by Alma Bond

 

More than three decades after her death in Bolivia during Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara's fateful last revolutionary mission, the remains of Cuban national heroine ``Tania the Guerrilla'' have been returned to her adopted homeland.``Tania,'' whose real name was Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider, was the only woman on the legendary leftist rebel's 1967 Bolivia expedition.

 

Her bones were found in a coffin in the remote Bolivian town of Vallegrande in September, 1998 during a search for the bodies of the guerrilla forces led by Ernesto Che Guevara. The grave was discovered in the grounds of the Rotary Club near Valle Grande's airpost runway, four hundred eighty miles (seven hundred seventy kilometers) southeast of the capital La Paz. Tania's remains were formally buried in December of 1998 at a mausoleum in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, recently built to house the remains of Guevara and those who joined his unsuccessful effort to bring about a revolution in the Andean nation.

 

Tania was born in Argentina on November 19, 1937 of German parents who emigrated to Argentina to escape Nazi persecution. They subsequently returned to their country to participate in the reconstruction of the German Democratic Republic. Tania was raised by Communist parents, who continued to do underground work after they emigrated to Argentina. She was admitted to the United Socialist Party of Germany when she was eighteen years old. According to her mother, this was the atmosphere in which Tania was brought up. She believed that a Communist was a Communist and a revolutionary wherever he was, even though the country he was in might not be the one where he was born. In a very deep sense, Tania lived out her parents' dream.

 

Tania had a deep abiding interest in Cuba from the time she was an adolescent, and was thrilled to come to Cuba from East Germany in May 1961 at the age of twenty-four. While there, she worked in the Ministry of Education, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, and on the national executive board of the Federation of Cuban Women. She met Che when he was on a trip to the German Democratic Republic at the head of a Cuban trade delegation, and joined his band out of sincere love and loyalty to him and his revolutionary dream.

 

According to a neighbor, "The most striking thing about her - the common denominator of her personality - was her smile, a gay, open, beautiful smile." She was slender, of medium height, with deep green eyes and almost blond hair which she wore in a braid down her back. She had an elegant manner and a beautiful melodious voice. Her laugh, like her voice, was deep, and could really sound forth. Maria Elena Capote, in a Special for Granma International, wrote "She almost always wore a militia uniform: olive green pants ballooning out at the ankles, boots and a light blue thin denim shirt. An olive green beret slanted over a wide forehead. That's what she looked like when she was taking journalism classes in Havana. She was the image of a young European woman, much more than Latin American, until she spoke in her perfect Spanish, laced with a light Argentinean accent."

 

Because she was born in Argentina, she spoke Spanish fluently, and was able to assume various identities for her undercover work. Thus she was known as Tamara Bunke in Cuba, Haydee Bidel Gonzalez in Europe, Marta Iriarte in Berlin , and Laura Gutierrez Bauer in Bolivia. She usually wore no make-up, and her concept of a true woman was one who did not need to wear elegant, expensive clothes, nor to avoid work that would hurt her hands. She didn't like to buy new clothes, and when she was forced to purchase some in Brazil in order to keep up her disguise, her tendency was to buy the cheapest ones she could find. This, she explained to "Mercy," her teacher and contact, was because it was so hard for Cuba to obtain dollars. "Wouldn't it be wonderful," she said with tears in her eyes, "if instead of their sending me dollars, I could send dollars to Cuba?"

 

A few anecdotes speak further of her innate generosity. After inviting Tania to have coffee with her, one of her teachers at the 1961 students' congress commented that a small embroidered handkerchief Tania was carrying was very pretty. She answered that she had made it herself. A few days later, after having washed and ironed it, she gave the handkerchief to her teacher. Another time, she insisted on swapping apartments with a Chilean comrade who had four children. Tania was living in a three-bedroom apartment, while the family occupied one with only two.

