Dolores Ibarruri Gómez (1895-1989)
She was born on December 9, 1895 in the old neighbourhood of Gallarta, on Peñucas street, in Abanto Zierbena. Today that place is occupied by the open-pit mine Bodovalle – Concha II next to the Mining Museum of the Basque Country.
This woman stood out for her fighting spirit, and came from a mining background. Married to the labour leader Julián Ruiz Gabiña (1890-1977), she participated in the 1917 General Strike. From the Casa del Pueblo (the People’s House) of Somorrostro she began writing for El minero vizcaíno and La lucha de clases under the pseudonym of Pasionaria. Her journalistic zeal and great oratory came from her unfinished teaching studies.
In 1933 she was president of the Union of Anti-Fascist Women. She was part of the foundation of The Communist Party of Spain (Spanish: Partido Comunista de España; PCE) being elected deputy in the elections of February 1936, the last held during the Second Republic. She was the first woman general secretary of a workers’ organization, being a worldwide reference after her exile in the USSR. In 1960 she took over the presidency of the PCE until her death. Famous for her cry of “they will not pass!” and “better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!” She left among her intellectual legacy her memoirs: The Only Way, and hundreds of articles in Mundo Obrero.
