Ibárruri left school at fifteen after spending two years preparing for teacher's college at the encouragement of the schoolmistress. Her parents could not afford further education, so she went to work as a seamstress and later as a housemaid. She became a waitress in the town of Arboleda, the most important urban nucleus in the region of Somorrostro. There she met Julián Ruiz Gabiña, union activist and founder of Socialist Youth of Somorrostro. They married in late 1915, two years after the birth of their first child. The young couple participated in the general strike of 1917 and Ruiz returned to jail. During this time, Ibárruri spent nights reading the works of Karl Marx and others found in the library of the Socialist Workers' Centre in Somorrostro.