Nowadays, you can meet young people wearing T-shirts with the image of Che Guevara, find backpacks with his portrait and other items with his photograph. Why is he so popular? Who is Che Guevara? His biography will answer these questions.
Full name: Ernesto Rafael Guevara Lynch de la Serna. This man became a famous revolutionary in Latin America and was awarded the title of Comandante during the Cuban Revolution in 1959. According to some sources, he used the nickname Che to emphasize his Argentine origin; and according to others, he received it in Mexico. The word "che" was often used as an interjection in Argentina, meaning "friend"
Personality of Che Guevara
Who is Ernesto Che Guevara? Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928. Since childhood, I grew up as an enthusiastic, intelligent and inquisitive person. The joy of his life was overshadowed only by asthma, which later helped him avoid military service. From the age of 4, the boy became addicted to reading books and politics. I read Marx, Lenin, France, Verne, Dumas, London, Hugo, Gorky, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Freud. He was keenly interested in the events of World War II and social life in America. At the same time, he loved painting and poetry. Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine.
The hobbies of childhood and youth shaped the character of the future revolutionary. Ernesto was a harsh man, but courageous, caustic in barbs, but a faithful and devoted comrade, romantic, but firm.
Crucial moment
Che Guevara's great passion was travel. He made an 8-month trip through Latin America with his comrade and friend Alberto Granado, a doctor of biochemistry. Together they visited Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Seeing the suffering of the common people, they dreamed of devoting their lives to treating lepers.
Ernesto was upset by the downtroddenness and need of the common people, the corruption and cruelty of the authorities, and he began to think about how he could help people. He thought a lot about this and began to be active politically. Gradually, Guevara came to the conclusion that the only thing that could somehow change the situation was a social revolution. His active actions did not leave the US authorities unnoticed: they began to support the Guatemalan rebels and accused the president of trying to create communism.
Guevara suggested that the government arm the people and fight back, but Arbenz could not withstand the onslaught and resigned in June 1954. Che Guevara had to move to Mexico, the freest country in Latin America at that time. Here a fatal meeting with Cuban revolutionaries took place. Guevara met Fidel Castro, and they found much in common in their views and opinions. Che Guevara was preparing to take part in the Cuban Revolution and was willing to risk everything for its success.
Merits of Che Guevara
Who is Ernesto Che Guevara in the Cuban Revolution? He is its direct participant and activist. On December 2, 1956, he, along with a small group of Cuban revolutionaries, entered into battle with the troops of dictator Batista, but was defeated. Only a few survived, among whom was Guevara. They were able to take refuge in the Sierra Maestra mountains. However, the battle did not stop, and in the summer of 1957 the partisans started fighting in the valleys. The fighters for justice earned the trust of the common people, and soon the military ranks began to be replenished with new rebels...
In March 1958, Castro and his army began to advance. In this battle, the 8th column under the command of Che Guevara recaptured the city of Santa Clara and destroyed the garrison of government troops.
On January 1, 1959, the rebels managed to penetrate the capital of Cuba, Havana. Che Guevara received citizenship there, was proclaimed comandante and joined the ranks of the country's leadership. Despite all this, he continued simple life without luxury.
Che Guevara sincerely believed that he could create an ideal communist society, but all his hopes were dashed. The bureaucracy began to grow greatly, and bribery began to appear.
The Comandante decides to launch a Latin American revolution. For this, he left his friends, his government post, and renounced his military rank and citizenship in Cuba. On November 7, 1966, Guevara began keeping a diary, where for 11 months he described all the events that took place and his thoughts about them.
The expedition to Bolivia turned out to be the last for Che Guevara. In 1967, he and his squad were captured. The next day after being captured, he and two comrades were shot.
This is how the great reformer, revolutionary and political figure Che Guevara lived. He became a truly legendary personality that people still remember to this day. We hope that now you know who Che Guevara is.
Ernesto Che Guevara passed away when he was not even forty years old. But no one is able to imagine him as a gray-haired old man. He forever remained a young and rebellious guerrilla leader, full of revolutionary energy, looking to the future - “Comandante Che Guevara” - a symbol of the struggle for freedom and social justice.
Unfortunately, recently the personality of Che Guevara has been mentioned less and less by our media, and in history textbooks (and even then, not all of them) they only write about him in passing. This is not surprising; the current generation honors other heroes from the “self-made man” category, now understood as a “successful businessman” or “show business star.” And the very concepts of heroism, service to the idea of social justice, along with the triumph of liberal ideology and its forced imposition, have somehow faded and become devalued. Let me emphasize again, to our great regret!
This is what prompted me to write a relatively short historical and biographical essay about Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara in order to remind us of what a Personality really is. Perhaps this essay may seem too panegyric to some. Well, I won't argue with that. Comandante Che and the story of his life are truly a source of admiration for me. And what I am absolutely sure of is that it is much better to have Ernesto Che Guevara as an idol than someone, for example, Justin Bieber.
FORMATION OF PERSONALITY
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna is widely known by his revolutionary nickname "Che". Dozens of books and thousands of articles have been written about him by both his admirers and opponents in different countries of the world. The “heroic guerrilla,” as he is called in Latin America, for almost half a century after his death (October 9, 1967 in Bolivia) became a legend of the revolutionary liberation movement in all parts of the world, an idol for several generations of youth.
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, according to official data, was born on June 14, 1928 in the Argentine city of Rossario, in fact, he was born a month earlier - on May 14. And the first date was put on the birth certificate in order to hide from the then arrogant society to which his parents, the architect Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Senra, belonged, the fact that the bride walked down the aisle while pregnant. Ernesto was born not in the capital Buenos Aires, where his parents got married, but in provincial Rossario, where their long honeymoon ended.
Ernesto's family (besides him there were four more children) had good income, although by the time of the birth of their first child, the wealth of their eminent ancestors remained mainly memories, a good house and an excellent library. The parents held democratic, anti-fascist views and actively supported the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War and when thousands of them ended up in exile in Argentina. These freedom-loving ideas were also adopted by their children.
Ernesto, or Tete, as he was called in childhood and youth, became a certified dermatological surgeon in 1953. The blood of Spanish conquistadors and grandees, Irish rebels flowed in his veins. Among his ancestors were the Viceroy of Peru and military generals. If genetics has any significance in the development of the human personality, then Ernesto Guevara was fine with this.
Ernesto Guevara - student at the University of Buenos Aires (1951)
From his youth, Guevara was drawn to travel and exploring the world. This was combined in him with complete indifference to everyday life, bourgeois conventions and an extremely heightened sense of social justice. Having suffered from severe pneumonia at an early age, he remained asthmatic for the rest of his life. He had to fight this disease constantly. And he bravely resisted him, which strengthened his character. He always treated difficulties stoically, and wrote about his misadventures in diaries and letters to relatives and friends with a sense of humor. He knew what pain was. He knew how to appreciate life and its small and big joys. He never remained indifferent to the pain of others.
The illness made him a “white ticket”; it seemed that the military path that his famous ancestors walked was forbidden to him. But fate decreed otherwise. Thanks to his hard work, self-discipline, ability to maintain composure at the most critical moments, acquired knowledge and natural military talent, he was able to accomplish military feats. And many of his famous ancestors received their place in history precisely as relatives of the world famous Che.
Since childhood, Ernesto has been addicted to reading. A large family library contained several thousand volumes (classics - from Spanish to Russian, books on history, philosophy, psychology, art, works by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Kropotkin, Bakunin and other authors). In addition to his native Spanish, with the help of his mother, he mastered French as a child, and at school and
At the university I mastered English quite well. This opened up to him the vast world of Spanish, French and English literature.He took everything he read through his soul, thought it through critically, and almost always made notes. He kept a diary in which he recorded not only what he saw, but also his thoughts and ideas. He never parted with his books and diary even during partisan campaigns. The backpack with them was his constant companion until the last day of his life.
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
In 1953 - 1956, Ernesto Guevara visited many countries in Latin America. He visited some as a ship's doctor, rode others on a moped, swam with a friend on homemade raft along the Amazon and its tributaries. He worked in a leper colony in the Peruvian jungle. After everything he had seen - social injustice, wild poverty of the bulk of the population in Latin American countries - he was drawn to where the revolutionary struggle was unfolding.
He visited Bolivia and then Guatemala, where in the early 1950s. revolutions took place and where the people then (for a number of reasons) were unable to defend social gains. From there, in September 1954, he arrived in Mexico, where it was difficult to get a job in his specialty, so he did odd jobs, took photographs, and wrote articles. Practical conclusions were drawn from understanding what was seen.
Love and revolutionary struggle were naturally intertwined in the life of Ernesto Guevara. There were three bright women in his life - the Peruvian Ilda Gadea, the Cuban peasant woman from the Sierra Maestra Soila Rodriguez and the participant in the rebel war Aleila March. The official marriage with the latter was the most durable and lasted from June 2, 1959 until Che’s death. Ernesto Guevara had five children: a daughter, Ilda Beatriz, from his first marriage, two daughters, Aleida and Celia, and two sons, Camilo and Ernesto, from his last marriage. All three women, despite the fact that their family life with Che was short-lived, retained the warmest memories of him as a man and a person.
In Mexico, Ernesto met Cuban revolutionaries who had immigrated there and were preparing to continue the struggle. He knew one of them, a participant in the assault on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, Antonio Lopez Fernandez (Nyiko), from Guatemala. When they met in Mexico City in July 1955, he introduced him to Raul Castro, a member of the Popular Socialist Party of Cuba (PSC) and an active participant in the storming of the Moncada barracks.
Raul Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara in 1958
Soon he met Fidel Castro, who was preparing an armed expedition to Cuba. Ernesto, after a conversation with Fidel, decided to participate in the expedition as a doctor.
PREPARATION FOR A MILITARY EXPEDITION TO CUBA
In the very first days after meeting Ernesto, the Castro brothers gave him that very famous nickname - Che, with which he never parted. This happened because Ernesto often used the Italian-Argentine exclamation “che”, expressing admiration and surprise.
Interestingly, Che and Raul Castro were the first to be included in the expedition. At that moment they still had neither a ship, nor weapons, nor money with which to purchase them. Supporters of the “26th of July Movement” he created in May 1955 (after leaving prison) just began to come to Mexico one after another at the call of Fidel Castro.
In January 1956, Ernesto joined the military training of a combat group, which was led by a participant in the Spanish Civil War, former Colonel of the Republican Army Albert Bayo. The 63-year-old Spanish officer, who had extensive combat experience, managed to compress the three-year program of the classical military school to six months. This was achieved through exceptional organization, discipline and intensity of theoretical and combat training. The first in studies and practical activities was Ernesto Guevara. Six months later, the “white ticket” Che became, in the opinion of A. Bayo, the best fighter among his cadets. Here his skills as a mountaineer and hang glider, experience of long journeys along the rough roads of the Latin American hinterland and rural areas, good knowledge of geography and topography, as well as the ability to navigate the terrain came in handy.
At the end of June 1956, when preparations for the expedition were in full swing, Mexican secret police, on a tip from agents of the Cuban dictator Batista, arrested 23 expeditioners. Fidel Castro was one of the first to be detained. According to the stories of Raul Castro, a curious incident occurred at the Santa Rosa ranch, where combat training was held. At the moment the ranch was captured by the police, Che was sitting high on a tree, from where he, with binoculars in his hands, adjusted the fire of his comrades. He observed the entire arrest and search procedure from above, unable to help his friends, and he himself remained unnoticed. But as the prisoners were being led to the police cars, he shouted from the tree: “Hey, you, wait, there’s another one!” With these words, he jumped down and joined his comrades, whom he did not want to leave in trouble.
Many influential Mexican political figures, led by the country's former president Lazaro Cardenas, spoke out in defense of the Cuban revolutionaries. After 22 days of imprisonment they were released.
Another interesting episode from the life of Che also relates to the mentioned arrest, when, contrary to the strict instructions of Fidel Castro, during interrogation by the Mexican police, he answered the question “Are there Marxists here?” in the affirmative. Then he explained to Fidel that he “couldn’t lie.”
REBEL STRUGGLE
On December 2, 1956, revolutionaries landed aboard the motor yacht Granma on the marshy coast of southeastern Cuba, several tens of kilometers from the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
Cuban "Aurora" - yacht "Granma"
Che was one of 17 people out of 82 expeditioners who were lucky, after the first skirmishes with government troops, to remain alive, not to be captured and, led by Fidel, to reach inaccessible mountainous regions. The creation of the Rebel Army began with this detachment. Che proved himself to be an extraordinary commander. On July 5, 1957, he was appointed by F. Castro as commander of the first separate column of the Rebel Army to gain operational independence. He was the first to be awarded the rebels' highest rank - commandant.
Comandante Che in the Sierra Maestra (1957)
At the end of August 1958, Fidel Castro sent two “invasion” columns to the west of the country. One of them was commanded by Che Guevara, the second was led by Camilo Cienfuegos - two legendary rebel commanders.
Camilo Cienfuegos and Fidel Castro (1959)
In Che's column, which began to break through to the west on August 31, there were initially only 140 people. Coming down from the mountains to the plain was not an easy ordeal for the partisans. They had to overcome the psychological barrier and fight with a superior enemy in an open field. In September and early October, Che's column fought through the savannah and swamps of the provinces of Oriente, Camaguey and Villa Clara. On October 16, after a 47-day journey, she reached the Escambray mountain range, located in the western part of the country, 300 km from Havana. Here the column was replenished with several hundred fighters from combat groups created by local organizations of the July 26 Movement and the NSP. Within two months, Che Guevara, having regrouped the forces under his command, began an active military campaign against government forces.