She said to her friend, "There isn't enough room for all of you in that apartment."  Tania was given a very good musical and political education by her parents, and her views on many different questions always predominated in student groups. She was popular for her ability to play the accordion and the guitar with great feeling for her colleagues, who were impressed with her knowledge of music, including the classics. She taught classes in the guitar to the Federation of Cuban Women, and also was a collector of folk songs from Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, and from all over Latin America. If she had lived, in all likelihood she would have written a book about her findings. She had a special charisma that captivated all those who spoke with her, perhaps because of her way of listening attentively to what people said, or the wealth of knowledge she displayed, without seeming ostentatious or pedantic.

 

Tania quickly became one of the most important comrades of the Federation of Cuban Woman and carried out every task she was assigned, no matter how trivial it seemed. Once she went for an interview to be aired on a radio program sponsored by the Federation. She carried and installed an old and defective tape recorder. Capote said that she herself would not have bothered with the interview, as she felt the information it would provide wasn't worth the effort Tania was putting into it. But her enthusiasm was as great as if she were interviewing a minister on matters

of life and death importance. According to her, "Anybody who can't do small things will never be able to do great ones." She was unique in how deeply she submerged herself in her work and in her unconditional loyalty to the

Revolution. She won the affection and esteem of all who knew her. Tania also had quite a temper. Once when she was riding in a taxi with Mercy, he said he had no Brazilian money with him and asked her to pay

the driver. Tania really blew up. "This isn't right," she said. "You didn't exchange your dollars so I ‘d have to pay for the ride. From now on we go fifty-fifty on all expenses." A phrase frequently on her lips was, "All right, enough of that!"

 

Tania spent a very busy time in Brazil learning intelligence techniques from Mercy. A typical day consisted of class programs in shadowing and counter shadowing, carbon and invisible writing, methods for obtaining data and data checking, counterintelligence and its work methods, and a review after dinner of what had been studied during the day.

 

Despite their frequent arguments, she became quite attached to Mercy. When it was time from them to say good-by, she tried to avoid him.  He wouldn't allow it, and said, "Even though we've had plenty of arguments, I want you to know I am very happy to have given you lessons. Since we don't know what will happen, I want to remind you that above all our watchword is PATRIA O MUERTE." She put her head on his shoulder and said through her tears, "Patria o Muerte. Later, he said that Tania had acquired from him in a single month the knowledge and skills it had taken him a year to learn. He added that she was proud of having been chosen for special work to aid the Latin-American Revolution.

 

Despite the revolutionary struggle which absorbed all her time, she never stopped writing long letters and sending newspaper clippings and pieces of speeches. to her family in Germany. She said, 'I don't want them to be misinformed. I want them to know the truth about what's happening, directly from me." She frequently showed her comrades photos of her relatives, her parents, and her brother and sister-in-law. Her family was central in her life, and no one was surprised when she decided to return to Europe as a translator on a delegation in order to see her parents and family in Berlin.

 

After the vigorous training period, she was selected to establish relations with representatives of the Bolivian ruling class and army, and to create favorable conditions for opening the guerrilla front. She arrived in that country at the end of 1964, and was known there by the name of Laura Gutierrez Bauer. While it is known that she had a lover who was a revolutionary, as stated in Rojas and Calderon's book, Tania, his name has been unacknowledged publicly. Although no information on the matter is presently available to this writer, one cannot help but wonder if Tania selected the name of Gutierrez because she was involved in a love affair with her fellow martyr, Mario Gutierrez, with whom she fought side by side and who was killed and buried with her.

 

As a result of her successful work, Tania was informed in early 1966 by a Cuban connection that she had been admitted into the Communist Party of Cuba. She then began to work directly with the guerrilla forces, attending to the indoctrination of new combatants and the logistics of transporting them to the area of operations.

 

Subsequently, she herself became an active member of the guerrilla army, joining the group led by Comandante Vitalio (Vilo) Acuna, known as Joaquin. As Guido Peredo (known as Major Inti), the young Bolivian who became the leader of the revolutionary struggle for Bolivia after Che's death and who himself was killed by the Bolivian army, said in his introduction to Rojas and Calderon's book, "For the work to be successful, individual self-imposed discipline is essential...All the ‘old' life is buried in the past...The embryo of a new and different human being begins to appear, that of a person willing to make more and more sacrifices with more and more joy...Tania traveled that road, daily rejecting the values so important to other people."

