Beatriz Allende

Chilean politician (1942–1977)

Salvador Allende (father)
Hortensia Bussi (mother)

FamilyAllende

Beatriz Patricia Ximena Allende Bussi (US: /ɑːˈjɛndeɪ, -di/,^[1]^[2] UK: /æˈ-, aɪˈɛn-/,^[3]^[4] Spanish: [be.aˈtɾis aˈʝende]; 8 September 1942 – 11 October 1977), also known as Tati Allende, was a Chilean Socialist politician, revolutionary and surgeon. She was the daughter of former president of Chile Salvador Allende and his wife, Hortensia Bussi.

Early life

She studied medicine at the University of Concepción from 1960 to 1962, and transferred to the University of Chile to complete her fourth year.^[5]

She was heavily involved in student politics at university, joining the Brigada Universitaria Socialista. Through this group, she met Renato Julio, who she married on the 6th of July, 1967. The relationship only lasted a few months.^[5]

Later, she married Cuban diplomat and agent Luis Fernández de Oña (also known as Rodolfo Gallart Grau), whom she met on a trip to Cuba in 1967.^[5]^[6]

Aiding her father

When her father was elected as the president of Chile on 4 September 1970, Beatriz became his closest advisor and collaborator, networking with elements of the Chilean and international Left.^[7]^[8] She attempted throughout his presidency to keep the Chilean left from weakening in its support of him.^[9]

Flight from Chile

During Pinochet's coup, Beatriz stayed with her father in La Moneda Presidential Palace, leaving only when President Allende ordered all women and children to evacuate. She was forced into exile with her mother, sisters, husband, and daughter Maya Alejandra Fernández Allende^[10] to Cuba. Beatriz was seven months pregnant at the time with her second child, Alejandro Salvador Allende Fernández.^[6]

Life in Cuba

While in exile, Beatriz served as executive secretary of an anti-imperialist solidarity committee: the Comité Chileno de Solidaridad Antiimperialista, in La Habana. This position required her to travel extensively to raise awareness about conditions in Chile after the coup. She also managed a global solidarity fund and distributed the proceeds to Chile’s left-wing parties.^[9]

In 1977, she separated from Luis.^[5] In one of her last remembered conversations from that year, she spoke of "wanting to escape her role as 'Allende's daughter' — not because she didn't love and admire him, but because his status on the Left and in Cuba prohibited her from living a 'normal' life, out of the spotlight."^[9]

Death

Four years and one month after her father died in the 1973 Chilean coup, Beatriz Allende died by suicide with a firearm on October 11, 1977.^[11] The gun used was an Uzi gifted to her by Fidel Castro in 1971.^[5] She was said to have been "deeply scarred by what had happened in Chile, her father's death, and the dictatorship's ongoing repression of her friends. She was also increasingly pessimistic about Chile's future." Moreover, the prior year's car bombing of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. had been "a devastating blow to the resistance against Pinochet and a personal loss for Beatriz."^[9]

Her body was buried in the Pantheon of Revolutionary Armed Forces in the Colon Cemetery in Havana.^[12]

Posthumous tributes

Women members of the Progressive Party of Chile, who call themselves the Tati Allende Progressive Women's Front, held an event to pay tribute to their namesake on October 11, 2018. It was the 41st anniversary of her death. Mónica Berríos composed a commemorative song for the event.^[13]

References

^ "Allende". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^ "Allende Gossens". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
^ "Allende, Salvador". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2021-08-07.
^ "Allende, Isabel". Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Harmer, Tanya (2020). Beatriz Allende: A Revolutionary Life in Cold War Latin America. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-5431-7.
^ ^a ^b "'She never forgave herself': Allende grandson reflects on Pinochet coup aftermath". SBS Language. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
^ Ruiz Tagle, Diana Veneros (January 1, 2003). Allende: un ensayo psicobiográfico. Editorial Sudamericana. p. 179. ISBN 978-956-262-181-6.
^ Dorfman, Ariel (2001). Rumbo al sur, deseando el norte. Seven Stories Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-58322-079-5.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Börgerding, Lea (September 11, 2020). "The Revolutionary Life of Salvador Allende's Daughter Beatriz Allende - An Interview with Tanya Harmer". Jacobin.
^ "A 40 años de su muerte libro recupera la vida de Tati Allende, la hija guerrillera del ex presidente socialista". Lecturas Pehuén. 2017-09-29. Archived from the original on 2017-10-05. Retrieved 2017-10-05.
^ Agencias (October 14, 1977). "Repercusión del suicidio de Beatriz Allende en Latinoamérica". El País (in Spanish). Ediciones El País, S.L. ISSN 0213-4608. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
^ Labarca, Eduardo (November 13, 2017). Salvador Allende: Biografía sentimental. Editorial Catalonia. p. 564. ISBN 978-956-324-308-6.
^ "Mujeres Progresistas realizaron exitoso conversatorio sobre Tati Allende". Progresistas (in Spanish). 2018-10-12. Retrieved 2020-12-04.