Rosendo Huenumán
Mapuche Chilean politician (1935–2020)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rosendo Huenumán García (22 March 1935 – 3 October 2020) was a Chilean agricultural worker, coal miner, and member of the Communist Party of Chile.
Rosendo Huenumán | |
|---|---|
| |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile | |
| In office 15 May 1973 – 11 September 1973 | |
| Succeeded by | 1973 Chilean coup d'état |
| Constituency | 21st Departamental Group |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 March 1935 |
| Died | 3 October 2020 (aged 85) |
| Party | Communist Party |
| Occupation | Agricultural worker Coal miner Politician |
He served as Deputy for the Twenty-First Departamental Group of Temuco, Lautaro, Imperial, Pitrufquén and Villarrica, during 1973.
Biography
Born on 22 March 1935 in Hueñalihuén, Puerto Saavedra. He married Rosa Llancapan Llevilao and had two children. He began working from a very young age in rural labor and migrated to Temuco at 12 to work as a laborer. He learned to read at age 12 in a night school and later lived in Concepción, where he trained as a teacher at the Technical University of the State (UTE).
He worked as a coal miner in Lota and as a pit worker at Pique Alberto in 1959. He joined the Communist Party in 1959. During the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva, he was active in peasant unionization. During Salvador Allende’s presidency, he presided over the "Luis Emilio Recabarren" Peasant Federation and was a leader of the Ranquil Peasant and Indigenous Federation.
After the coup of 1973, he was mistakenly presumed dead when those who murdered someone with a similar name in Boroa were believed to be him. He stayed in the country until 1977, when he moved to Italy. The Party only discovered he was still alive when he phoned Volodia Teitelboim from Rome.
Despite receiving special status from the United Nations, he could not return to Chile until 1990. He lived his final years in Nueva Imperial, Araucanía Region, and died on 3 October 2020 in Cholchol.
Parliamentary Work
During the 1973 term (cut short by the September 11 coup and the dissolution of Congress on 21 September via Decree-Law 27), he was a member of the Permanent Commission on Agriculture and Colonization.