History Daily: The Assassination of the Mirabal Sisters

Host: Lindsay Graham
Date: November 25, 2025
Podcast: History Daily (by Airship | Noiser | Wondery)

Episode Overview

This episode of History Daily explores the harrowing and inspiring story of the Mirabal sisters—Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa—whose relentless opposition to the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic ultimately led to their assassination on November 25, 1960. Host Lindsay Graham presents the sisters’ evolution from privileged citizens to revolutionary icons, the terror wrought by Trujillo’s regime, and how the sisters’ tragic deaths became a catalyst for sweeping change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Night of the Assassination

[00:00–03:39]

• The episode opens with a vivid, tense dramatization of the final moments of the Mirabal sisters. Minerva, at 24, is riding with her sisters on a rainy, remote mountain road after visiting their husbands in prison.
• Soldiers block their path, forcibly remove them from their vehicle, and lead them into the darkness. Their bodies are later found in the wreckage of a car at the bottom of a ravine—soon exposed as a political assassination ordered by President Trujillo.

Notable Quote:
“Within hours, their bodies will be found in the wreckage of the Jeep at the bottom of a ravine. Soon it will become clear that their deaths were no accident, but a brutal act of political violence carried out by the Dominican Republic's president on November 25, 1960.”
—Lindsay Graham [02:00]

2. The Origins of a Dictatorship: Trujillo's Rise & Reign

[03:39–08:37]

• Flashback to 1949: Minerva Mirabal, then 23, attends a presidential party and is introduced to Trujillo, whose oppressive regime is marked by a cult of personality and unspeakable violence—including a massacre at the Haitian border.
• Minerva narrowly escapes Trujillo’s advances, but her refusal brings retaliatory scrutiny on the whole family. Her father is forced to write a humiliating apology, and both he and Minerva are arrested, accused of communist sympathies.
• The family's elite status offers no protection; even after their release, the state keeps them under constant surveillance.

Notable Quote:
“It's only when Minerva explains what happened in the garden that Enrique agrees to leave. No matter the risks, he won't make her stay where she feels threatened.”
—Lindsay Graham [07:05]

3. Escalating Resistance: The Mirabal Sisters Join the Fight

[09:34–13:00]

• After years of harassment and the death of their father, the Mirabal sisters become deeply involved in underground resistance, aligning with the June 14th Movement—named after a failed anti-Trujillo rebellion.
• Patria uses her home to store weapons, host revolutionaries, and organize training sessions in guerrilla tactics.
• Minerva, despite repeated imprisonment and professional sabotage, graduates as the first woman from law school in the Dominican Republic—her public defiance turning her into a symbol of opposition.

Notable Quote:
“Minerva worked around his restrictions and eventually became the first woman to graduate law school in the Dominican Republic. Even then, Trujillo ensured that Minerva wasn't allowed to practice law. But the public dispute transformed her into a figurehead of the campaign against the regime.”
—Lindsay Graham [11:22]

4. Crackdown and Retaliation: The Regime’s Last Resort

[13:00–15:45]

• Trujillo targets the sisters’ families—arresting their husbands and ratcheting up the oppression. Yet their activism intensifies.
• Foreign allies abandon Trujillo, and the Catholic Church calls out his atrocities.
• Trujillo, blaming the Mirabal sisters for his woes, decides only assassination will silence them.

Notable Quote:
“Jailing the sisters hasn't silenced them, nor has imprisoning their husbands. A more permanent solution must be found.”
—Lindsay Graham [13:53]

5. The Assassination and Its Aftermath

[15:45–18:56]

• The details of the sisters’ murder are laid out: Military intelligence pulls them from their vehicle, beats and strangles them, and stages an “accident” by pushing their bodies and car over a ravine.
• The cover-up fails; Dominicans quickly suspect the truth. Rather than squash dissent, the assassinations galvanize opposition, both at home and abroad.
• Within six months, Trujillo is betrayed and murdered by his own generals, echoing the fate he engineered for the Mirabal sisters.

Notable Quote:
“But murdering the Mirabal sisters won't shore up President Trujillo's regime. Instead, it will precipitate his downfall.”
—Lindsay Graham [14:21]

Notable Quote:
“Six months after the murder of the Mirabal sisters, Trujillo will be killed in a plot led by his own generals. He will be ambushed on the road and gunned down by soldiers, in an ironic echo of the way he killed his most prominent political opponents, the brave and brilliant Mirabal sisters.”
—Lindsay Graham [18:20]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He’s ruled the Dominican Republic as a dictatorship. He’s silenced dissent with imprisonment and executions. … He’s just as brutal to his neighbors as he is to his own people.”
  —Lindsay Graham [04:20]

• “Her incarceration only adds to the Mirabal sisters’ status within the June 14th Movement. And when Minerva is eventually released … she’s treated like a hero.”
  —Lindsay Graham [12:12]

Key Timestamps

• [00:00–02:18]: The sisters’ fatal journey and the set-up for the episode
• [03:39–07:39]: Trujillo’s dictatorship and the Mirabal family’s first clashes with power
• [09:34–13:00]: The sisters’ deepening radicalization and rise as opposition leaders
• [13:00–15:45]: Regime escalation and plotting the assassination
• [15:45–18:56]: Details of the murder and the enduring legacy of the sisters' resistance

Tone & Style

True to its signature approach, History Daily delivers the story with cinematic tension, powerful narrative pacing, and deep empathy for the Mirabal sisters’ courage. Lindsay Graham uses vivid detail, somber tone, and measured urgency to evoke the brutality of the regime and the hope inspired by resistance.