Time March 16–23, 20201960s1961
Rita Moreno
Breaking Hollywood barriers
Rita Moreno’s 1961 breakout role in
West Side Story almost made her quit act-
ing. Makeup artists colored her darker,
and Moreno, a Puerto Rican native, felt
her accent “didn’t make any sense.” She
resented being asked to sing “America,”
which had lines like
“Puerto Rico, you ugly
island/ Island of tropic
diseases.” She spoke
up, and the lyrics were
changed. In her long ca-
reer, she hasn’t stopped fighting against
typecasting and for fair representation
of Latinos. In 1962, she became the first
Latina to win an Oscar, going on to take
home a rare full EGOT. In 2020, she’ll re-
turn to West Side Story—this time as an
executive producer. —Soledad O’Brien
O’Brien is a journalist and documentarian
1960
The Mirabal Sisters
Undermining a dictator
Minerva, Patria and María Teresa
Mirabal—sisters, all married with chil-
dren—were not likely revolutionaries.
But in the Dominican Republic in the
late 1950s they risked their lives resisting
the regime of Rafael Trujillo. The state’s
murder of the sisters, ages between 25
and 36, on Nov. 25, 1960, outraged the
public and triggered Trujillo’s own assas-
sination six months later. After the coun-
try’s transition to democracy in the late
1970s, the Butterflies, as Dominicans
call the sisters, became symbols of
democratic and feminist resistance.
The U.N. made the date of their deaths
International Day for the Elimination of
Violence Against Women. —Ciara Nugent
MINERVA PATRIA MARÍA TERESA60