The Power of Butterflies: The Legacy of the Mirabal Sisters in an Exhibition by the Mexican Cartoonist Cintia Bolio

Abstract

In the present work we analyse the exhibition Puras Evas: Sobre mariposas (Only Evas: About butterflies) by the Mexican artist Cintia Bolio. This exhibition was presented from November 14, 2018, to March 3, 2019 at the Museum of Women, which is located in Mexico City, in the context of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Woman, a date which commemorates the Mirabal sisters, known as ‘The Butterflies’, who were murdered in the Dominican Republic by the dictatorship of Leonidas Trujillo on November 25, 1960. The exhibition was presented in a context characterised by the growing number of women victims of violence in Mexico. As we are going to see, in the exhibition analysed, Cintia Bolio seeks to publicise the types of violence that exist and why the struggle of the Mirabal sisters led us to reflection on gender violence in our daily life.

Keywords

• Mexican comic
• Cintia Bolio
• feminist comic