Che Guevara
Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, known as Che Guevara (June 14, 1928
– October 9, 1967) was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and
Cuban guerrilla leader. "Che" is an Argentine Spanish expression for calling
someone's attention.
Guevara was a member of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Revolutionary Movement,
which seized power in Cuba in 1959. After the revolution Guevara became
second only to Fidel Castro in the new government of Cuba, and the man
chiefly responsible for moving Castro towards communism. A rebel at heart,
except for brief stints as president of the National Bank and Minister of
Industries, Guevara did not settle in as part of the new Cuban government,
and tried (without much success) to stage revolutions through guerilla
warfare in various countries, notably the Democratic Republic of the Congo
and Bolivia, where, with help from United States Green Berets, he was
captured by the government on October 8, 1967, and executed the following day.
In 1951, Ernesto set off from his home town of C—rdoba on a motorcycle tour
of South America. The poverty he observed during this trip led him to
intensify his study of Marxist ideologies. Following his graduation from the
University of Buenos Aires medical school in 1953, he travelled to Guatemala
where a populist leader, Jacobo Arbenz Guzm‡n, had recently been elected
president. Ernesto met several followers of Fidel Castro who were in exile
there. When the CIA sponsored an overthrow of Arbenz's rule, Ernesto
volunteered to fight. Arbenz told his supporters to leave the country, and
Ernesto briefly took refuge in the Argentine consulate. After moving to
Mexico City, he renewed his friendship with Castro's associates. Ernesto met
Castro when the latter arrived in the Mexican capital after being amnestied
from political prison in Cuba, and joined his 26th of July Movement
dedicated to the overthrow of Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Castro, Che and 80 other insurgents departed Tuxpan, Mexico aboard the cabin
cruiser "Granma" in November 1956 to invade Cuba and start the revolution.
Shortly after disembarking in a swampy area near Niquero in South-East Cuba,
the expeditionaries were attacked by Batista's forces. Only 12 rebels
survived. Che, the group's physician, laid down his knapsack containing
medical supplies in order to pick up a box of ammunition dropped by a
fleeing comrade, a moment which he later recalled as marking his transition
from doctor to combatant.[1]. Within months he rose to the highest rank,
i.e. Comandante (Major), in the revolutionary army. His march on Santa Clara
in late 1958, where his column derailed an armored train filled with
Batista's soldiers and took over the city, was the final straw that forced
Batista to flee the country.
Che's book, Guerrilla Warfare, was seen for a time as the definitive
philosophy for fighting irregular wars. However, with his death in Bolivia
on October 9, 1967, his "Cuban Style" of revolution outlined in the book was
shown to be ineffective. Guevera believed that a small group (foco) of
guerrillas, by violently targeting the government, could actively foment
revolutionary feelings among the general populace, so that it was not
necessary to build broad organizations and advance the revolutionary
struggle in measured steps before launching the armed insurrection.
In the late 1960s, he became a popular icon for revolution and youthful
political ideals in Western culture. A dramatic photograph of Che taken by
photographer Alberto Korda soon became one of the century's most
recognizable images, and the portrait was simplified and reproduced on a
vast array of merchandise, such as T-shirts, posters, and baseball caps.
Che's reputation even extended into theatre where he is depicted as the
narrator in the musical Evita, who becomes disillusioned with the
increasingly corrupt and tyrannical Eva Peron and her dictator husband. This
is taking some creative license, as Guevara's only interaction with Eva
Peron was to write her a facetious letter in his youth, asking her for a Jeep.
Guevara has been represented in the movies by Francisco Rabal (1968), Omar
Sharif (1969), Alfredo Vasco (1999), and Gael Garc’a Bernal (2002) and (2003)
Quote
"In a revolution, one triumphs or one dies" -- Farewell Letter to Fidel
Castro dated 1 April 1965
"En una revoluci—n se triunfa o se muere" -- Carta de despedida a Fidel
Castro, 1ro de abril de 1965 [2]
