Dolores Ibárruri died in Madrid on 12 November 1989, aged 93. To millions she was simply La Pasionaria, the voice of Republican Spain.
She was born in 1895 in Gallarta, a mining town in the Basque Country, the daughter of a miner. She went on to become one of the leading figures of the Communist Party of Spain, writing under the pen name that would stay with her for life.
When the generals rose against the Republic in July 1936, she went on the radio to rally the people of Madrid. Her cry of ¡No pasarán! (they shall not pass) became the slogan of the anti-fascist cause, in Spain and around the world. In 1938 she gave the farewell speech to the departing International Brigades in Barcelona, thanking the volunteers, Irishmen among them, who had come to fight for Spain.
After Franco's victory she spent almost four decades in exile, most of it in the Soviet Union. She returned to Spain in 1977, after the dictator's death, and was elected to parliament for Asturias at the age of 81.
Thirty-seven years after her death, No pasarán is still painted on walls and chanted at protests. Few people have given the anti-fascist movement words that lasted so long.
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