." He says the university is no place for women, mentioning the "communists and agitators". When he pulls her really close, thrusting at her in a vulgar way, she slaps him. -
Trujillo didn't let her Graduate.
She studied law, but because she had declined Trujillo's romantic advances in 1949, she was denied a license to practice. At the university, she met her husband, Manuel Tavárez Justo, who would help her fight the Trujillo regime. -
Arrested
The young people of the Movimento Revolucionario de 14 de Julio held secret meetings working against the dictator. But, there was a trator among them and within a few weeks most all the group of young people, mostly upper middle class, had been arrested and taken into custody. At the end of that month, more than a hundred members of 14 de Julio were caught. Most of them were subject to indescribable torture at the prison "La 40" and a few were killed. -
Murdered
Trujillo decided he had enough of the sisters and decided it was time to get rid of them. He sent his men to intercept the three women on their return home from visiting their incarcerated husbands. The women had an idea that something was up and hired a strong jeep and driver to help insure their safety to no avail. They were led into a sugarcane field. They were mercilessly beaten and strangled to death along with their driver. Then their car was taken to a mountain and thrown off.