{"id":7385,"date":"2011-09-19T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T08:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=7385"},"modified":"2011-09-19T09:00:36","modified_gmt":"2011-09-19T08:00:36","slug":"revolting-women-la-pasionaria-or-the-woman-who-fought-franco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2011\/09\/19\/revolting-women-la-pasionaria-or-the-woman-who-fought-franco\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolting Women: ‘La Pasionaria’ – the woman who fought Franco"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of a series on the theme of women and protest. The full series is collected under the tag “Revolting Women”<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c\u00a1No pasar\u00e1n!\u201d<\/strong><\/em>
\n(\u2018They shall not pass!\u2019)<\/p>\n

-Dolores Ib\u00e1rruri, July 19, 1936 (Madrid, Spain)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/a>

Dolores Ib\u00e1rruri age 82<\/p><\/div>\n

No, not Gandalf: La Pasionaria<\/em>.\u00a0 Or, \u2018The Passion Flower\u2019 in English.\u00a0 Before I continue to talk about Ib\u00e1rruri, I acknowledge that I’m a bit of a giddy schoolchild when it comes to praising anything Basque in a public sphere and that having a Hispanic Studies degree means I take some knowledge for granted.\u00a0 So some background information is probably going to be pretty useful for you all.<\/p>\n

The Spanish Civil War began in 1936 when General Francisco Franco led troops in an attempted coup d\u2019\u00e9tat<\/em>\u00a0against the Second Republic. Although the government were caught unawares and significant numbers of Spain\u2019s army were behind Franco, the events of July 1936 turned into a three year civil war.\u00a0 Having written several thousand words on the subject during the course of my degree, I could go into much greater detail but I don\u2019t want to detract from our main focus.\u00a0 Basics to remember: Franco et al<\/em>\u00a0were far-right\/fascist; the Second Republic was left\/socialist.\u00a0 Now we can move on to our woman of the hour.<\/p>\n

Isidora Dolores Ib\u00e1rruri G\u00f3mez <\/strong>was born on 9th<\/sup> December 1895 in Gallarta, within the borders of the Basque Country in Spain, into a poor mining family.\u00a0 In 1918 she adopted the pseudonym \u2018Pasionaria\u2019 on the publication of an article, highlighting religious hypocrisy, which coincided with Holy Week in a devotedly Catholic country.\u00a0 In 1920 she was appointed as a member of the Provincial Committee of the Basque Communist Party and in 1930 moved up to the Central Committee of the PCE (Communist Party of Spain).\u00a0 In \u201931 she moved to Madrid alongside the formation of the Second Republic and was jailed in September \u201931 for the first in several arrests over the following five years.<\/p>\n

There are many amazing things that she did as a prominent pre-war communist woman in politics in Spain, and for a succinct overview of them all I urge you to have a look over on her Wikipedia<\/a> entry.\u00a0 There\u2019s only so much I can say within one article and I want to focus on her wartime contributions to the fight against Franco and fascism.<\/p>\n

During the war she was, above all, an astounding orator and a passionate figurehead for the men and women trying desperately to battle Franco\u2019s advances.\u00a0 As a communist she was no stranger to strong retaliations against her speeches and actions, but during the Civil War she became much more than just a voice for communism.\u00a0 She became a central figure for the Republicans trying to push fascism back and defend Spain against Franco.<\/p>\n

The whole country cringes in indignation at these heartless barbarians that would hurl our democratic Spain back down into an abyss of terror and death. However, THEY SHALL NOT PASS! For all of Spain presents itself for battle.<\/p>\n

[…] The Communist Party calls you to arms. We especially call upon you, workers, farmers, intellectuals to assume your positions in the fight to finally smash the enemies of the Republic and of the popular liberties. Long live the Popular Front! Long live the union of all anti-fascists! Long live the Republic of the people! The Fascists shall not pass! THEY SHALL NOT PASS!<\/p>\n

– Dolores Ib\u00e1rruri, No Pasar\u00e1n<\/em>\u00a0speech (translated here<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n