An Italian Communist in the Spain of the 1960s: The Worthless Journey of Rossana Rossanda

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the view of the Italian communist intellectual Rossana Rossanda on Spain during the Francoist dictatorship, splitting from the trip she made in that country in 1962, envoy by the bureau of Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI). The study analyzes the links established by Rossanda with the members of the anti-Francoist opposition in the main Spanish cities, as well as her considerations about the nature of the Franco regime and the political situation of the country. The information collected and the considerations elaborated by Rossanda—published later in the 1980s—constituted a heritage of knowledges that was decisive for the PCI to interpret the Spanish situation in the following decades, even after Rossanda, in 1968, went out of the Party.