On January 2, 1959, the advanced columns of the Rebel Army under the command of Enresto Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, on the orders of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, entered Havana.
Che Guevara in June 1959 in Cuba
For services to the new Cuba, on February 7, 1959, the revolutionary government granted Che Guevara Cuban citizenship. He was soon confirmed as head of the industrialization department, then he served as minister of heavy industry and director of the National Bank of Cuba. These appointments were due to his previous activities in the territories liberated by the rebels, since during the rebel war Che Guevara demonstrated not only his talent as a partisan commander, but also his great organizational abilities as a business executive. Che also played a major role in the process of unification of all revolutionary organizations, which culminated in the creation of a new, united Communist Party of Cuba.
Che Guevara in Moscow (1964)
But the soul of a true romantic revolutionary demanded the continuation of the revolutionary struggle. And despite the fact that the personality of Ernesto Che Guevara in Cuba was no less popular than Fidel Castro himself (and it is possible that this is also why), Che decided to leave the “Island of Freedom” in order, as he explained in his farewell letter, to continue the fight against “imperialism wherever it exists.”
On March 31, 1965, Che traveled from Havana to Congo (Zaire), where he spent seven months at the request of the Congolese rebel movement fighting against the Mabutho dictatorship. He then continued the liberation struggle in Bolivia.
Che Guevara in Bolivia (1967)
In October 1967, Che Guevara's detachment was surrounded by special units of the Bolivian army, Guevara himself was wounded and captured. The day after the capture and brutal interrogation, on October 9, the frantic Che was shot.
Only 30 years later, in June 1997, Argentine and Cuban scientists managed to find and identify the remains of the legendary comandante. They were transported to Cuba and on October 17, 1997, buried with honors in the mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara.
Thank you for attention.
Sergey Vorobiev.
Childhood, adolescence, youth
Che Guevara's family. From left to right: Ernesto Guevara, mother Celia, sister Celia, brother Roberto, father Ernesto holding his son Juan Martin and sister Anna Maria
Che Guevara at the age of one (1929)
In addition to Ernesto, whose childhood name was Tete (translated as “pig”), the family had four more children: Celia (became an architect), Roberto (lawyer), Anna Maria (architect), Juan Martin (designer). All children received higher education.
At the age of two, on May 2, 1930, Tete experienced his first attack of bronchial asthma - this disease haunted him for the rest of his life. To restore the baby’s health, the family moved to the province of Cordoba, as an area with a healthier mountain climate. Having sold the estate, the family purchased “Villa Nidia” in the town of Alta Gracia, at an altitude of two thousand meters above sea level. The father began to work as a construction contractor, and the mother began to look after the sick Tete. For the first two years, Che was unable to attend school and was home-schooled as he suffered from daily asthma attacks. After this, he attended, intermittently (due to health reasons), high school in Alta Gracia. At the age of thirteen, Ernesto entered the state-owned Dean Funes College in Cordoba, from which he graduated in 1945, then enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires. Father Don Ernesto Guevara Lynch said in February 1969:
Hobbies
In 1964, talking with a correspondent for the Cuban newspaper El Mundo, Guevara said that he first became interested in Cuba at the age of 11, being passionate about chess when the Cuban chess player Capablanca came to Buenos Aires. In the house of Che's parents there was a library of several thousand books. From the age of four, Guevara, like his parents, became passionate about reading, which continued until the end of his life. In his youth, the future revolutionary had an extensive reading circle: Salgari, Jules Verne, Dumas, Hugo, Jack London, later Cervantes, Anatole France, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gorky, Engels, Lenin, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Karl Marx, Freud. He read popular social novels by Latin American authors at that time - Ciro Alegria from Peru, Jorge Icaza from Ecuador, Jose Eustasio Rivera from Colombia, which described the life of Indians and workers on plantations, works by Argentine authors - Jose Hernandez, Sarmiento and others.
Che Guevara (first from right) with fellow rugby players, 1947
Young Ernesto read the original in French (knowing this language from childhood) and interpreted Sartre’s philosophical works “L’imagination”, “Situations I” and “Situations II”, “L’Être et le Nèant”, “Baudlaire”, "Qu'est-ce que la litèrature?", "L'imagie." He loved poetry and even composed poems himself. He read Baudelaire, Verlaine, Garcia Lorca, Antonio Machado, Pablo Neruda, and the works of the contemporary Spanish Republican poet Leon Felipe. In his backpack, in addition to the Bolivian Diary, a notebook with his favorite poems was posthumously discovered. Subsequently, a two-volume and a nine-volume collected works of Che Guevara were published in Cuba. Tete was strong in the exact sciences, such as mathematics, however, he chose the profession of a doctor. He played football at the local Atalaya sports club, playing in the reserve team (he could not play in the main team because he needed an inhaler from time to time due to asthma). He was also involved in rugby, equestrianism, golf and gliding, with a special passion for cycling (in the caption on one of his photographs given to his bride Chinchina, he called himself “the king of the pedal”). .
Ernesto in Mar del Plata (Argentina), 1943
In 1950, already a student, Ernesto was hired as a sailor on an oil cargo ship from Argentina, visiting Trinidad and British Guiana. Afterwards, he traveled on a moped, which was provided to him by Mikron for advertising purposes, with partial coverage of travel expenses. In an advertisement from the Argentine magazine El Grafico on May 5, 1950, Che wrote:
| February 23, 1950. Seniors, representatives of the Mikron moped company. I am sending you a Mikron moped for testing. On it I traveled four thousand kilometers through twelve provinces of Argentina. The moped functioned flawlessly throughout the entire trip, and I did not find the slightest malfunction in it. I hope to get it back in the same condition.
Signed: "Ernesto Guevara Serna" |
Che's youthful love was Chinchina (translated as "rattle"), the daughter of one of the richest landowners of Cordoba. According to the testimony of her sister and others, Che loved her and wanted to marry her. He appeared at parties in shabby clothes and shaggy, which was a contrast with the scions of wealthy families who sought her hand, and with the typical appearance of Argentine young men of that time. Their relationship was hindered by Che's desire to devote his life to treating lepers in South America, like Albert Schweitzer, whose authority he bowed to.
In difficult years
Ernesto Guevara in 1945
Travel to South America
Ernesto Che Guevara in 1951
| Nothing delayed us any longer in Argentina, and we headed to Chile - the first foreign country on our way. Having passed the province of Mendoza, where Che's ancestors once lived and where we visited several haciendas, watching how horses were tamed and how our gauchos lived, we turned south, away from the Andean peaks, impassable for our stunted two-wheeled Rocinante. We had to suffer a lot. The motorcycle kept breaking down and required repair. We didn't so much ride on it as we dragged it on ourselves. |
Staying overnight in the forest or in the field, they earned money for food by doing odd jobs: washing dishes in restaurants, treating peasants or acting as veterinarians, repairing radios, working as loaders, porters or sailors. We exchanged experiences with colleagues by visiting leper colonies, where we had the opportunity to take a break from the road. Guevara and Granandos were not afraid of infection, and felt sympathy for lepers, wanting to devote their lives to their treatment. On February 18, 1952, they arrived in Temuco, Chile. Local newspaper Diario Austral published an article entitled: “Two Argentine leprosy experts travel around South America by motorcycle.” Granandos' motorcycle finally broke down near Santiago, after which they moved to the port of Valparaiso (where they intended to visit the leprosarium of Easter Island, however, they learned that they would have to wait six months for the ship, and abandoned the idea) and then on foot, hitchhiking or “hares” on ships or trains. We walked on foot to the Chuquicamata copper mine, which belonged to the American company Braden Copper Mining Company, spending the night in the barracks of the mine guards. In Peru, travelers became acquainted with the life of the Quechua and Aymara Indians, who by that time were exploited by landowners and stifled hunger with coca leaves. In the city of Cusco, Ernesto spent several hours reading books about the Inca Empire in the local library. We spent several days at the ruins of the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru. Having settled down on the sacrificial platform of the ancient temple, they began to drink mate and fantasize. Granandos recalled a dialogue with Ernesto:
From Machu Picchu we went to the mountain village of Huambo, stopping on the way at the leper colony of the Peruvian communist doctor Hugo Pesce. He warmly greeted the travelers, introducing them to the methods of treating leprosy known to him, and wrote a letter of recommendation to a large leper colony near the city of San Pablo, Loreto province in Peru. From the village of Pucallpa on the Ucayali River, boarding a ship, the travelers set off to the port of Iquitos on the banks of the Amazon. They were delayed in Iquitos due to Ernesto's asthma, which forced him to go to the hospital for some time. Arriving at the leper colony in San Pablo, Granados and Guevara received a warm welcome and were invited to treat patients in the center's laboratory. The patients, trying to thank the travelers for their friendly attitude towards them, built them a raft, calling it “Mambo Tango”, on which they could sail to the next point on the route - the Colombian port of Leticia on the Amazon.
Second trip to Latin America
The path that Che Guevara traveled, 1953-1956.
Ernesto traveled to Venezuela via the capital of Bolivia, La Paz, on a train called the “milk convoy” (a train that stopped at all the stops where farmers loaded cans of milk). On April 9, 1952, the 179th revolution took place in Bolivia, in which miners and peasants participated. The Nationalist Revolutionary Movement party, led by President Paz Estenssoro, which came to power, nationalized the tin mines (paying compensation to foreign owners), organized a militia of miners and peasants, and implemented agrarian reform. In Bolivia, Che visited Indian mountain villages, mining villages, met with members of the government, and even worked in the department of information and culture, as well as in the department for the implementation of agrarian reform. I visited the ruins of the Indian sanctuaries of Tiwanaku, which are located near Lake Titicaca, taking many pictures of the “Gate of the Sun” temple, where the Indians of the ancient civilization worshiped the sun god Viracocha.
Guatemala
Life in Mexico City
On September 21, 1954, they arrived in Mexico City. There they settled in the apartment of Puerto Rican Juan Juarbe, a leader of the Nationalist Party, which advocated the independence of Puerto Rico and was outlawed because of the shooting they committed in the US Congress. Peruvian Lucio (Luis) de la Puente lived in the same apartment, who subsequently, on October 23, 1965, was shot dead in a battle with anti-guerrilla “rangers” in one of the mountainous regions of Peru. Che and Patoho, having no stable means of livelihood, made a living by taking photographs in parks. Che recalled this time like this:
| We were both broke...Patojo didn't have a penny, I only had a few pesos. I bought a camera and we smuggled pictures into the parks. One Mexican, the owner of a small darkroom, helped us print the cards. We got to know Mexico City by walking the length and breadth of it, trying to sell our unimportant photographs to clients. How much did we have to convince and persuade that the child we photographed had a very cute appearance and that, really, it was worth paying a peso for such beauty. We subsisted on this craft for several months. Little by little our affairs were getting better... |
Having written the article “I saw the overthrow of Arbenz,” Che, however, failed to get a job as a journalist. At this time, Ilda Gadea arrived from Guatemala and they got married. Che began selling books from the Fondo de Culture Economy publishing house and got a job as a night watchman at a book exhibition, continuing to read books. At the city hospital, he was accepted through a competition to work in the allergy department. He lectured on medicine at the National University, and began to engage in scientific work (in particular, experiments on cats) at the Institute of Cardiology and the laboratory of a French hospital. On February 15, 1956, Ilda gave birth to a daughter, who was named Ildita in honor of her mother. In an interview with a correspondent for the Mexican magazine Siempre in September 1959, Che stated:
Raul Roa, a Cuban publicist and Batista opponent who later became foreign minister in socialist Cuba, recalled his Mexican meeting with Guevara:
| I met Che one night at the house of his compatriot Ricardo Rojo. He had just arrived from Guatemala, where he first took part in the revolutionary and anti-imperialist movement. He was still acutely upset by the defeat. Che seemed and was young. His image is imprinted in my memory: clear mind, ascetic pallor, asthmatic breathing, prominent forehead, thick hair, decisive judgments, energetic chin, calm movements, sensitive, penetrating eyes, sharp thoughts, speaks calmly, laughs loudly... He has just started working in the allergy department of the Institute of Cardiology. We talked about Argentina, Guatemala and Cuba, looking at their problems through the prism of Latin America. Even then, Che rose above the narrow horizon of Creole nationalism and reasoned from the position of a continental revolutionary. This Argentine doctor, unlike many emigrants who were concerned only about the fate of their own country, thought not so much about Argentina as about Latin America as a whole, trying to find its “weakest link.” |
Preparing an expedition to Cuba
At the end of June 1955, two Cubans came for a consultation to the Mexico City city hospital, to the doctor on duty, Ernesto Guevara, one of whom was Nyiko Lopez, Che’s acquaintance from Guatemala. He told Che that the Cuban revolutionaries who attacked the Moncada barracks had been released from the convict prison on Pinos Island under an amnesty, and began to gather in Mexico City and prepare an expedition to Cuba. A few days later, an acquaintance with Raul Castro followed, in whom Che found a like-minded person, later saying about him: “It seems to me that this one is not like the others. At least he speaks better than others, and besides, he thinks.". At this time, Fidel, while in the United States, collected money for the expedition among emigrants from Cuba. Speaking in New York at a rally against Batista, Fidel said: “I can tell you with full responsibility that in 1956 we will gain freedom or become martyrs.”.
