Born: 19 November 1937, Argentina
Died: 31 August 1967
Country most active: Cuba, Bolivia
Also known as: Tania the Guerilla, Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
In 1967, Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, also known as Tania, was killed in an ambush by Bolivian Army members trained by the CIA. Bunke Bider, a Jewish Argentine revolutionary and guerilla fighter, was associated with the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and actively participated in armed struggle movements.
Bunke was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her parents, German communist refugees Erich Bunke and Nadia Bider, fled to Argentina in 1933 to escape Adolf Hitler’s National Revolution. In Argentina, they both became members of the Communist Party of Argentina. This ensured that Tamara, along with her brother Olaf, grew up in a Marxist-Leninist political environment.
She played roles in Cuban intelligence operations post the Cuban Revolution and was involved in several Latin American far-left revolutionary movements. She fought alongside communist guerrillas led by Che Guevara during the Bolivian insurgency until her death in action by the Bolivian Army Rangers on August 31, 1967.