Wednesday’s Wise Woman … Dolores Ibarruri

Dolores Ibarruri (1895-1989) during the republic and the Spanish Civil War was considered by some as an exceptional woman .  She was known the Pasionaria; an Earth Mother of War and official spokesperson of the Communist Party.  She was able to communicate with the masses and encourage the troops.

Dolores was born one of eleven siblings in a Basque mining town.  She had a fair education and unlike most girls at that time was able to stay at school until she was fifteen.  Dolores may have become a teacher but it was more important for her to  support her poor family.
In 1915 she married a militant Socialist miner; Julian Ruiz only two of their six children survived beyond infancy.
Recalling this desperate time she said ‘Woman’s curse and a mother’s curse, weeping for our innocent children to whom we can offer nothing but tear-stained caresses; weeping for our dismal lives without horizon… ‘
Despite her family commitments as a young woman she began to read Marxist literature “ it was as if a window had been opened on life …’ The struggle for a Socialist Society became her aim. Encouraged by the Russian Revolution in 1917 Dolores joined the Socialist Party and made bombs with other members while preparing for the general strike.
Pasionaria became a household name for the left and recognised with Emma Goldman and Indira Gandhi as the most mythologised female figures of the 20th century
However like many women I have researched and written about; Dolores the woman didn’t always match the Pasionaria label of virgin, saint, mother-role-model, courageous and self sacrificing.
In the eyes of her opponents; Franco sympathisers she was tarred with different brush.  She was  considered a ‘redeemed whore’ ; a violent and fearsome woman.  Her supporters believed her masculine characteristics as positive and others as ‘unnatural and evil; more like a beast than a woman.’
Dolores was not a saint or a sinner she tried her best in appalling circumstances to redress the repressive situation of women.
‘Women’s goal, her only aspiration in the shackles of poverty .. raising our children, serving our husbands  who treat us with total disregard.’
According to Shirley Mangini; Dolores was ‘most visible and provocative figure in her party’ and not surprised ‘that she was treated an ambiguous combination of fear and reverence.’  Also as the war progressed and the left began to fail Dolores was able to persuade the troops that despite the lack of arms and resources they could win the war.  She convinced wives and mothers to accept the loss of their men bravely.  As a result she became a significant role model for women of the left.

Dolores Ibárruri (Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, “La Pasionara” (1895-1989)

Further reading Memories of resistance ; women’s voices from the Spanish Civil War by Shirley Mangini.