The meeting between Fidel and Che took place on July 9, 1955 in the house of Maria Antonia Gonzalez, at 49 Emparan Street, where a safe house for Fidel’s supporters was organized. At the meeting they discussed the details of the upcoming military operations in Oriente. Fidel claimed that Che at that time “had more mature revolutionary ideas than me. In ideological and theoretical terms, he was more developed. Compared to me, he was a more advanced revolutionary.". By the morning, Che, whom Fidel had impressed, in his words, as an “exceptional person,” was enlisted as a doctor in the detachment of the future expedition. Some time later, another military coup took place in Argentina, and Peron was overthrown. The emigrants who opposed Peron were invited to return to Buenos Aires, which Rojo and other Argentines living in Mexico City took advantage of. Che refused to do the same because he was fascinated by the upcoming expedition to Cuba. Mexican Arsacio Vanegas Arroyo owned a small printing house and knew Maria Antonia Gonzalez. His printing house printed documents from the July 26 Movement, which was headed by Fidel. In addition, Arsacio was engaged in physical training participants in the upcoming expedition to Cuba, being an athlete-wrestler: long hiking trips over rough terrain, judo, and an athletics gym. Arsacio recalled: “In addition, the guys listened to lectures on geography, history, the political situation and other topics. Sometimes I myself stayed to listen to these lectures. The guys also went to the cinema to watch films about the war.”.
Spanish Army Colonel Alberto Bayo, a veteran of the war against Franco and author of the manual “150 Questions for a Partisan,” was involved in the military training of the group. Initially asking for a fee of 100 thousand Mexican pesos (or 8 thousand US dollars), then he reduced it by half. However, believing in the capabilities of his students, he not only did not take payment, but also sold his furniture factory, transferring the proceeds to Fidel’s group. The colonel purchased the Santa Rosa hacienda, 35 km from the capital, for 26 thousand US dollars from Erasmo Rivera, a former partisan Pancho Villa, as a new base for training the detachment. Che, while undergoing training with the group, taught how to make bandages, treat fractures, give injections, receiving more than a hundred injections in one of the classes - one or several from each of the group members.
| Working with him at Rancho Santa Rosa, I learned what kind of person he was - always the most diligent, always filled with the highest sense of responsibility, ready to help each of us... I met him when he stopped my bleeding after a tooth extraction . At that time I could barely read. And he says to me: “I will teach you to read and understand what you read...” One day we were walking down the street, he suddenly went into a bookstore and with the little money he had, he bought me two books - “Reporting with a Loop on neck" and "Young Guard".
Carlos Bermudez |
| After our arrest, we were taken to the Miguel Schultz prison, a place where emigrants were imprisoned. There I saw Che. In a cheap transparent nylon raincoat and an old hat, he looked like a scarecrow. And I, wanting to make him laugh, told him what an impression he made... When we were taken out of prison for interrogation, he was the only one handcuffed. I was indignant and told the representative of the prosecutor’s office that Guevara was not a criminal to handcuff him and that in Mexico even criminals don’t handcuff them. He returned to prison without handcuffs.
Maria Antonia |
Former President Lázaro Cárdenas, his former minister of the sea Heriberto Jara, labor leader Lombarde Toledano, artists Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, as well as cultural figures and scientists interceded on behalf of the prisoners. A month later, Mexican authorities released Fidel Castro and the rest of the prisoners, with the exception of Ernesto Guevara and Cuban Calixto Garcia, who were accused of entering the country illegally. After leaving prison, Fidel Castro continued preparations for the expedition to Cuba, collecting money, buying weapons and organizing secret appearances. The training of fighters continued in small groups in various places across the country. The yacht Granma was purchased from the Swedish ethnographer Werner Green for 12 thousand dollars. Che feared that Fidel's efforts to rescue him from prison would delay the sailing, but Fidel told him: “I will not abandon you!” Mexican police also arrested Che's wife, but after some time Ilda and Che were released. Che spent 57 days in prison. The police continued to monitor and broke into safe houses. The press wrote about Fidel's preparations for sailing to Cuba. Frank Pais brought 8 thousand dollars from Santiago and was ready to start an uprising in the city. Due to the increasing frequency of raids and the possibility of a provocateur handing over the group, yacht and transmitter to the Cuban embassy in Mexico for $15,000, preparations were accelerated. Fidel gave the order to isolate the alleged provocateur and concentrate in the port of Tuxpan in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Granma was moored. A telegram “The book is sold out” was sent to Frank Pais as an agreed signal to prepare the uprising at the appointed time. Che ran into Ilda’s house with a medical bag, kissed her sleeping daughter and wrote a farewell letter to her parents.
Departure on the Granma
At 2 o'clock in the morning on November 25, 1956, in Tuxpan, the detachment landed on the Granma. The police received a "mordida" (bribe) and were absent from the pier. Che, Calixto Garcia and three other revolutionaries traveled to Tuxpan by passing car, which had to wait a long time, for 180 pesos. Halfway there, the driver refused to go further. They managed to persuade him to take him to Rosa Rica, where they changed to another car and reached their destination. In Tuxpan they were met by Juan Manuel Marquez and taken to the river bank where the Granma was moored. 82 people with weapons and equipment boarded an overcrowded yacht, which was designed for 8-12 people. At that time there was a storm at sea and it was raining, the Granma, with its lights extinguished, set course for Cuba. Che recalled that “out of 82 people, only two or three sailors and four or five passengers did not suffer from seasickness.” The ship leaked, as it later turned out, due to an open tap in the lavatory, however, trying to eliminate the draft of the ship when the pump was not working, they managed to throw canned food overboard.
| You need to have a rich imagination to imagine how such a small vessel could accommodate 82 people with weapons and equipment. The yacht was packed to capacity. People were literally sitting on top of each other. There were only so many products left. In the first days, everyone was given half a can of condensed milk, but it soon ran out. On the fourth day everyone received a piece of cheese and sausage, and on the fifth there were only rotten oranges left.
Calixto Garcia |
Cuban Revolution
First days
The Granma arrived on the shores of Cuba only on December 2, 1956, in the Las Coloradas area of Oriente province, and immediately ran aground. A boat was launched into the water, but it sank. A group of 82 people waded to the shore, shoulder-deep in water; managed to bring weapons to land and a small amount of food. Boats and planes of units subordinate to Batista rushed to the landing site, which Raul Castro later compared to a “shipwreck,” and Fidel Castro’s group came under fire. The group made their way for a long time along the swampy coast, which was made up of mangroves. On the night of December 5, the revolutionaries walked through a sugar cane plantation, and in the morning they made a halt on the territory of the central (a sugar factory along with a plantation) in the area of Alegría de Pio (Holy Joy). Che, being the detachment's doctor, bandaged his comrades, since their legs were worn out from a difficult hike in uncomfortable shoes, making the last bandage to the detachment's fighter, Humberto Lamote. In the middle of the day, enemy planes appeared in the sky. Under enemy fire in the battle, half of the detachment's fighters were killed and approximately 20 people were captured. The next day, the survivors gathered in a hut near the Sierra Maestra.
Fidel said: “The enemy defeated us, but failed to destroy us. We will fight and win this war.". Guajiro - the peasants of Cuba friendly received the members of the detachment and sheltered them in their homes.
| Somewhere in the forest, during the long nights (at sunset our inaction began) we made daring plans. They dreamed of battles, major operations, and victory. It was happy hour. Together with everyone else, I enjoyed, for the first time in my life, cigars, which I learned to smoke to ward off annoying mosquitoes. Since then, the aroma of Cuban tobacco has become ingrained in me. And my head was spinning, either from the strong “Havana”, or from the audacity of our plans - one more desperate than the other.
Ernesto Che Guevara |
Sierra Maestra
Ernesto Che Guevara on a mule in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
Cuban communist writer Pablo de la Torriente Brau wrote that back in the 19th century, fighters for Cuban independence found a convenient shelter in the Sierra Maestra mountains. “Woe to him who lifts the sword to these heights. A rebel with a rifle, hiding behind an indestructible cliff, can fight here against ten. A machine gunner holed up in a gorge will hold back the onslaught of thousands of soldiers. Let those who go to war on these peaks not count on airplanes! The caves will shelter the rebels." Fidel and the members of the Granma expedition, as well as Che, were not familiar with this area. On January 22, 1957, at Arroyo de Infierno (Hell's Creek), the detachment defeated a detachment of casquitos (Batista's soldiers) of Sánchez Mosquera. Five casquitos were killed, and the detachment suffered no casualties. On January 28, Che wrote a letter to Ilda, which arrived through a trusted person in Santiago.
| Dear old woman! I am writing to you these flaming Martian lines from the Cuban manigua. I'm alive and thirsty for blood. It looks like I really am a soldier (at least I’m dirty and ragged), because I’m writing on a camp plate, with a gun on my shoulder and a new acquisition in my lips - a cigar. The matter turned out to be not easy. You already know that after seven days of sailing on the Granma, where it was impossible to even breathe, through the fault of the navigator we found ourselves in stinking thickets, and our misfortunes continued until we were attacked in the already famous Alegria de Pio and were not scattered in different sides, like doves. There I was wounded in the neck, and I remained alive only thanks to my feline luck, for a machine-gun bullet hit the box of ammunition that I was carrying on my chest, and from there it ricocheted into my neck. I wandered around the mountains for several days, considering myself dangerously wounded; in addition to the wound in my neck, I also had severe chest pain. Of the guys you know, only Jimmy Hirtzel died, he surrendered and was killed. I, along with your acquaintances Almeida and Ramirito, spent seven days of terrible hunger and thirst, until we left the encirclement and, with the help of the peasants, joined Fidel (they say, although this has not yet been confirmed, that poor Nyiko also died). We had to work hard to reorganize into a detachment and arm ourselves. After which we attacked an army post, we killed and wounded several soldiers, and captured others. The dead remained at the battle site. Some time later, we captured three more soldiers and disarmed them. If you add to this that we had no losses and that we are at home in the mountains, then it will become clear to you how demoralized the soldiers are; they will never be able to surround us. Naturally, the fight has not yet been won, there are still many battles to be fought, but the arrow of the scale is already tilting in our direction, and this advantage will increase every day. Now, speaking about you, I would like to know if you are still in the same house where I am writing to you, and how you live there, especially “the most tender petal of love”? Hug her and kiss her as hard as her bones allow. I was in such a hurry that I left photographs of you and your daughter at Pancho’s house. Send them to me. You can write to me at my uncle's address and the name Patokho. The letters may be a little delayed, but I think they will arrive. |
The peasant Eutimio Guerra, who helped the detachment, was captured by the authorities and promised them to kill Fidel. However, his plans did not come true and he was shot. In February, Che suffered an attack of malaria, and then another attack of asthma. During one of the skirmishes, the peasant Crespo, putting Che on his back, carried him out from under enemy fire, since Che could not move on his own. Che was left in a farmer's house with an accompanying soldier, and was able to overcome one of the crossings, holding onto tree trunks and leaning on the butt of a gun, in ten days, with the help of adrenaline, which the farmer managed to get. In the Sierra Maestra mountains, Che, who suffered from asthma, periodically rested in peasant huts so as not to delay the movement of the column. He was often seen with a book or notepad in his hands.
Squad member Rafael Chao claimed that Che did not yell at anyone and did not make fun of anyone, but often used strong words in conversation and was very harsh “when necessary.” “I have never known a less selfish person. If he had only one boniato tuber, he was ready to give it to his comrades".
Throughout the war, Che kept a diary, which served as the basis for his famous book, Episodes of the Revolutionary War. Over time, the detachment managed to establish contact with the July 26 Movement organization in Santiago and Havana. The detachment's location in the mountains was visited by activists and leaders of the underground: Frank Pais, Armando Hart, Vilma Espin, Aide Santa Maria, Celia Sanchez, and supplies for the detachment were established. In order to refute Batista’s reports about the defeat of the “robbers” - “forajidos”, Fidel Castro sent Faustino Perez to Havana with instructions to deliver a foreign journalist. On February 17, 1957, Herbert Matthews, a correspondent for the New York Times, arrived at the detachment’s location. He met with Fidel, and a week later he published a report with photographs of Fidel and the soldiers of the detachment. In this report he wrote: “It appears that General Batista has no reason to hope to suppress Castro’s rebellion. He can only count on the fact that one of the columns of soldiers will accidentally come across the young leader and his headquarters and destroy them, but this is unlikely to happen ... ".
Battle of Uvero
Main article: Battle of Uvero
In May 1957, the arrival of the ship Corinthia from the USA (Miami) with reinforcements led by Calixto Sanchez was planned. To divert attention from their landing, Fidel gave the order to storm the barracks in the village of Uvero, 15 km from Santiago. Additionally, this opened up the possibility of exiting the Sierra Maestra to the valley of the province of Oriente. Che took part in the battle for Uvero, and described it in Episodes of the Revolutionary War. On May 27, 1957, headquarters was assembled, where Fidel announced the upcoming battle. Having started the hike in the evening, we walked about 16 kilometers overnight along a winding mountain road, spending about eight hours on the way, often stopping for precaution, especially in dangerous areas. The guide was Caldero, who was well versed in the area of the Uvero barracks and the approaches to it. The wooden barracks was located on the seashore and was guarded by posts. It was decided to surround her in the dark on three sides. The group of Jorge Sotus and Guillermo Garcia attacked a post on the coastal road from Peladero. Almeida was tasked with eliminating the post opposite the height. Fidel positioned himself in the area of the heights, and Raul's platoon attacked the barracks from the front. Che was assigned a direction between them. Camilo Cienfuegos and Ameijeiras lost their direction in the darkness. The task of the attack was made easier by the presence of bushes, but the enemy noticed the attackers and opened fire. Crescencio Perez's platoon did not participate in the assault, guarding the road to Chivirico to block the approach of enemy reinforcements. During the attack, it was forbidden to shoot into residential areas where women and children were present. The wounded casquitos provided first aid, leaving two of their seriously wounded in the care of the enemy garrison doctor. Having loaded a truck with equipment and medicine, we set off for the mountains. Che indicated that two hours and forty-five minutes passed from the first shot to the capture of the barracks. The attackers lost 15 people killed and wounded, and the enemy lost 19 people wounded and 14 killed. The victory strengthened the morale of the detachment. Subsequently, other small enemy garrisons at the foot of the Sierra Maestra were destroyed.
