The Diplomat
In the framework of the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Embassy of the Dominican Republic presented on November 22nd, in the Auditorio Joaquín Rodrigo of the Centro Cultural Eduardo Úrculo, the play 25 de noviembre o el comportamiento de las mariposas, based on the story of the Mirabal sisters, and the talk show Acercando fronteras contra la violencia de género, in collaboration with the Consulate General of the Dominican Republic, Instituto de Dominicanos y Dominicanas en el Exterior (INDEX), Air Europa and Banreservas.
Paula Gómez-Angulo Amorós, the councillor president of the district of Tetuán, opened the event with words of welcome to the attendees and condemnation of all violence against women. The play premiered in June 2018 in Argentina, the country of nationality of its cast, and was performed in 2019 at the Hermanas Mirabal Cultural Festival in the province of birth of Las Mariposas, as they are known. It narrates the life and legacy of the sisters Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal from the testimony of Dedé, the surviving sister, who founded with their partners the 14 de junio movement, murdered on 25 November 1960, a date that, 40 years later and in homage to them, the UN recognises worldwide.
The author and playwright of the play, Jimena Coppolino, together with Andrea Villa Camacho, public prosecutor and head of the Directorate against Gender Violence of the General Attorney’s Office of the Dominican Republic, Loida Muñoz Olmo, Country Manager Spain of the NGO A21 -specialised in trafficking-; Carmen Pavón and Noelia Revuelta, representatives of the Family and Women Attention Units of the Spanish Police (UFAM); Jesús Pérez, doctor in Psychology; María del Carmen Bañuelos, sociologist, journalist, criminologist, and Ewa Widlak, representative of UN Women in Spain.
The event, which was held in hybrid mode, was attended by some 400 people and 189 virtual participants connected to the streaming, which added a large audience from the Dominican community in Madrid, as well as foreigners, members of the diplomatic and consular corps accredited in Spain, representatives of the Spanish Government, ministries of the Dominican Republic and other related institutions.
The Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Spain organized this event in order to continue its commitment to Dominicans living abroad, and especially with the integral growth of Dominican women, with the fight for equality and non-violence against women; as well as to keep alive the legacy of our heroines of Ojo de Agua.
