On Wednesday, February 24th, Mrs. Oak and Ms. Hauschild’s college Spanish classes ventured to New York City for lunch and a wonderful show. The students watched En el Tiempo de las Mariposas, a play—entirely in Spanish. Overall, it was a very successful trip run by the two popular teachers.

BHS senior Joe Tierney loved it all. He said, “Everything about the trip was great and entertaining.”

In the play, the four Mirabal sisters fight for people’s rights in the Dominican Republic under the regime of Rafael Trujillo. One sister, Minerva, was the first to see the true darkness of their “glorious” leader. She saw that he was actually a cold blooded murderer, willing to do whatever he had to do to get his way. Dede was the only sister who wanted to stay out of the political activism and also in the end, was the only sister to survive.

The murder of the three sisters caused a huge uproar not only in the Dominican Republic, but all over the world. Trujillo couldn’t face such a scandal. Within six months of the murders, Trujillo himself was assassinated. His family was thrown into exile and the “Trujillo Era” was brought to an abrupt end.

Jenessa Asch said, “It was a great experience a situation I never would’ve experienced on my own. The play itself was really well written and taught us a lot about the history of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.”

To be able to spend a day having fun with our classmates while simultaneously learning about history was a privilege. En el Tiempo de las Mariposas was a beautifully written play that taught us about the despicable dictatorship of the Trujillo empire. It is important: the way Trujillo ran his country and treated his people is not a history we should allow to repeat itself.