The landing from the Corinthia ended unsuccessfully: according to official reports, all the revolutionaries who landed from this ship were killed or captured. Batista decided to forcibly evacuate local peasants from the slopes of the Sierra Maestra in order to deprive the revolutionaries of the support of the population, but many Guajiros resisted the evacuation, assisted Fidel’s detachment, and joined their ranks.
Further struggle
Relations with local peasants did not always go smoothly: anti-communist propaganda was carried out on the radio and in church services. Peasant Iniria Gutierrez recalled that before joining the detachment, she had heard only “terrible things” about communism, and was surprised by the direction of Che’s political views. In a feuilleton published in January 1958 in the first issue of the rebel newspaper “El Cubano Libre” signed “Sniper”, Che wrote on this subject: “Communists are all those who take up arms, because they are tired of poverty, no matter how This has never happened to this country.” To suppress robberies and anarchy and improve relations with the local population, a discipline commission was created in the detachment, endowed with the powers of a military tribunal. The pseudo-revolutionary gang of the Chinese Chang was liquidated. Che noted: “At that difficult time, it was necessary to suppress with a firm hand any violation of revolutionary discipline and not allow anarchy to develop in the liberated areas.” Executions were also carried out in cases of desertion from the detachment. Medical assistance was provided to the prisoners; Che strictly ensured that they were not offended. As a rule, they were released.
| It is hereby declared that every person who provides information that may contribute to the success of the operation against the rebel groups under the command of Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Crescencio Perez, Guillermo Gonzalez or other leaders will be rewarded according to the importance of the information he communicates; in this case, the reward in any case will be at least 5 thousand pesos.
The amount of remuneration can range from 5 thousand to 100 thousand pesos; the highest sum of 100 thousand pesos will be paid for the head of Fidel Castro himself. Note: The name of the person reporting the information will forever remain confidential. |
Raul Castro with Ernesto Che Guevara in the Sierra del Cristal mountains south of Havana. 1958
Fearing police persecution, Batista's opponents swelled the ranks of the rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Pockets of uprising arose in the Escambray mountains, the Sierra del Cristal and in the Baracoa region under the leadership of the Revolutionary Directorate, the 26th of July Movement and individual communists. In October, in Miami, politicians from the bourgeois camp established the Liberation Council, proclaiming Felipe Pazos interim president. They issued a manifesto to the people. Fidel rejected the Miami Pact, considering it pro-American. In a letter to Fidel, Che wrote: “Once again, congratulations on your application. I told you that your merit will always be that you have proven the possibility of an armed struggle that enjoys the support of the people. Now you are embarking on an even more remarkable path, which will lead to power as a result of the armed struggle of the masses.".
By the end of 1957, rebel troops dominated the Sierra Maestra, but did not descend into the valleys. Food items such as beans, corn and rice were purchased from local farmers. Medicines were delivered by underground workers from the city. Meat was confiscated from large livestock owners and those who were accused of treason, and part of the confiscated meat was transferred to local peasants. Che organized sanitary stations, field hospitals, workshops for repairing weapons, making handicraft shoes, duffel bags, uniforms, and cigarettes. The newspaper El Cubano Libre, which took its name from the newspaper of the fighters for Cuban independence in the 19th century, began to reproduce on the hectograph. Broadcasts from a small radio station began to go on air. Close connections with the local population made it possible to learn about the appearance of casquitos and enemy spies.
Government propaganda called for national unity and harmony as strike and insurrection movements spread in Cuba's cities. In March 1958, the US government announced an arms embargo on Batista's forces, although armament and refueling of government aircraft at the Guantanamo Bay base continued for some time. At the end of 1958, according to the constitution (statute) announced by Batista, presidential elections were to be held. In the Sierra Maestra, no one spoke openly about communism or socialism, and the reforms openly proposed by Fidel, such as the liquidation of latifundia, the nationalization of transport, electric companies and other important enterprises, were of a moderate nature and were not denied even by pro-American politicians.
Che Guevara as a statesman
Che Guevara in Moscow in 1964.
Che Guevara believed that he could count on unlimited economic assistance from “brotherly” countries. Che, as a minister of the revolutionary government, learned a lesson from conflicts with fraternal countries of the socialist camp. Negotiating support, economic and military cooperation, and discussing international policy with Chinese and Soviet leaders, he came to an unexpected conclusion and had the courage to speak out publicly in his famous Algerian speech. It was a real indictment against the non-internationalist policies of the so-called socialist countries. He reproached them for imposing on the poorest countries conditions of exchange of goods similar to those dictated by imperialism on the world market, as well as for refusing unconditional support, including military support, and for refusing the struggle for national liberation, in particular in the Congo and Vietnam. Che knew well the famous Engels equation: the less developed the economy, the greater the role of violence in the formation of a new formation. If in the early 1950s he jokingly signed his letters “Stalin II,” then after the victory of the revolution he was forced to prove: “There are no conditions for the establishment of the Stalinist system in Cuba.”
Che Guevara would later say: “After the revolution, it is not the revolutionaries who do the work. It is done by technocrats and bureaucrats. And they are counter-revolutionaries."
Juanita, who knew Guevara closely, the sister of Fidel and Raul Castro, who later left for the United States, wrote about him in the biographical book “Fidel and Raul, my brothers. Secret History":
Neither the trial nor the investigation mattered to him. He immediately started shooting because he was a man without a heart
In her opinion, the appearance of Guevara in Cuba - "the worst thing that could happen to her" But we should not forget that Juanita went to the United States and collaborated with the CIA.
Che Guevara's last letter to his parents
| Dear old people! I again feel the ribs of Rocinante in my heels, again, dressed in armor, I set off on my way. |
Rebel
Congo
In April 1965, Guevara arrived in the Republic of the Congo, where fighting continued at that time. He had great hopes for the Congo; he believed that the vast territory of this country, covered with jungle, would provide excellent opportunities for organizing guerrilla warfare. A total of more than 100 Cuban volunteers took part in the operation. However, from the very beginning, the operation in the Congo was plagued by failures. Relations with the local rebels were quite difficult, and Guevara had no faith in their leadership. In the first battle on June 29, the Cuban and rebel forces were defeated. Later, Guevara came to the conclusion that it was impossible to win the war with such allies, but still continued the operation. The final blow to Guevara's Congolese expedition was dealt in October, when Joseph Kasavubu came to power in the Congo and put forward initiatives to resolve the conflict. Following Kasavubu's statements, Tanzania, which served as a rear base for the Cubans, stopped supporting them. Guevara had no choice but to stop the operation. He returned to Tanzania and, while at the Cuban embassy, prepared a diary of the Congo operation, beginning with the words “This is a story of failure.”
Bolivia
Rumors about Guevara's whereabouts did not stop in 1967. Representatives of the Mozambican independence movement FRELIMO reported a meeting with Che in Dar es Salaam during which they refused assistance offered to them in their revolutionary project. The rumors that Guevara led partisans in Bolivia turned out to be true. By order of Fidel Castro, the Bolivian communists specifically purchased land to create bases where partisans were trained under the leadership of Guevara. Hyde Tamara Bunke Bieder (also known by her nickname "Tanya"), a former Stasi agent who, according to some information, also worked for the KGB, was introduced into Guevara's circle as an agent in La Paz. Rene Barrientos, frightened by news of guerrillas in his country, turned to the CIA for help. It was decided to use CIA forces specially trained for anti-guerrilla operations against Guevara.
Guevara's partisan detachment numbered about 50 people and acted as the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (Spanish. Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia ). It was well equipped and carried out several successful operations against regular troops in the difficult mountainous terrain of the Kamiri region. However, in September the Bolivian army was able to eliminate two groups of guerrillas, killing one of the leaders. Despite the brutal nature of the conflict, Guevara provided medical care to all wounded Bolivian soldiers who were captured by the guerrillas, and later freed them. During his last battle in Quebrada del Yuro, Guevara was wounded, a bullet hit his rifle, which disabled the weapon, and he fired all the cartridges from the pistol. When he was captured, unarmed and wounded, and escorted to a school that served CIA soldiers as a temporary prison for guerrillas, he saw several wounded Bolivian soldiers there. Guevara offered to provide them with medical assistance, but was refused by the Bolivian officer. Che himself received only an aspirin tablet.
Captivity and execution
The hunt for Guevara in Bolivia was led by Felix Rodriguez, an agent
full name Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna
Latin American revolutionary, comandante of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and Cuban statesman
short biography
Ernesto Che Guevara(Spanish) Ernesto Che Guevara[ˈtʃe ɣeˈβaɾa], full name - Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, Spanish Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna; June 14, 1928, Rosario, Argentina - October 9, 1967, La Higuera, Bolivia) was a Latin American revolutionary and comandante of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and a Cuban statesman.
In addition to the Latin American continent, it also operated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries of the world (the data is still classified as secret). Nickname Che used to emphasize his Argentine origin. Interjection che is a common title in Argentina.
Childhood and youth
Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in the Argentine city of Rosario, in the family of the architect Ernesto Guevara Lynch (1900-1987). Both Ernesto Che Guevara's father and mother were Argentine Creoles. Her paternal grandmother was descended through the male line from the Irish rebel Patrick Lynch. There were also Californian Creoles in my father's family who received US citizenship.
Ernesto Guevara's mother, Celia De La Serna, was born in 1908 in Buenos Aires and married Ernesto Guevara Lynch in 1927. A year later, their first child, Ernesto, was born. Celia inherited a mate (so-called Paraguayan tea) plantation in the province of Misiones. Having improved the situation of the workers (in particular, by starting to pay them wages in money rather than food), Che’s father displeased the surrounding planters, and the family was forced to move to Rosario, at that time the second largest city in Argentina, opening a mate processing factory there. Che was born in this city. Due to the global economic crisis, the family returned to Misiones to the plantation after some time.
In addition to Ernesto, whose childhood name was Tete (a diminutive of Ernesto), the family had four more children: Celia, Roberto, Anna Maria and Juan Martin. All children received higher education.
At the age of two, on May 7, 1930, Tete suffered his first attack of bronchial asthma - this disease haunted him for the rest of his life. To restore the baby’s health, the family moved to the province of Cordoba, an area with a more suitable mountain climate. Having sold the estate, the family purchased “Villa Nidia” in the town of Alta Gracia, at an altitude of two thousand meters above sea level. The father began to work as a construction contractor, and the mother began to look after the sick Tete. For the first two years, Ernesto was unable to attend school and was home-schooled (he learned to read at age 4) because he suffered from daily asthma attacks. After this, he attended, intermittently (due to health reasons), high school in Alta Gracia. At the age of thirteen, Ernesto entered the Dean Funes State College in Cordoba, from which he graduated in 1945, then entered the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires. Father Ernesto Guevara Lynch said in February 1969:
I tried to raise my children comprehensively. And our house was always open to their peers, among whom were the children of wealthy families in Cordoba, and working children, and there were also children of communists. Tete, for example, was friends with Negrita, the daughter of the poet Cayetano Cordoba Iturburu, who then shared the ideas of the communists and was married to Celia’s sister.
Che Guevara's family. From left to right: Che Guevara, mother, sister Celia, brother Roberto, father holding his son Juan Martin and sister Anna Maria
Che Guevara at the age of one, 1929
Ernesto Guevara in Mar del Plata (Argentina), 1943
Ernesto Guevara (first from right) with fellow rugby players, 1947
Hobbies
In 1964, speaking with a correspondent for the Cuban newspaper El Mundo, Guevara said that he first became interested in Cuba at the age of 11, being passionate about chess when the Cuban chess player Capablanca came to Buenos Aires. In the house of Che's parents there was a library of several thousand books. From the age of four, Ernesto, like his parents, became passionate about reading, which continued until the end of his life. In his youth, the future revolutionary had an extensive reading range: Salgari, Jules Verne, Dumas, Hugo, Jack London, and later Cervantes, Anatole France, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gorky, Engels, Lenin, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Karl Marx, Freud. He read social novels by Latin American authors, popular at that time - Ciro Alegria from Peru, Jorge Icaza from Ecuador, Jose Eustasio Rivera from Colombia, which described the life of Indians and workers on plantations, works by Argentine authors - Jose Hernandez, Sarmiento and others.
Young Ernesto read the original in French (knowing this language from childhood) and interpreted Sartre’s philosophical works “L’imagination”, “Situations I” and “Situations II”, “L’Être et le Nèant”, “Baudlaire”, "Qu'est-ce que la litèrature?", "L'imagie." He loved poetry and even composed poems himself. He read Baudelaire, Verlaine, Garcia Lorca, Antonio Machada, Pablo Neruda, and the works of the contemporary Spanish Republican poet Leon Felipe. In his backpack, in addition to the Bolivian Diary, a notebook with his favorite poems was posthumously discovered. Subsequently, a two-volume and a nine-volume collected works of Che Guevara were published in Cuba. Tete was strong in the exact sciences, such as mathematics, but chose the profession of a doctor. He played football at the local Atalaya sports club, playing in the reserve team (he could not play in the first team because he needed an inhaler from time to time due to asthma). He was also involved in rugby (he played for the San Isidro club), equestrianism, was fond of golf and gliding, having a special passion for cycling (in the caption on one of his photographs, given to his bride Chinchina, he called himself “the king of the pedal”). .
