Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider

Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider (November 19, 1937 – August 31, 1967), better known as Tania or Tania the Guerrilla, was a communist revolutionary and spy who played a prominent role in the Cuban government after the Cuban Revolution and in various Latin American revolutionary movements. She was the only woman to fight alongside Bolivian communist rebels under Che Guevara.

Early life

Bunke was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the daughter of German communists Erich Bunke and Nadia Bider (who was Jewish). [ [http://chehasta.narod.ru/tamara2.htm Tania - Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider ] ] Her parents had fled to Argentina from Germany in the 1930s to escape the Nazis. In 1952, the family moved to East Germany. At the age of 18, Tamara Bunke was accepted into the ranks of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Her brother is the famous statistician Olaf Bunke, and her sister-in-law is the author and statistician Helga Koenigsdorf (a.k.a. Helga Bunke).

Career

During the 1950s, Bunke studied political science at the Humboldt University in East Berlin. After graduating, there are claims that she began working for the East German Stasi and she took on several espionage missions. Committed to the Communist cause, she travelled throughout Europe and South America under several aliases, posing as a student of folklore.

Back in East Germany in 1960, Bunke met Che Guevara. Guevara was visiting East Germany with a Cuban trade delegation and Bunke Bider worked as an interpreter during the Youth Festival.

Guerrilla action

Inspired by the Cuban Revolution of which Guevara was an icon, Bunke came to Cuba in 1961 to join the guerrillas. While in Cuba, she participated in work brigades, the militia, and the literacy campaign, working in the Ministry of Education, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and the Federation of Cuban Women. She also traveled with Guevara throughout Latin America. It was during this period that she took the name "Tania" as "nom de guerre".

In November 1964, Bunke traveled to Bolivia as a secret agent for Guevara's last campaign. It is reported that she used the name Laura Gutiérrez Bauer to gather information about Bolivian high society while working as a teacher, and also that she posed as a folk music collector.

In 1966 Bunke joined Juan Vitalio Acuña's group of Bolivian guerrillas, possibly against Guevara's wishes.

Death

On August 31, 1967, Bolivian soldiers ambushed the group while they were crossing the Río Grande at Vado del Yeso, and killed Bunke and eight fellow communist guerrillas. Bunke was already stricken with serious illnesses due to extended exposure to the jungle, such as cervical infection etc. Bunke Bider's body was swept away in the river; Bolivian soldiers found it on September 6, and she was buried the next day, close to her fellow revolutionaries.

Bunke's remains were tracked down to an unmarked grave in a small pit on the periphery of the Villegrande army base [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4477656.ece Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider: the woman who died with Che Guevara] ] on October 13, 1998. They were transferred to Cuba, where she was reburied alongside her comrades.

Legacy

*Minor planet 2283 Bunke, discovered in 1974 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova, is named after her. [cite book | last = Schmadel | first = Lutz D. | coauthors = | title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names | pages = p. 186 | edition = 5th | year = 2003 | publisher = Springer Verlag | location = New York | url = http://books.google.com/books?q=2279+barto+1968+DL | id = ISBN 3540002383]
*During her involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, Patty Hearst took on the alias "Tania."

In fiction

*A novel by Chilean economist Sebastián Edwards titled "El misterio de las Tanias" (2007) is inspired by Bunke's story.
*She will be portrayed in the upcoming films "Guerrilla" and "The Argentine" by Franka Potente.

References

External links

* [http://chehasta.narod.ru/taniatamara.htm Images]
* [http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/sebastian.edwards/Tanias.html Misterio de las Tanias Novel]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4477656.ece 2008 Sunday Times article on Tania]