(1895-1989)
Symbol of antifascist Spanish womanhood both during and after the Spanish Civil War (1936—1939). A committed member of the Spanish Communist Party, Dolores Ibarruri opposed nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco and supported the republic, the existing government. Following the 1939 defeat of the republican forces, Ibarruri went into exile and continued to struggle for an end to the Franco dictatorship. She is known as La Pasionaria because of her fiery, eloquent oratory in defense of the republic and the Communist movement.
Dolores Ibarruri was born to a family of modest means in the northern Basque region of Spain. She grew up at a time when the mining, iron, steel, and textile industries were developing in the region. These industries created new sources of employment and transformed peasants into workers. Many of these workers joined working-class movements and identified with the ideals and demands of the Communist Party (CP) that were gaining popularity in Spain. Ibarruri joined the CP in the 1920s, and from that time she dedicated her life to the party and to building a world based on Communist ideals. She rose rapidly in the ranks of the CP. In 1930, she was elected to the central committee, the main leadership body of the party. In 1932, she headed the party’s Women’s Commission. What catapulted her to national prominence and international renown, however, was her role in the Spanish Civil War.
During the civil war, Ibarruri distinguished herself through her stirring speeches in defense of the republic and in opposition to the forces of General Francisco Franco. Following the June 1936 revolt of the Franco forces, she took to the airwaves of Madrid and uttered her famous call to the Spanish people: "No pasaran!" (They shall not pass) and coined the heroic phrase, "It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees" (Thomas 1961, 140). For most of the war, she did not call on Spanish women to renounce their roles as mothers and take up arms. Instead, she urged the mothers of Spain to support their sons who were fighting for the republic.
When the republican forces lost the war in 1939, she went into exile but not inactivity. In 1942, she was elected secretary general of the Communist Party. After Franco’s death in 1975, she returned to Spain and was elected as a deputy in the parliament. She published numerous books, including her autobiography, Memo-rias de Dolores Ibarruri.
Her affective life was not as successful as her political life, perhaps because she usually prioritized the latter. Her marriage to Julian Ruiz, a leader in the Communist Party, was not a happy one. Three of her daughters died in infancy, and her son died at the siege of Stalingrad. The CP disapproved of her relationship with a male Communist Party member seventeen years her junior, and when the party asked her to end the relationship, she did.