In 1950, already a student, Ernesto became a sailor on an oil cargo ship from Argentina and visited the island of Trinidad and British Guiana. Afterwards, he traveled on a moped, which was provided to him by Mikron for advertising purposes, with partial coverage of the travel expenses. In an advertisement from the Argentine magazine El Grafico on May 5, 1950, Che wrote:
February 23, 1950. Seniors, representatives of the Mikron moped company. I am sending you a Mikron moped for testing. On it I traveled four thousand kilometers through twelve provinces of Argentina. The moped functioned flawlessly throughout the entire trip, and I did not find the slightest malfunction in it. I hope to get it back in the same condition.Signed: "Ernesto Guevara Serna"
Che's youthful love was Chinchina (translated as "rattle"), the daughter of one of the richest landowners in the province of Cordoba. According to the testimony of her sister and others, Che loved her and wanted to marry her. He appeared at parties in shabby clothes and shaggy, which was a contrast with the scions of wealthy families who sought her hand, and with the typical appearance of Argentine young men of that time. Their relationship was hindered by Che's desire to devote his life to treating lepers in South America, like Albert Schweitzer, whose authority he bowed to.
Youth and youth
The Spanish Civil War caused significant public outcry in Argentina. Guevara's parents assisted the Committee for the Relief of Republican Spain, in addition, they were neighbors and friends of Juan Gonzalez Aguilar (deputy to Juan Negrin, Prime Minister of the Spanish government before the defeat of the Republic), who emigrated to Argentina and settled in Alta Gracia. The children went to the same school and then to college in Cordoba. Che's mother, Celia, drove them to college every day by car. The prominent Republican General Jurado, who was visiting the Gonzaleses, visited the Guevara family home and talked about the events of the war and the actions of the Francoists and German Nazis, which, according to his father, influenced the political views of the young Che.
During World War II, Argentine President Juan Peron maintained diplomatic relations with the Axis countries - and Che's parents were among the active opponents of his regime. In particular, Celia was arrested for her participation in one of the anti-Peronist demonstrations in Cordoba. In addition to her, her husband also participated in the military organization against the Peron dictatorship; bombs were made in the house for demonstrations. Significant enthusiasm among the Republicans was caused by the news of the USSR's victory in the Battle of Stalingrad.
Travel to South America
Together with the doctor of biochemistry Alberto Granado (friendly nickname - Mial), for seven months from February to August 1952, Ernesto Guevara traveled through the countries of Latin America, visiting Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Granado was six years older than Che. He was from the southern province of Cordoba, graduated from the pharmaceutical faculty of the university, became interested in the problem of treating leprosy and, after studying at the university for another three years, became a doctor of biochemistry. Since 1945, he worked in a leper colony 180 km from Cordoba. In 1941, he met Ernesto Guevara, who was then 13 years old, through his brother Thomas, Ernesto's classmate at Dean Funes College. He began to often visit Che's parents' house and used their rich library. They became friends through their love of reading and arguing about what they read. Granado and his brothers took long mountain walks and built huts on outdoors in the vicinity of Cordoba, and Ernesto often joined them (his parents believed that this would help his fight against asthma).
Guevara's family lived in Buenos Aires, where Ernesto studied at the Faculty of Medicine. At the Institute for the Study of Allergy, he interned under the guidance of the Argentine scientist Dr. Pisani. At that time, Guevara's family was experiencing financial difficulties, and Ernesto was forced to work part-time as a librarian. Coming to Cordoba on vacation, he visited Granado at the leprosarium and helped him in experiments to study new methods of treating lepers. On one of his visits, in September 1951, Granado, on the advice of his brother Thomas, invited him to become a partner on a trip to South America. Granado intended to visit the leper colony various countries continent, become familiar with their work and perhaps write a book about it. Ernesto enthusiastically accepted this offer, asking him to wait until he passed the next exams, since he was in his last year of medical school. Ernesto's parents did not object, provided that he returned no later than a year later - to take his final exams.
On December 29, 1951, having loaded Granado’s badly worn motorcycle with useful items, a tent, blankets, taking a camera and an automatic pistol, they set off. We stopped by to say goodbye to Chinchina, who gave Ernesto $15 and asked him to bring her a dress or swimsuit from the USA. Ernesto gave her a puppy as a farewell gift, calling him Comeback - “Come back”, translated from English (“come back”).
We also said goodbye to Ernesto’s parents. Granado recalled:
Nothing delayed us any longer in Argentina, and we headed to Chile - the first foreign country on our way. Having passed the province of Mendoza, where Che's ancestors once lived and where we visited several haciendas, watching how horses were tamed and how our gauchos lived, we turned south, away from the Andean peaks, impassable for our stunted two-wheeled Rocinante. We had to suffer a lot. The motorcycle kept breaking down and required repair. We didn't so much ride on it as we dragged it on ourselves.
Stopping overnight in the forest or in the field, they earned money for food by doing odd jobs: washing dishes in restaurants, treating peasants or acting as veterinarians, repairing radios, working as loaders, porters or sailors. We exchanged experiences with colleagues by visiting leper colonies, where we had the opportunity to take a break from the road. Guevara and Granado were not afraid of infection and felt sympathy for lepers, wanting to devote their lives to their treatment. On February 18, 1952, they arrived in the Chilean city of Temuco. Local newspaper Diario Austral published an article entitled: “Two Argentine leprosy experts travel around South America by motorcycle.” Granado's motorcycle finally broke down near Santiago, after which they moved to the port of Valparaiso (where they intended to visit the Easter Island leper colony, but learned that they would have to wait six months for the ship, and abandoned the idea), and then on foot, hitchhiking or "hares" ships or trains. We walked on foot to the Chuquicamata copper mine, which belonged to the American company Braden Copper Mining Company, after spending the night in the barracks of the mine guards. In Peru, travelers became acquainted with the life of the Quechua and Aymara Indians, who by that time were exploited by landowners and stifled hunger with coca leaves. In the city of Cusco, Ernesto spent several hours reading books about the Inca Empire in the local library. We spent several days at the ruins of the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru. Having settled down on the sacrificial platform of an ancient temple, they began to drink mate and fantasize. Granado recalled a dialogue with Ernesto:
“You know, old man, let's stay here. I will marry an Indian woman from a noble Inca family, proclaim myself emperor and become the ruler of Peru, and I will appoint you prime minister, and together we will carry out a social revolution.”
Che replied: “You’re crazy, Mial, you can’t make a revolution without shooting!”
From Machu Picchu we went to the mountain village of Huambo, stopping on the way at the leper colony of the Peruvian communist doctor Hugo Pesce. He warmly greeted the travelers, introducing them to the methods of treating leprosy known to him, and wrote a letter of recommendation to a large leper colony near the city of San Pablo in the province of Loreto in Peru. From the village of Pucallpa on the Ucayali River, boarding a ship, the travelers set off to the port of Iquitos on the banks of the Amazon. They were delayed in Iquitos due to Ernesto's asthma, which forced him to go to the hospital for some time. Arriving at the leper colony in San Pablo, Granado and Guevara were cordially received and invited to treat patients in the center's laboratory. The patients, trying to thank the travelers for their friendly attitude towards them, built them a raft, calling it “Mambo-Tango”. On this raft, Ernesto and Alberto planned to sail to the next point on the route - the Colombian port of Leticia on the Amazon.
On June 21, 1952, having packed their belongings on a raft, they sailed down the Amazon towards Leticia. They took a lot of photographs and kept diaries. By carelessness, they sailed past Leticia, which is why they had to buy a boat and return from Brazilian territory. Looking suspicious and tired, both comrades ended up behind bars in Colombia. According to Granado, the police chief, a soccer fan familiar with Argentina's success in the sport, released the travelers after learning where they were from in exchange for a promise to coach the local team. The team won the regional championship, and the fans bought them plane tickets to the country's capital, Bogota. In Colombia at that time there was a civil war, provoked by the forceful suppression of peasant discontent by President Laureano Gómez. Guevara and Granado were again imprisoned, but they were released on a promise to leave Colombia immediately. Having received money for travel from student acquaintances, Ernesto and Alberto took a bus to the city of Cucuta near Venezuela, and then crossed the border across the international bridge to the city of San Cristobal in Venezuela. On July 14, 1952, travelers reached Caracas.
Granado remained to work in Venezuela at the leper colony in Caracas, where he was offered a monthly salary of eight hundred American dollars. Later, while working in a leper colony, he meets his future wife, Julia. Che needed to get to Buenos Aires alone. Having accidentally met a distant relative - a horse trader, at the end of July he went to accompany a shipment of horses by plane from Caracas to Miami, and from there he had to return on an empty flight through Venezuelan Maracaibo to Buenos Aires. However, Che stayed in Miami for a month. He managed to buy Chinchina the promised lace dress, but in Miami he lived almost without money, spending time in the local library. In August 1952, Che returned to Buenos Aires, where he began preparing for exams and his thesis on allergy problems. In March 1953, Guevara received a diploma as a surgeon in dermatology. Not wanting to serve in the army, he used an ice bath to induce an asthma attack and was declared unfit for duty. military service. Having a diploma in medical education, Che decided to go to the Venezuelan leper colony in Caracas to Granado, but in future fate brought them together only in the 1960s in Cuba.
Second trip to Latin America
Ernesto went to Venezuela through the capital of Bolivia, La Paz, by train, which was called the “milk convoy” (the train stopped at all the stops, and there farmers loaded cans of milk). On April 9, 1952, a revolution took place in Bolivia, in which miners and peasants participated. The Nationalist Revolutionary Movement party, led by President Paz Estenssoro, which came to power, paid compensation to foreign owners, nationalized the tin mines, and in addition, organized a police force of miners and peasants, and carried out agrarian reform. In Bolivia, Che visited Indian mountain villages, mining villages, met with members of the government and even worked in the department of information and culture, as well as in the department for the implementation of agrarian reform. I visited the ruins of the Indian sanctuaries of Tiahuanaco, which are located near Lake Titicaca, taking many pictures of the “Gate of the Sun” temple, where the Indians of the ancient civilization worshiped the sun god Viracocha.
In La Paz, Ernesto met lawyer Ricardo Rojo, who persuaded him to go to Guatemala, but Ernesto agreed to be a travel companion only as far as Colombia, since he still had the intention of going to the leper colony in Caracas, where Granado was waiting for him. Rojo flew by plane to the capital of Peru, Lima, and Ernesto took a bus with a fellow traveler, a student from Argentina, Carlos Ferrer, around Lake Titicaca and arrived in the Peruvian city of Cusco, where Ernesto had already been during a previous trip in 1952. After being stopped by border guards (they were confiscated of brochures and books about the revolution in Bolivia), they arrived in Lima, where they met with Rojo. Since it was dangerous to linger in Lima due to the political situation in the country ruled by General Odria, the travelers - Rojo, Ferrer and Ernesto - traveled by bus along the coast Pacific Ocean to Ecuador, reaching the border of that country on September 26, 1953. In Guayaquil, they applied for a visa at the Colombian mission, but the consul demanded that they have air tickets to the capital, Bogota, considering it unsafe for foreigners to travel by bus due to the military coup that had just occurred in Colombia (General Rojas Pinilla overthrew President Laureano Gomez). Without funds for air travel, the travelers turned to a local socialist party leader with a letter of recommendation, which they had from the future President of Chile, Salvador Allende, and through him obtained free tickets for students on the United Fruit Company ship from Guayaquil to Panama.
Guatemala
Influenced by Rojo, as well as press reports of an impending US invasion against President Arbenz, Ernesto travels to Guatemala. By that time, the Arbenz government had passed a law through the Guatemalan parliament that doubled wages for United Fruit Company workers. 554 thousand hectares of landowners' land were expropriated, including 160 thousand hectares of United Fruit, which caused a sharp negative reaction from the Americans. From Guayaquil, Ernesto sent Alberto Granado a postcard: “Baby! I'm going to Guatemala. Then I’ll write to you,” after which the connection between them was interrupted for a while. In Panama, Guevara and Ferrer were delayed because they ran out of money, and Rojo continued on to Guatemala. Guevara sold his books and published a number of reports about Machu Picchu and other historical sites in Peru in a local magazine. Guevara and Ferrer hitched a ride to Costa Rican San Jose, but on the way it overturned due to tropical rain, after which Ernesto, having injured his left hand, had difficulty using it for some time. Travelers reached San Jose in early December 1953. There Ernesto met the leader of the Venezuelan Democratic Action party and the future President of Venezuela Romulo Betancourt, with whom they sharply disagreed, and the future President of the Dominican Republic, writer Juan Bosch, as well as Cubans - opponents of the dictator Batista.
