The New Marianism of Dolores Ibárruri's El único camino

Abstract

The New Marianism of Dolores Ibárruri's El único camino Kevin O'Donnell is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Richmond, Virginia where he has taught courses on Spanish exile literature and the transition from dictatorship to democracy after the death of General Francisco Franco. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Chicago in 1999, after writing hL· dissertation on the Carvahlo series by Manuel Vazquez Montalbán, and is currently working on an oral history of post-Civil War Spanish exiles in Mexico. Armed with the gift of fiery speech and an indomitable will to struggle against the inhumane conditions of her native Basque mining region, Dolores Ibárruri was, arguably, the most famous Spanish woman of the twentieth century. Ibárruri, more well known as "Pasionaria," joined the Spanish Communist Party in 1921, and rose to become its General Secretary from 1942 to 1959. In the early days of the Spanish Civil War, she made famous the slogan "¡No pasarán!" in an address to rally the people of Madrid to defend their city against the advancing Francoist forces. The war solidified her reputation as a great orator. Throughout much of her public life, Pasionaria enjoyed the status of a legendary or mythical figure. Perhaps paradoxically, this Communist woman was worshipped by large sectors of the Spanish population as a saint (Low 8, 70). In his book Pasionaria y los siete enanitos, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán cites the following poem by Jorge Semprún: Es Pasionaria la madre de todos los guerrilleros. Es Pasionaria mi madre y como madre la quiero. ¡Guerrilleros! ¡Camaradas! Un abrazo a nuestra madre. Nos despedimos gritando: ¡Muera el fascismo cobarde! (202)' Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Volume 6, 2002 26 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies That others have seen Ibárruri as a holy mother is perhaps unsettling. Given the polarization of Spanish politics over the last century, a saintly Communist is a jarring contradiction in terms. In this paper , however, I will argue that not only did others see her in this way, but that Ibárruri constructed herself as a modern, socialist version of the "original" saintly mother, the Virgin Mary. In her most significant writing, the 1962 autobiography El único camino, Ibárruri depicts her early life as a process whereby she replaces her fervently held Catholic beliefs with even stronger Communist ones. She describes the ideology of the working class before the dawn of socialism: Se temÃ-a a brujas, fantasmas y aparecidos y se confiaba en el poder de los Evangelios o de San Pedro Zariquete contra el mal de ojo sobre las personas o el ganado. Se creÃ-a en las virtudes milagrosas de los cordones de San Blas o de San Antón o en el laurel bendito el Domingo de Ramos para curar males y laceras de los hombres o del ganado , para ahuyentar los nublados y alejar el rayo del hogar o del rebaño. (1718 ) Ibárruri was not immune from Catholic superstition. Writing about the church in her hometown, she declares, "En aquel altar se concentraba mi fe. La madre dolorosa y el hijo muerto me emocionaban hasta el llanto" (71). But her faith, as she tells it, becomes unraveled. A key moment in this process took place when she observed two nuns changing the clothes of het favorite figure of the Virgin Mary: Lo que vi me dejó sin aliento. Dos hermanas de la Caridad junto al altar del Calvario manejaban sin ninguna consideración una especie de maniquÃ-, parecido a un gran 'diabolo' relleno de serrÃ-n. Donde debieran nacer las piernas, surgÃ-an dos triángulos hechos con listones de madera, cuyas bases constitu Ã-an el asiento de aquel pelele. [...] y en la parte superior...¡madre mÃ-a!...en la parte superior, aparecÃ-a la cabeza de la Virgen, cuya caballera, deshechos los rubios bucles, le caÃ-a por el rostto y sobre los hombros, como si acabase de levantarse de la cama. (72) Realizing that "the empress wears no clothes," she begins to ask impertinent questions. For example, she asks her mother if we are all...