Tamara Bunke
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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.
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[edit] Early life
Bunke was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the daughter of German communists Erich Bunke and Nadia Bider (who was Jewish).[1] 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).
[edit] 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. This has been explicitly denied by the current German Government. 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.
[edit] Guerrilla action
Inspired by the Cuban Revolution of which Guevara was an icon, Bunke came to Cuba in 1961. 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 Tania, the Woman Che Guevara Loved Jose a Friedl Zapata claimed that Bunke was Guevara's secretary at the Industry Minister at the time. They got romantically involved and Guevara took her with him when he went to Bolivia. She had never participated in any guerilla movement. Of course there was no way to justify her going with him so the "Tania the Guerrilla" myth was invented to explain it officially, and to his wife Aleida as well who was left in Cuba.
Initially she didn't go to the mountains and was used as liaison. She lived in the City and she was visited by Guevara . Also she collected food and other supplies for the guerrilla. One day as a some of the guerrilla members went to town to collect whatever she had for them she decided to go with them to the mountain. When Guevara found what she'd done he sent her with the Vilo guerrilla, where she ultimately died in an ambush.
However, in Tania: Undercover with Che Guevara in Bolivia Ulises Estrada claims that Bunke was recruited by Cuban intelligence and was definitely not Guevara's lover. This book provides evidence that Bunke successfully infiltrated Bolivian high society and claims that she joined the guerillas after her cover had been blown by a captured Bolivian communist. Sr Estrada claims that he was Burke's trainer in the Cuban Special Operations Division.
[edit] Death
On August 31, 1967, Bolivian soldiers ambushed Acuña's 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.[citation needed] Bunke Bider's body was swept away in the river; Bolivian soldiers found it on September 6, and she was buried the next day.
Bunke's remains were tracked down to an unmarked grave in a small pit on the periphery of the Vallegrande army base[2] on October 13, 1998. They were transferred to Cuba, where she was reburied.
[edit] Legacy
- Minor planet 2283 Bunke, discovered in 1974 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova, is named after her.[3]
- Venezuelan folk singer songwriter Ali Primera wrote a song titled Tania, commemorating Bunke and her dedication to revolution.
- During her involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, Patty Hearst took on the alias "Tania."
[edit] In fiction
- A novel by Chilean economist Sebastián Edwards titled El misterio de las Tanias (2007) is inspired by Bunke's story.
- She is portrayed by Franka Potente in Steven Soderbergh's biopic of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Guerrilla.
- A character known as Tania Vunke appears in Chuck Pfarrers novel Killing Che. Tania is an East German KGB spy who falls in love with Guevara when she is supposed to be helping to kill him. Eventually she betrays the KGB to fight for Che and dies in battle.
- Tania Bunke also appears intermittently in the first part of Luigi Nono's music/theatre work 'Al gran sole carico d'amore' (1972/4).
[edit] References
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (November 2009) |
- ^ Tania - Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider
- ^ Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider: the woman who died with Che Guevara
- ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (5th ed.). New York: Springer Verlag. pp. 186. ISBN 3540002383. http://books.google.com/books?q=2279+barto+1968+DL.
[edit] External links
- Images
- Misterio de las Tanias Novel
- 2008 Sunday Times article on Tania
- UK Guardian article
- Sydney Guardian article
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