At the end of 1953, Guevara and friends from Argentina traveled from San Jose to San Salvador by bus. On December 24, they reached the city of Guatemala, the capital of the republic of the same name, in passing cars. Having letters of recommendation to prominent figures of the country and a letter from Lima to the revolutionary Ilda Gadea, Ernesto found Ilda in the Cervantes boarding house, where he settled himself. Common views and interests brought the future spouses closer together. Subsequently, Ilda Gadea recalled the impression that Guevara made on her at that time:
Dr. Ernesto Guevara impressed me from the very first conversations with his intelligence, seriousness, his views and knowledge of Marxism... Coming from a bourgeois family, he, having a medical diploma in his hands, could easily make a career in his homeland, as everyone does in our countries specialists who have received higher education. Meanwhile, he sought to work in the most backward areas, even for free, in order to treat ordinary people. But what aroused my admiration most of all was his attitude towards medicine. He spoke with indignation, based on what he had seen in his travels to different countries of South America, about the unsanitary conditions and poverty in which our peoples live. I remember well that we discussed in this connection Archibald Cronin's novel The Citadel and other books that deal with the theme of the doctor's duty to the working people. Referring to these books, Ernesto came to the conclusion that a doctor in our countries should not be a privileged specialist, he should not serve the ruling classes, or invent useless medicines for imaginary patients. Of course, by doing this, you can earn a solid income and achieve success in life, but is this what young, conscientious specialists in our countries should strive for? Dr. Guevara believed that a physician had a duty to dedicate himself to improving the living conditions of the general public. And this will inevitably lead him to condemnation of the government systems that dominate our countries, exploited by oligarchies, where the intervention of Yankee imperialism has been increasing.Ilda Gadea
In Guatemala, Ernesto met with emigrants from Cuba - supporters of Fidel Castro, among whom were Antonio Lopez (Nyiko), Mario Dalmau, Dario Lopez - future participants in the trip on the Granma yacht. Wanting to go as a doctor to Indian communities in a remote area of Guatemala - the Peten jungle, Ernesto was refused by the Ministry of Health, which required him to first undergo the procedure of confirming his medical diploma within a year. Occasional earnings, newspaper articles and book peddling (which, as Ilda Gadea noted, he read more than he sold) allowed him to earn a living. Traveling around Guatemala with a knapsack on his back, he studied the culture of the ancient Mayan Indians. He collaborated with the youth organization “Patriotic Youth of Labor” of the Guatemalan Labor Party.
On June 17, 1954, the armed groups of Colonel Armas from Honduras invaded the territory of Guatemala, the executions of supporters of the Arbenz government and the bombing of the capital and other cities of Guatemala began. Ernesto, according to Ilda Gadea, asked to be sent to the fighting area and called for the creation of a militia. He was part of the city's air defense groups during the bombings and helped transport weapons. Mario Dalmau claimed that “together with members of the Patriotic Youth of Labor organization, he stood guard among fires and bomb explosions, exposing himself to mortal danger.” Ernesto Guevara was included in the list of “dangerous communists” to be eliminated after the overthrow of Arbenz. The Argentine ambassador warned him at the Cervantes boarding house about the danger and offered to take refuge in the embassy, in which Ernesto took refuge along with a number of other Arbenz supporters, after which, with the help of the ambassador, he left the country and traveled by train to Mexico City.
Life in Mexico City
On September 21, 1954, Guevara arrived in Mexico City and settled in the apartment of a Puerto Rican leader of the Nationalist Party, which advocated the independence of Puerto Rico and was outlawed due to the shooting committed by its activists in the US Congress. Peruvian Lucio (Luis) de la Puente lived in the same apartment, who subsequently, on October 23, 1965, was shot dead in a battle with anti-guerrilla “rangers” in one of the mountainous regions of Peru. Che and his friend Patoho, having no stable means of livelihood, made a living by taking photographs in parks. Che recalled this time like this:
We were both broke...Patojo didn't have a penny, I only had a few pesos. I bought a camera and we smuggled pictures into the parks. One Mexican, the owner of a small darkroom, helped us print the cards. We got to know Mexico City by walking the length and breadth of it, trying to sell our unimportant photographs to clients. How much did we have to convince and persuade that the child we photographed had a very cute appearance and that, really, it was worth paying a peso for such beauty. We subsisted on this craft for several months. Little by little our affairs were getting better...
Ernesto and Ilda Gadea on their honeymoon in the Yucatan Peninsula, 1955
Having written the article “I saw the overthrow of Arbenz,” Che, however, failed to get a job as a journalist. At this time, Ilda Gadea arrived from Guatemala and they got married. Che began selling books from the Fondo de Culture Economy publishing house and got a job as a night watchman at a book exhibition, continuing to read books. At the city hospital, he was accepted through a competition to work in the allergy department. He lectured on medicine at the National University, and began to engage in scientific work (in particular, experiments on cats) at the Institute of Cardiology and the laboratory of a French hospital. On August 18, 1955, in the Mexican city of Tepotzotlan, Che married Ilda Gadea. On February 15, 1956, Ilda gave birth to a daughter, who was named Ildita in honor of her mother. In an interview with a correspondent for the Mexican magazine Siempre in September 1959, Che stated:
When my daughter was born in Mexico City, we could register her as Peruvian - through her mother, or as Argentinean - through her father. Both would be logical, since we were, as it were, passing through Mexico. Nevertheless, my wife and I decided to register her as a Mexican as a sign of gratitude and respect for the people who sheltered us in the bitter hour of defeat and exile.
Raul Roa, a Cuban publicist and Batista opponent who later became the long-time foreign minister of socialist Cuba, recalled his Mexican meeting with Guevara:
I met Che one night at the house of his compatriot Ricardo Rojo. He had just arrived from Guatemala, where he first took part in the revolutionary and anti-imperialist movement. He was still acutely upset by the defeat. Che seemed and was young. His image is imprinted in my memory: a clear mind, ascetic pallor, asthmatic breathing, a prominent forehead, thick hair, decisive judgments, an energetic chin, calm movements, a sensitive, penetrating gaze, a sharp thought, speaks calmly, laughs loudly... He has just begun work in the allergy department of the Institute of Cardiology. We talked about Argentina, Guatemala and Cuba, looking at their problems through the prism of Latin America. Even then, Che towered above the narrow horizon of Creole nationalists and reasoned from the position of a continental revolutionary. This Argentine doctor, unlike many emigrants who were concerned only about the fate of their own country, thought not so much about Argentina as about Latin America as a whole, trying to find its “weakest link.”
Preparing an expedition to Cuba
The fate of the avant-garde revolutionary is sublime and sad...
At the end of June 1955, two Cubans came for a consultation to the Mexico City city hospital, to the doctor on duty, Ernesto Guevara, one of whom was Nyiko Lopez, Guevara’s acquaintance from Guatemala. He told Che that the Cuban revolutionaries who attacked the Moncada barracks had been released from the convict prison on Pinos Island under an amnesty and began to gather in Mexico City to prepare an armed expedition to Cuba. A few days later, an acquaintance with Raul Castro followed, in whom Che found a like-minded person, later saying about him: “It seems to me that this one is not like the others. At least he speaks better than others, and besides, he thinks.". At this time, Fidel, while in the United States, collected money for the expedition among emigrants from Cuba. Speaking in New York at a rally against Batista, Fidel said: “I can tell you with full responsibility that in 1956 we will gain freedom or become martyrs.”.
The first meeting between Fidel and Che took place on July 9, 1955 at the safe house of Fidel's supporters. It discussed the details of the upcoming military operations in the Cuban province of Oriente. Fidel claimed that Che at that time “had more mature revolutionary ideas than me. In ideological and theoretical terms, he was more developed. Compared to me, he was a more advanced revolutionary.". By the morning, Che, whom Fidel had impressed, in his words, as an “exceptional person,” was enlisted as a doctor in the detachment of the future expedition.
In September 1955, another military coup took place in Argentina and President Peron was overthrown. Emigrants who were opponents of the overthrown dictator were invited to return to their homeland, which many Argentines living in Mexico City took advantage of. Che refused to return because he was carried away by the upcoming expedition to Cuba.
Mexican Arsacio Vanegas Arroyo owned a small printing house that printed documents from the July 26 Movement, which was headed by Fidel. In addition, Arsacio was engaged in physical training for the participants of the upcoming expedition to Cuba, being an athlete-wrestler: long hikes over rough terrain, judo, for which an athletics hall was rented. Arsacio recalled: “In addition, the guys listened to lectures on geography, history, the political situation and other topics. Sometimes I myself stayed to listen to these lectures. The guys also went to the cinema to watch films about the war.”. Spanish Army Colonel Alberto Bayo, a veteran of the war against Franco and author of the manual “150 Questions for a Partisan,” was involved in the military training of the group. Having initially asked for a fee of 100 thousand Mexican pesos (or 8 thousand US dollars), he then reduced it by half. However, believing in the capabilities of his students, he not only did not take payment, but also sold his furniture factory, transferring the proceeds to Fidel’s group. The colonel purchased the Santa Rosa hacienda, 35 km from the capital, for 26 thousand US dollars from Erasmo Rivera, a former partisan of Pancho Villa, as a new base for training the detachment. Che, while training with the group, taught how to make bandages, treat fractures and wounds, and give injections, receiving more than a hundred injections in one of the classes - one or several from each of the trained group members.
Working with him at Rancho Santa Rosa, I learned what kind of person he was - always the most diligent, always filled with the highest sense of responsibility, ready to help each of us... I met him when he stopped my bleeding after a tooth extraction . At that time I could barely read. And he says to me: “I will teach you to read and understand what you read...” One day we were walking down the street, he suddenly went into a bookstore and with the little money he had, he bought me two books - “Reporting with a Loop on neck" and "Young Guard".Carlos Bermudez
On June 22, 1956, Mexican police arrested Fidel Castro on a Mexico City street. Then an ambush was set up at a safe house. At Rancho Santa Rosa, the police captured Che and some of his comrades. The arrest of the Cuban conspirators and the participation of Colonel Bayo in this case were reported in the press. It subsequently turned out that the arrests were made on a tip from an agent provocateur who had infiltrated the ranks of the conspirators. On June 26, the Mexican newspaper Excelsior published a list of those arrested, including the name of Ernesto Che Guevara Serna, who was described as an "international communist agitator" with reference to his role in Guatemala under President Arbenz.
After our arrest, we were taken to the Miguel Schultz prison, a place where emigrants were imprisoned. There I saw Che. In a cheap transparent nylon raincoat and an old hat, he looked like a scarecrow. And I, wanting to make him laugh, told him what an impression he made... When we were taken out of prison for interrogation, he was the only one handcuffed. I was indignant and told the representative of the prosecutor’s office that Guevara was not a criminal to handcuff him, and that in Mexico even criminals don’t handcuff them. He returned to prison without handcuffs.Maria Antonia
Former Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas, former Minister of the Navy Heriberto Jara, labor leader Lombarde Toledano, artists Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, as well as cultural figures and scientists interceded on behalf of the prisoners. A month later, Mexican authorities released Fidel Castro and the rest of the prisoners, with the exception of Ernesto Guevara and Cuban Calixto Garcia, who were accused of entering the country illegally. After leaving prison, Fidel Castro continued preparations for the expedition to Cuba, collecting money, buying weapons and organizing secret appearances. The training of fighters continued in small groups in various places across the country. The yacht Granma was purchased from the Swedish ethnographer Werner Green for 12 thousand dollars. Che feared that Fidel's efforts to rescue him from prison would delay the sailing, but Fidel told him: “I will not abandon you!” Mexican police also arrested Che's wife, but after some time Ilda and Che were released. Che spent 57 days in prison. The police continued to monitor the Cubans and broke into safe houses. The press wrote with might and main about Fidel's preparations for sailing to Cuba. Due to the increasing frequency of raids and the possibility of handing over the group, yacht and transmitter to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City for an announced reward of 15 thousand dollars, preparations were accelerated. Fidel gave the order to isolate the alleged provocateur and concentrate in the port of Tuxpan in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Granma was moored. Che ran into Ilda’s house with a medical bag, kissed her sleeping daughter, wrote a farewell letter to her parents and left for the port. Ilda soon returned to Peru, later handing over their common daughter Ildita to Guevara.
Departure on the Granma
At 2 a.m. on November 25, 1956, in Tuxpan, the detachment landed on the Granma. The police received a "mordida" (bribe) and were absent from the pier. 82 people with weapons and equipment boarded an overcrowded yacht, which was designed for 8-12 people. At that time there was a storm at sea and it was raining, the Granma, with its lights extinguished, set course for Cuba. Che recalled that “out of 82 people, only two or three sailors, and four or five passengers did not suffer from seasickness.” The ship leaked, as it later turned out, due to an open tap in the lavatory, however, trying to eliminate the ship's draft with the pump out not working, they managed to throw canned food overboard.
You need to have a rich imagination to imagine how such a small vessel could accommodate 82 people with weapons and equipment. The yacht was packed to capacity. People were literally sitting on top of each other. There were only so many products left. In the first days, everyone was given half a can of condensed milk, but it soon ran out. On the fourth day everyone received a piece of cheese and sausage, and on the fifth there were only rotten oranges left.Calixto Garcia
At the Granma, Che suffered from asthma, but, according to Roberto Roque Nunez, he encouraged others and joked. The yacht often went off course; Once, several hours were spent searching for navigator Roberto Roque Nunez, who had fallen overboard from the roof of the captain's cabin. The group's arrival in the village of Niquero near Santiago was scheduled for November 30. On this day, at 5:40 am, Fidel's supporters, led by Frank Pais, seized government offices in the capital and took to the streets, but were unable to keep the situation under control.
Cuban Revolution
First days
The Granma arrived on the shores of Cuba only on December 2, 1956 in the Las Coloradas area of Oriente province, immediately running aground off the coast. A boat was launched into the water, but it sank. A group of 82 people waded to the shore, shoulder-deep in water; We managed to bring weapons and a small amount of food and medicine to land. Boats and planes of units subordinate to Batista rushed to the landing site, which Raul Castro later compared to a “shipwreck,” and Fidel Castro’s group came under fire. Waiting for them were about 35,000 armed soldiers, tanks, 15 coast guard vessels, 10 warships, 78 fighters and transport aircraft. The group made its way for a long time along the swampy coast, which was made up of mangroves. In the middle of the day on December 5, in the area of Alegría de Pio (Holy Joy), the group was attacked by government aircraft. Under enemy fire in battle, half of the detachment’s fighters were killed and approximately 20 people were captured. The next day, the survivors gathered in a hut near the Sierra Maestra.
