Beatriz Allende: A Revolutionary Life in Cold War Latin America

by Tanya Harmer

Overview

This biography of Beatriz Allende (1942–1977)—revolutionary doctor and daughter of Chile's socialist president, Salvador Allende—portrays what it means to live, love, and fight for change. Inspired by the Cuban Revolution, Beatriz and her generation drove political campaigns, university reform, public health programs, internationalist guerrilla insurgencies, and government strategies. Centering Beatriz's life within the global contours of the Cold War era, Tanya Harmer exposes the promises and paradoxes of the revolutionary wave that swept through Latin America in the long 1960s.

Drawing on exclusive access to Beatriz's private papers, as well as firsthand interviews, Harmer connects the private and political as she reveals the human dimensions of radical upheaval. Exiled to Havana after Chile's right-wing military coup, Beatriz worked tirelessly to oppose dictatorship back home. Harmer's interviews make vivid the terrible consequences of the coup for the Chilean Left, the realities of everyday life in Havana, and the unceasing demands of solidarity work that drained Beatriz and her generation of the dreams they once had. Her story demolishes the myth that women were simply extras in the story of Latin America's Left and brings home the immense cost of a revolutionary moment's demise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469679150
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/01/2024
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tanya Harmer, associate professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is the author of Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Completely absorbing. Harmer vividly tells the story of the short years of the Allende presidency from the standpoint of his daughter and collaborator, Beatriz Allende, a woman central to the history of the Left in Chile. Yet this book is more than a portrait of one individual. Harmer's engrossing account illuminates the ideas and hopes of a generation of youthful revolutionaries. Examining the failure of Allende's government and its impact on those who had placed so much hope in it, this book will draw anyone interested in the history of the Left, Chile, Latin America, and gender politics, too." —Alan Angell, author of Decentralizing Development

Demolishing the myth that women were at best secondary actors in the Chilean and Latin American Left, Harmer gives readers a close-up view of what it meant to be a revolutionary confronting the United States at the height of the Cold War. Beatriz Allende movingly illustrates the unrecognized contributions Beatriz made to the Chilean and Latin American Left and the enormous price she paid for her work. This book is a convincing demonstration of how much we can learn about the inner workings of politics, governments, and parties through the study of one individual's life. It is simultaneously a clear, moving history of Beatriz herself, her multiple relationships, both personal and political, and a history of Chile, Latin America, and the Cold War."—Margaret Power, author of Right-Wing Women in Chile

Beautifully written, insightful, and provocative. Making excellent use of sources to which others have not had access, Harmer has written a compelling biography and more, contributing to our understanding of internationalism, exile, human rights, and modern Latin American history."—Andrew J. Kirkendall, author of Paulo Freire and the Cold War Politics of Literacy

Editorial Reviews

While previous studies lionized or sentimentalized Beatriz, Harmer roots the subject in the context of the time period and brings to bear her own expertise in Cold War Latin America. A definitive biography of a female revolutionary."—Library Journal

[An] engaging, beautifully written biography. . . . The text is rich in stories as the author masterfully moves between Beatriz's personal life and the broader political history of Latin America. . . . Highly recommended."—CHOICE Reviews

In tracing Beatriz's life and her involvement with key domestic and international events, Harmer moves beyond studying just state-to-state relations or prominent male figures to examine how Cold War Latin America affected everyday people. In this, Harmer shows how women were protagonists and important historical actors in their own right. . . . An important and fascinating read."—H-Nationalism

A superb book about the 'sad but luminous days' of a female revolutionary."—European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

[A] compelling, elegantly crafted biography.... The book is also far more than an individual life story. Harmer uses Beatriz and her generation to illuminate the cultural and political conflicts at the heart of the Cold War and Latin America's 'long 1960s'.... This book makes it clear that Chile lost a vital if unsung leader when Beatriz took her own life in 1977." —The Americas

A brilliant book that offers new and needed perspectives on the apex of the Latin American Cold War.... Owing to an extraordinary array of previously unconsulted primary sources, this book is a masterful example of how, by exploring one person's life and surroundings, researchers can scrutinize broader phenomena."—Hispanic American Historical Review

An intimate and gripping biography...a pathbreaking diplomatic and political history of the revolutionary sixties from below." —Diplomatic History

A micro-history and a portrait of everyday life in the Cold War that speaks to the wider political processes of Chile and Latin America."—H-LatAm

From the Publisher

02/14/2020

Beatriz Allende (1943–77) was a Chilean socialist revolutionary, medical doctor, and daughter of Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected president who was toppled in a military coup backed by the CIA in 1973. After the coup, which culminated in her father's suicide, Beatriz escaped to Communist Cuba, where she helped lead the Chilean Left in exile until she, too, ended her own life. Harmer (history, London Sch. of Economics; Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War) considers the tensions embodied by this lone "female militant amid Latin America's hypermasculine guerrilla decade," when revolutionaries both fostered women's liberation and relegated them to support roles. More radical than her father, Beatriz smuggled guns and rebels into neighboring Bolivia, married a Cuban operative, and visited Moscow. When her father became president in 1970, Beatriz became his secretary and confidant. During Chile's military dictatorship, she rallied a global solidarity movement, advocating for human rights and a return to democracy rather than socialist revolution. VERDICT While previous studies lionized or sentimentalized Beatriz, Harmer roots the subject in the context of the time period and brings to bear her own expertise in Cold War Latin America. A definitive biography of a female revolutionary.—Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs

Library Journal