Dolores Ibárruri (1895–1989)

Dolores Ibárruri was born Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gomez, the daughter of a Basque miner, and was raised in poverty. She was expected to work as a seamstress and a domestic servant. She joined the Basque Communist Party in 1920 and was named to the Central Committee of the Spanish Communist Party in 1931. She also was elected to the Spanish legislature and worked to improve the lives of women and the poor. She is best remembered for her fiery patriotic public speeches on behalf of the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War using the battle cry, "They shall not pass!" for which she was popularly known as "La Pasionara" (The Passion Flower). After the Republic was defeated, Ibárruri went into exile in the Soviet Union, where she lived almost 40 years before finally returning to Spain after the death of Generalissimo Franco.