Fidel said: “The enemy defeated us, but failed to destroy us. We will fight and win this war.". The Cuban peasants warmly received the detachment members and sheltered them in their homes.
Somewhere in the forest, during the long nights (at sunset our inaction began) we made daring plans. They dreamed of battles, major operations, and victory. It was happy hour. Together with everyone else, I enjoyed, for the first time in my life, cigars, which I learned to smoke to ward off annoying mosquitoes. Since then, the aroma of Cuban tobacco has become ingrained in me. And my head was spinning, either from the strong “Havana”, or from the audacity of our plans - one more desperate than the other.
Sierra Maestra
Cuban communist writer Pablo de la Torriente Brau wrote that back in the 19th century, fighters for Cuban independence found a convenient shelter in the Sierra Maestra mountains. “Woe to him who lifts the sword to these heights. A rebel with a rifle, hiding behind an indestructible cliff, can fight here against ten. A machine gunner holed up in a gorge will hold back the onslaught of thousands of soldiers. Let those who would go to war on these peaks not count on airplanes! The caves will shelter the rebels." Fidel and the members of the Granma expedition, as well as Che, were not familiar with this area. On January 22, 1957, at Arroyo de Infierno (Hell's Creek), the detachment defeated a detachment of casquitos (Batista's soldiers). Five casquitos were killed, the detachment suffered no casualties. On January 28, Che wrote a letter to Ilda, which arrived through a trusted person in Santiago.
Dear old woman!I am writing to you these flaming Martian lines from the Cuban manigua. I'm alive and thirsty for blood. It looks like I really am a soldier (at least I’m dirty and ragged), because I’m writing on a camp plate, with a gun on my shoulder and a new acquisition in my lips - a cigar. The matter turned out to be not easy. You already know that after seven days of sailing on the Granma, where it was impossible to even breathe, through the fault of the navigator we found ourselves in stinking thickets, and our misfortunes continued until we were attacked in the already famous Alegria de Pio and were not scattered in different directions like doves. There I was wounded in the neck, and I remained alive only thanks to my feline luck, for a machine-gun bullet hit the box of ammunition that I was carrying on my chest, and from there it ricocheted into my neck. I wandered around the mountains for several days, considering myself dangerously wounded; in addition to the wound in my neck, I also had severe chest pain. Of the guys you know, only Jimmy Hirtzel died, he surrendered and was killed. I, along with your acquaintances Almeida and Ramirito, spent seven days of terrible hunger and thirst, until we left the encirclement and, with the help of the peasants, joined Fidel (they say, although this has not yet been confirmed, that poor Nyiko also died). We had to work hard to reorganize into a detachment and arm ourselves. After which we attacked an army post, we killed and wounded several soldiers, and captured others. The dead remained at the battle site. Some time later, we captured three more soldiers and disarmed them. If you add to this that we had no losses and that we are at home in the mountains, then it will become clear to you how demoralized the soldiers are; they will never be able to surround us. Naturally, the fight has not yet been won, there are still many battles to be fought, but the arrow of the scale is already tilting in our direction, and this advantage will increase every day.
Now, speaking about you, I would like to know if you are still in the same house where I am writing to you, and how you live there, especially “the most tender petal of love”? Hug her and kiss her as hard as her bones allow. I was in such a hurry that I left photographs of you and your daughter at Pancho’s house. Send them to me. You can write to me at my uncle's address and the name Patokho. The letters may be a little delayed, but I think they will arrive.
In February, Che had an attack of malaria and then another attack of asthma. During one of the skirmishes, the peasant Crespo, putting Che on his back, carried him out from under enemy fire, since Che could not move on his own. Che was left in a farmer's house with an accompanying soldier and was able to overcome one of the crossings, holding onto tree trunks and leaning on the butt of a gun, in ten days, with the help of adrenaline, which the farmer managed to get. In the Sierra Maestra mountains, Che, who suffered from asthma, periodically rested in peasant huts so as not to delay the movement of the column. He was often seen with a book or notepad in his hands.
I remember he had a lot of books. He read a lot. He didn't waste a minute. He often sacrificed sleep to read or write in his diary. If he got up at dawn, he started reading. He often read at night by the light of the fire. He had very good eyesight.Marcial Orozco, captain
I am sent to Santiago, and he asks me to bring him two books. One of them is “The Universal Song” by Pablo Neruda, and the other is a collection of poetry by Miguel Hernandez. He loved poetry very much.Calixto Morales
I don’t understand how he could walk; his illness kept choking him. However, he walked through the mountains with a duffel bag on his back, with a weapon, with full equipment, like the toughest fighter. His will, of course, was ironclad, but even greater was his devotion to ideas - that’s what gave him strength.Antonio, captain
Poor Che! I saw how he suffered from asthma, and only sighed when the attack began. He fell silent and breathed quietly, so as not to further disturb the disease. During an attack, some people become hysterical, cough, and open their mouths. Che tried to contain the attack and calm his asthma. He hid in a corner, sat on a stool or on a stone and rested. In such cases, she hurried to prepare him a warm drink.Ponciana Perez, peasant woman
Squad member Rafael Chao claimed that Che did not shout at anyone and did not make fun of anyone, but often used strong words in conversation and was very harsh “when necessary.” “I have never known a less selfish person. If he had only one boniato tuber, he was ready to give it to his comrades".
Throughout the war, Che kept a diary, which later served as the basis for his famous book, Episodes of the Revolutionary War. Over time, the detachment managed to establish contact with the July 26 Movement organization in Santiago and Havana. The detachment’s location in the mountains was visited by activists and underground leaders: Frank Pais, Armando Hart, Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, and supplies were established. In order to refute Batista’s reports about the defeat of the “robbers” - “forajidos”, a correspondent for the New York Times newspaper arrived at the detachment’s location on February 17, 1957. He met with Fidel and a week later published a report with photographs of Fidel and the soldiers of the detachment. In this report he wrote: “It appears that General Batista has no reason to hope to suppress Castro’s rebellion. He can only count on the fact that one of the columns of soldiers will accidentally come across the young leader and his headquarters and destroy them, but this is unlikely to happen ... ".
In May 1957, a ship with reinforcements was planned to arrive from the USA (Miami). To divert attention from their landing, Fidel gave the order to storm the barracks in the village of Uvero, 50 km from Santiago. Additionally, this opened up the possibility of exiting the Sierra Maestra to the valley of the province of Oriente. Che took part in the battle for Uvero and described it in Episodes of the Revolutionary War. On May 27, 1957, headquarters was assembled, where Fidel announced the upcoming battle. Having started the hike in the evening, we walked about 16 kilometers overnight along a winding mountain road, spending about eight hours on the way, often stopping for precaution, especially in dangerous areas. The wooden barracks was located on the seashore and was guarded by posts. During the attack, it was forbidden to shoot into residential areas where women and children were present. They provided first aid to the wounded soldiers and left two of their own seriously wounded in the care of the enemy garrison doctor. Having loaded a truck with equipment and medicine, we set off for the mountains. Che indicated that two hours and forty-five minutes passed from the first shot to the capture of the barracks. The attackers lost 15 people killed and wounded, and the enemy lost 19 people wounded and 14 killed. The victory strengthened the morale of the detachment. Subsequently, other small enemy garrisons at the foot of the Sierra Maestra were destroyed.
Incendiary mixture
Che Guevara created his own recipe for a Molotov cocktail. It consisted of 3/4 parts gasoline and 1/4 oil. Incendiary mixtures were often used by partisans against buildings, light vehicles and enemy infantry. The recipe for Che Guevara's Molotov cocktail was distinguished by its ease of production and availability of components.
The further course of the revolution
Relations with local peasants did not always go smoothly: anti-communist propaganda was carried out on the radio and in church services. In a feuilleton published in January 1958 in the first issue of the rebel newspaper El Cubano Libre, signed “Sniper,” Che wrote about the myths propagated by the ruling regime: “Communists are all those who take up arms, because they are tired of poverty, in no matter what country this happens to.” To suppress robberies and anarchy and improve relations with the local population, a discipline commission was created in the detachment, endowed with the powers of a military tribunal. The pseudo-revolutionary gang of the Chinese Chang was liquidated. Che noted: “At that difficult time, it was necessary to suppress with a firm hand any violation of revolutionary discipline and not allow anarchy to develop in the liberated areas.” Executions were also carried out in cases of desertion from the detachment. Medical assistance was provided to the prisoners; Che strictly ensured that they were not offended. As a rule, they were released.
On June 5, 1957, Fidel Castro allocated a column led by Che, consisting of 75 fighters (for the purpose of conspiracy, it was called the fourth column). Che was awarded the rank of major. In July, Fidel, together with representatives of the bourgeois opposition, signed a manifesto on the formation of the Revolutionary Civil Front, the demands of which included the replacement of Batista with an elected president and agrarian reform, which implied the division of empty lands. Che considered these oppositionists to be "closely connected with the northern rulers."
Raul Castro with Ernesto Che Guevara in the Sierra del Cristal mountains south of Havana. 1958
Fearing police persecution, Batista's opponents swelled the ranks of the rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Pockets of uprising arose in the Escambray mountains, the Sierra del Cristal and in the Baracoa region under the leadership of the Revolutionary Directorate, the 26th of July Movement and individual communists. In October, in Miami, politicians from the bourgeois camp established the Liberation Council, proclaiming Felipe Pazos interim president and issuing a manifesto to the people. Fidel rejected the Miami Pact, considering it pro-American. In a letter to Fidel, Che wrote: “Once again, congratulations on your application. I told you that your merit will always be that you have proven the possibility of an armed struggle that enjoys the support of the people. Now you are embarking on an even more remarkable path, which will lead to power as a result of the armed struggle of the masses.".
By the end of 1957, rebel troops dominated the Sierra Maestra, but did not descend into the valleys. Food items such as beans, corn and rice were purchased from local farmers. Medicines were delivered by underground workers from the city. Meat was confiscated from large cattle dealers and those who were accused of treason. Part of the confiscated goods was transferred to local peasants. Che organized sanitary stations, field hospitals, workshops for repairing weapons, making handicraft shoes, duffel bags, uniforms, and cigarettes. On Che's initiative and under his editorship, the newspaper El Cubano Libre (Free Cuba) began publishing in the Sierra Maestra, the first issues of which were handwritten and then printed on a hectograph.
Since March 1958, the guerrillas have become more active, beginning to operate outside the Sierra Maestra. Since the end of summer, communication and cooperation with the Cuban communists has been established. A general offensive began, during which a column of partisans under the command of Che was tasked with capturing the middle of the island, the province of Las Villas and the key city on the way to Santiago - Santa Clara, uniting and coordinating all anti-Batista forces for this purpose. On August 21, by order of Fidel, Che was appointed “commander of all rebel units operating in the province of Las Villas as in rural areas, and in the cities,” with the assignment of duties to him for collecting taxes and spending them on military needs, administering justice and carrying out the agrarian laws of the Rebel Army, as well as organizing military units and appointing officers. At the same time, he publicly announced: “Those who do not want to take risks can leave the column. He will not be considered a coward." Most expressed their readiness to follow him.
Government propaganda called for national unity and harmony as strike and insurrection movements spread in Cuba's cities. In March 1958, the US government announced an arms embargo on Batista's forces, although armament and refueling of government aircraft at the Guantanamo Bay base continued for some time. At the end of 1958, according to the constitution (statute) announced by Batista, presidential elections were to be held. In the Sierra Maestra, no one spoke openly about communism or socialism, and the reforms openly proposed by Fidel, such as the liquidation of latifundia, the nationalization of transport, electric companies and other important enterprises, were of a moderate nature and were not denied even by pro-American politicians.
By October 16, after a 600-kilometer march and frequent skirmishes with troops, Che's column reached the Escambray Mountains in Las Villas province, opening a new front. It was then that he met his second wife, underground worker Aleida March. One of Che's first actions was to promulgate the law on agrarian reform, which exempted small tenants from payments to the landowner and opened a school, which ensured him the sympathy of the peasantry. From the second half of December, the rebels began a decisive offensive, liberating a new city almost every day. On December 28, the battles for Santa Clara began. In the middle of the day on January 1, the remnants of the garrison capitulated. On the same day, dictator Batista fled the country. On January 2, the partisans, in particular the units under the command of Che Guevara, entered Havana without a fight, where they were warmly welcomed by the population.
Che Guevara after the victory of the Cuban revolution
Since Fidel Castro came to power, repressions against his political opponents began in Cuba. Initially, it was announced that only “war criminals” would be tried - functionaries of the Batista regime directly responsible for torture and executions. The American newspaper The New York Times regarded Castro's public trials as a travesty of justice: “In general, the procedure is disgusting. The defense attorney made absolutely no attempt to defend himself; instead, he asked the court to excuse him for defending a prisoner.” Not only political opponents were subjected to repression, but also the allies of the Cuban communists in the revolutionary struggle - anarchists. After the rebels occupied the city of Santiago de Cuba on January 12, 1959, a show trial was held there of 72 police officers and other persons in one way or another connected with the regime and accused of “war crimes.” As defense counsel began to rebut the prosecution's allegations, presiding officer Raúl Castro declared, “If one is guilty, all are guilty. They are sentenced to death!” All 72 were shot (from 06/14/2017). All legal guarantees against the accused were abolished by the Partisan Law. The investigative conclusion was considered irrefutable evidence of the crime; the lawyer simply admitted the charges, but asked the government to be generous and reduce the punishment. Che Guevara personally instructed the judges: “You shouldn’t create red tape with legal proceedings. This is a revolution, the evidence here is secondary. We must act out of conviction. They are all a gang of criminals and murderers. Also, remember that there is an appeal tribunal.” The appeals tribunal, chaired by Che himself, did not overturn a single sentence.
