Other Forces

Passion Flower.

Dolores (originally Isadora) Ibárurri addresses the masses, 1930s. Born in 1895 into a miner's family (one, however, of rather reactionary politics - Carlist) in Asturias, northern Spain, she seems to have been a bit of a rebel from a very young age, and was writing polemics for Communist-inclined periodicals by her early 20s; it would appear that it was in this context that she first used "Pasionaria" as a pen-name. By the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Ibarurri was a national figure, and a major force (no other way of putting it) in the Spanish Communist Party. Her fame was sealed by her series of fiery speeches in support of the Republican government in the course of the war. Following the Republican defeat she went into exile (much of it spent in the Soviet Union), where she continued to exercise her great talents as a propagandist, notably in her involvement in "Radio Free Spain". In 1942, she became General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain in exile, a position she held until succeeded by Santiago Carillo in 1960. After many years in exile, swimming in the dangerous crocadile swamp of mid- 20th century Communist politics, Dolores returned to Spain in 1977, during the dangerous "post-Franco" transition to democracy. Her arrival was, in fact, not very comfortable for the "Eurocommunist" leadership of the Party - but what could they do ? From June 1977 to early 1979, she served as parliamentary deputy for the Oviedo district in her native Asturias. Thereafter, her increasingly frail health enforced a gentler pace of political activity - although she could still deliver the verbal tabasco when she felt the need. La Pasionaria died on 12 November, 1989, a month short of her 95th birthday. Best regards, JR.