Cultural Identity & Visual Arts | The Murals of Las Hermanas Mirabal

In this story about the Las Hermanas murals, you will hear personal stories and the history behind these paintings, including:

• An overview of Dominican history, including the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, the assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, who resisted his regime, and how their story inspired the creation of over 400 public murals celebrating culture, peace, and feminist resistance
• A description of artist Maximo Ceballo’s transformative experience studying for free with an Ecuadorian master painter at age 10 in his remote village, and his philosophy that teaching children is part of his purpose because kids are “more creative, freer, and more imaginative” than adults
• An inside-look at the creative process behind the murals, including how artists work together with students, gain permission from property owners, interpret symbolic themes, and overcome the unique challenges of painting in public
• Reflections from both Maximo and Carlos on what they learned from their master teachers about not just techniques but “the artist’s way of life” and how creating public art is about giving the community the finished work as a gift

Expected Learning Outcome:

This lesson includes clear expected learning outcomes that support students in understanding cultural identity through first-person perspectives, while building intercultural awareness and connections between individual experience and global traditions.

• Students will identify and describe key cultural practices and beliefs from the lesson’s focus community (i.e., Dominican culture). 
• Students will articulate insights into their own cultural identities and how those identities relate to what they learned. 
• Students will analyze how cultural expressions (like visual arts) reflect values, history, and social traditions.
• Students will compare perspectives across cultures while finding similarities and differences through human themes. 
• Students will make connections between cultural traditions and broader global contexts (dictatorship, history, cultural preservation), showing critical thinking about identity and intercultural understanding.