 

As a member of the guerrilla army, Tania was imperturbable. Although she wasn't used to them, she silently endured the long treks necessary for guerrilla tactics and refused special treatment as a woman. She insisted on being treated just like the rest of the comrades in the guerrilla groups, and was able to break through the barriers which still prevent women from being fully accepted members of society. One of her greatest moments came when Che afforded Tania the honor of considering her just one more fighter by giving her an M-1 rifle. Climbing up and down all

kinds of mountains and steep cliffs was difficult, and at times, when the guerillas had to scratch and claw their way over the rocks, had to be done with ropes,. Tania often managed to keep up with the leaders better than some of the other comrades.

 

The members of her command died on August 31, 1967, when the column was betrayed by a countryman and ambushed by Bolivian soldiers on the river banks of Vado del Yeso. Tania was twenty-nine years old.  When she entered the water coming out of the underbrush, soldiers in hiding saw a blond woman, thin from long marches and extreme deprivation of food, sleep, and proper clothing, who seemed very beautiful to them. She wore camouflage battle trousers, soldiers' boots, a green and white striped faded blouse, a knapsack, and a submachine gun. When Tania heard shots, she raised her arms to bring her weapon over her head into shooting position. It is not known whether she was able to fire any bullets. A soldier shot her through the lung, and along with the Peruvian doctor, Negro, she fell into the water. Negro, who saw that she had been wounded, tried to save Tania, and let himself be carried along with her by the current of the river they were fording. When he reached the shore, he saw that she was dead. Seven days later, on September 6, 1967, soldiers continuing the search for Tania found her body and knapsack on the shore where Negro had left it. It was taken the next day to the Pando Regiment and buried at the

spot where it was found, approximately two-thirds of a mile (one kilometer) from where Guevara's remains were unearthed in July, 1997.

 

Since Tania the Guerrilla's remains were discovered, a new image of her mother has traveled around the world. She was photographed kissing the urn that will keep her daughter's remains forever, after thirty-one years of waiting. The ossuary Nadia Bunke had hugged and kissed was carried into the Marti Library of Santa Clara shrouded with a Cuban flag.

 

Nadia Bunke said she knew she would bury her Tania some day and refused to die until she could accomplish this wish. When asked where she wanted her daughter to be buried, Nadia Bunke answered with no hesitation that she should be buried in Cuba with Che and their comrades. She was then asked which flag should be placed over her daughter's remains. She answered,

 

"Under the Cuban flag", since her daughter had fought and given her life for Cuba as a member of its Communist Party.

 

Thousands of citizens from Santa Clara laid flowers at the entrance of the library where they paid homage to Tania and the other nine members of the guerrillas commanded by Che. When Tania's remains were laid to rest in the Comandante Che Guevara Monument in Santa Clara, she received an impassioned testimonial from the Cuban people.

 

Raul Castro, first vice-president and general of the army, attended the funeral service for Haydee Tamara Bunke (Tania) and the nine other fighters who died in Bolivia. The heroes' remains were placed along with those of Che and seven other fallen revolutionaries.

 

Although Tania was in love with life, according to her mother she placed above all else the revolutionary duty she felt - the duty to take part in Latin America's revolutionary struggle. That was how she was raised and the way she wanted to live. The Revolution was her purpose in life. It was clear in all her conversations, her character, her temperament, and her crusade to bring about the ideals in which she believed. She did with her life what she intended to do, and became the person she wanted to be. As such, her stay on earth, though grievously short, was an unqualified success.

 

She left behind a poem entitled "To Leave a Memory," the first few

 

lines of which are:

 

    So I must leave, like flowers that wilt?

 

    Will my name one day be forgotten