Executions in the Havana fortress-prison of La Cabaña were personally administered by Che Guevara, who was appointed commandant of the prison and led the appeal tribunal. After Castro's supporters came to power in Cuba, more than eight thousand people were shot, many without trial. .
Soon after the revolution, Che changed his signature: instead of the usual “Dr. Guevara” - “Major Ernesto Che Guevara” or simply “Che”.
On February 9, 1959, by presidential decree, Che was proclaimed a citizen of Cuba with the rights of a native Cuban (before him, only one person had been awarded this honor, the Dominican General Maximo Gomez in the 19th century). As an officer of the rebel army, he was given a salary of 125 pesos (dollars).
Che Guevara as a statesman
The countries where Che Guevara lived or visited are shown in red on the world map. Three countries in green - where he participated in the revolution
From June 12 to September 5, Che Guevara made his first foreign trip as an official, visiting Egypt (where he met and established friendly relations that lasted until the end of his life with Brazilian President Janio Cuadrus), Sudan, Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Burma, Indonesia , Japan, Yugoslavia, Morocco and Spain.
On October 7, he was appointed head of the industry department of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) while retaining the military post of head of the training department of the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
On November 26, he was appointed director of the National Bank of Cuba.
On February 5, 1960, at the opening of the Soviet exhibition of achievements of science, technology and culture, he participated in official negotiations for the first time and met with the USSR delegation led by A. I. Mikoyan.
In May, his book Guerrilla Warfare was published in Havana. As a member of the senior leadership of the July 26 Movement after its merger with the People's Socialist Party and the Revolutionary Directorate of March 13 in the 2nd half of 1961, he entered the newly formed United Revolutionary Organizations (URO) as a member National leadership, Secretariat and Economic Commission of the ORO. After converting ORO to A single party Cuban socialist revolution became a member of its National Leadership and Secretariat.
October 22 - December 19, at the head of a government delegation, he visited the USSR, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, China and North Korea, agreeing on long-term purchases of Cuban sugar and the provision of technical and financial assistance Cuba. On November 7, he attended a military parade and demonstration of workers in Moscow, standing on the Mausoleum.
On February 23, 1961, he was appointed Minister of Industry and part-time member of the Central Planning Council.
April 17, during the landing of anti-Castro forces on Playa Giron, he leads troops in the province of Pinar del Rio.
In August 1961, during negotiations with a representative of the American delegation during a visit to Uruguay, he proposed to compensate American owners for the cost of property confiscated in Cuba, as well as to reduce revolutionary propaganda in Latin American countries in exchange for an end to the blockade and anti-Cuban actions.
During his second visit to the USSR in August 1962, he agreed on cooperation in the military field.
On March 2, 1962, he was appointed a member of the Secretariat and the Economic Commission of the United Revolutionary Organizations (URO), and on March 8 - a member of the National Leadership.
In August-September he heads the party and government delegation of Cuba to the USSR and Czechoslovakia.
When ration cards were introduced in Cuba in 1962, Che insisted that his ration should not exceed that received by ordinary citizens. He took an active personal part in cutting cane, unloading ships, constructing industrial and residential buildings, and landscaping work. In August 1964 he received the certificate of “Shock Worker of Communist Labor” for producing 240 hours of voluntary labor per quarter.
In May 1963, in connection with the transformation of the ORO into the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, he was appointed a member of its Central Committee, the Politburo of the Central Committee and the Secretariat.
On December 11, 1964, he made a big anti-American speech at the 19th UN General Assembly.
Che Guevara believed that he could count on unlimited economic assistance from “brotherly” countries. Che, as a minister of the revolutionary government, learned a lesson from conflicts with fraternal countries of the socialist camp. Negotiating support, economic and military cooperation, and discussing international policy with Chinese and Soviet leaders, he came to an unexpected conclusion and had the courage to speak out publicly in his famous Algerian speech. It was a real indictment against the non-internationalist policies of socialist countries. He reproached them for imposing on the poorest countries conditions of exchange of goods similar to those dictated by imperialism on the world market, as well as for refusing unconditional support, including military support, for refusing the struggle for national liberation, in particular in the Congo and Vietnam. Che knew well the famous Engels equation: the less developed the economy, the greater the role of violence in the formation of a new formation. If in the early 1950s he jokingly signed his letters “Stalin II,” then after the victory of the revolution he was forced to prove: “There are no conditions for the establishment of the Stalinist system in Cuba.” At the same time, in 1965, Che called Stalin a “great Marxist.”
Che Guevara would later say: “After the revolution, it is not the revolutionaries who do the work. It is done by technocrats and bureaucrats. And they are counter-revolutionaries.”
The sister of Fidel and Raul Castro, Juanita, who knew Guevara closely and later left for the United States, wrote about him in the biographical book “Fidel and Raul, my brothers. Secret History":
“Neither the trial nor the investigation mattered to him. He immediately started shooting because he was a man without a heart.”
On March 14, 1965, the Comandante arrived from a long trip abroad to North America and Africa (Egypt) to Havana, and on March 15 he speaks publicly for the last time - with a report on his trip to employees of the Ministry of Industry.
On April 1, he writes farewell letters to his parents and children (in particular, he wrote: “Your father was a man who acted according to his views and undoubtedly lived according to his convictions... Always be able to feel in the deepest way any injustice committed anywhere was in the world") and Fidel Castro (in which, among other things, he renounces Cuban citizenship and all posts and wrote that “now my modest help is needed in other countries of the globe”).
In the spring of 1965 he secretly left Cuba.
Che Guevara's last letter to his parents
Letter to parents (translated by Lavretsky):
Dear old people!
I again feel the ribs of Rocinante in my heels, again, dressed in armor, I set off on my way.
About ten years ago I wrote you another farewell letter.
As far as I remember, then I regretted that I was not a better soldier and a better doctor; the second doesn’t interest me anymore, but I didn’t turn out to be such a bad soldier.
Basically nothing has changed since then, except that I have become much more conscious, my Marxism has taken root in me and has been purified. I believe that armed struggle is the only way out for peoples fighting for their liberation, and I am consistent in my views. Many people would call me an adventurer, and that's true. But I’m just a special kind of adventurer, the kind that risks their own skin to prove that they’re right.
Maybe I'll try this one last time. I am not looking for such an end, but it is possible if we logically proceed from the calculation of possibilities. And if that happens, please accept my last hug.
I loved you deeply, but I didn’t know how to express my love. I am too direct in my actions and I think that sometimes I was misunderstood. Besides, it was not easy to understand me, but this time, trust me. So, the determination that I have cultivated with the passion of an artist will force frail legs and tired lungs to act. I will achieve my goal.
Sometimes remember this modest condottiere of the 20th century.
Kiss Celia, Roberto, Juan Martin and Pototin, Beatriz, everyone.Your prodigal and incorrigible son Ernesto hugs you tightly.
Rebel
Congo
In April 1965, Guevara arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Simba rebellion was ongoing at the time. He had great hopes for the Congo; he believed that the vast territory of this country, covered with jungle, would provide excellent opportunities for organizing guerrilla warfare. A total of about 150 Cuban volunteers, all black, took part in the operation. However, from the very beginning, the operation in the Congo was plagued by failures. Relations with the local rebels, led by the future (in 1997-2001) president of the country, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, were quite difficult, and Guevara had no faith in the local leadership. In the first battle on June 20, the Cuban and rebel forces were defeated. Later, Guevara came to the conclusion that it was impossible to win the war with such allies, but still continued the operation. The final blow to Guevara's Congolese expedition was dealt in October, when Joseph Kasavubu came to power in the Congo and put forward initiatives to resolve the conflict. After Kasavubu's statements, Tanzania, which served as a rear base for the Cubans, stopped supporting them. Guevara had no choice but to stop the operation. At the end of November he returned to Tanzania and, while at the Cuban embassy, prepared a diary of the Congo operation, beginning with the words “This is a story of failure.” " Organizational work is not carried out, mid-level cadres do not do anything, do not know what they should do and do not inspire confidence in anyone... Indiscipline and lack of dedication are the main characteristics of these fighters. It is unthinkable to win a war with such troops... What could we do? All Congolese leaders went on the run, the peasants were increasingly hostile towards us. But the realization that we were leaving the area along the same path that brought us here, abandoning defenseless peasants, was still stunning for us.”
Planning new wars
Rumors about Guevara's whereabouts did not stop in 1965-1967. Representatives of the Mozambican independence movement FRELIMO reported a meeting with Che in Dar es Salaam, during which they refused assistance offered to him in their revolutionary project.
After Tanzania, from February to July 1966, Che was in Czechoslovakia with a changed appearance and under the name of Uruguayan citizen Ramon Benitez (first to be cured of malaria and asthma in a closed sanatorium of the Ministry of Health of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in the village of Kamenice, 30 km south of Prague, then to secret villa of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic State Security Service in the nearby village of Ladvi).
In the spring of 1966, a conference was held in Havana at which the Organization of Solidarity of Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America was founded. Guevara sent a message to the conference with an epigraph “Create two, three... many Vietnams - that’s our slogan”, outlining in it his plans to incite numerous long-term bloody conflicts similar to the war in Vietnam in Asia, Africa and Latin America with the help of “international proletarian armies”. Guevara was not worried about possible victims:
How close and shining the future would be if two, three, many Vietnams appeared on the planet - albeit with their quotas of deaths and immeasurable tragedies...
...the main lesson of the Cuban Revolution and its main leader, a lesson arising from the position they occupy in this part of the planet: “What does the danger that threatens one person or even an entire people mean, what do their sacrifices mean when the fate of humanity is at stake?”
According to Fidel Castro, he did not want to return to Cuba, but Castro persuaded Che to secretly return to Cuba to begin preparations for the creation of a revolutionary center in Latin America. He left Czechoslovakia on July 19, 1966, via Vienna, Zurich and Moscow, in the company of his Cuban associate Fernandez "Pacho" de Oca, posing as an Argentine businessman.
Bolivia
In November 1966, his guerrilla struggle began in Bolivia. By order of Fidel Castro, the Bolivian communists in the spring of 1966 specifically purchased land to create bases where partisans were trained under the leadership of Guevara. Guevara's agent included Hyde Tamara Bunke Bieder (also known as "Tanya"), a former Stasi agent who reportedly also worked for the KGB and had lived and worked in Cuba since 1961. Military operations of the partisan detachment under his command began on March 23, 1967. Rene Barrientos, frightened by news of guerrillas in his country, turned to the CIA for help. It was decided to use CIA forces specially trained for anti-guerrilla operations against Guevara. On September 15, 1967, the Bolivian government began scattering leaflets over the villages of the province of Vallegrande about a $4,200 price on Che Guevara's head.
Throughout his stay in Bolivia (11 months), Che kept a diary almost every day, in which he mainly paid attention to the shortcomings, mistakes, miscalculations and weaknesses of the partisans. Guevara's guerrilla detachment consisted of about 50 people (of which 17 were Cubans, 14 of whom died in Bolivia, Bolivians, Peruvians, Chileans, Argentines) and acted as the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (Spanish. Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia). It was well equipped and carried out several successful operations against regular troops in the difficult mountainous terrain of the Kamiri region. However, in August - September the Bolivian army was able to eliminate two groups of guerrillas, killing one of the leaders, "Joaquin". Despite the brutal nature of the conflict, Guevara provided medical care to all wounded Bolivian soldiers who were captured by the guerrillas, and later freed them. During his last battle in Quebrada del Yuro, Guevara was wounded, a bullet hit his rifle, which disabled the weapon, and he fired all the cartridges from the pistol. When he was captured, unarmed and wounded, and escorted to a school that served government troops as a temporary prison for guerrillas, he saw several wounded Bolivian soldiers there. Guevara offered to provide them with medical assistance, but was refused by the Bolivian officer. Che himself received only an aspirin tablet.
Captivity and death
“There was no man the CIA feared more than Che Guevara, because he had the ability and charisma necessary to lead the fight against the political repression of traditional power hierarchies in Latin America.” - Philip Agee, CIA agent who defected to Cuba .
The main threat posed by Che was that Che Guevara became the "universal soldier" of the revolution: a revolutionary unbound by dogma, territory, the necessity of the objective conditions of the revolution, the class approach and the principles of the communist revolution - all this made the possibilities of exporting revolutions limitless.
Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban refugee turned CIA Special Operations agent, was an adviser to Bolivian troops during the hunt for Che Guevara in Bolivia. Additionally, the 2007 documentary Enemy of My Enemy, directed by Kevin MacDonald, alleges that Nazi criminal Klaus Barbier, known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” was an adviser and may have helped the CIA plot the capture of Che Guevara.
On October 7, 1967, informant Ciro Bustos gave Bolivian special forces the location of Che Guevara's guerrilla detachment in the Quebrada del Yuro gorge (he himself, however, denies this).
On October 8, 1967, a local woman reported to the army that she heard voices on the cascades of the river in the Quebrada del Yuro gorge, closer to where it merges with the San Antonio River. It is unknown whether this was the same woman whom Che's squad had previously paid 50 pesos for silence (Rojo, 218). In the morning, several groups of Bolivian rangers set up along the gorge in which the woman heard Che’s detachment and took up advantageous positions (Harris, 126).
At noon, the unit of Captain (later General) Gary Prado Salmon, who had just completed training under the guidance of CIA advisers, met Che's detachment with fire, killing two soldiers and wounding many others (Harris, 127). At 13:30, they surrounded the remnants of the detachment with 650 soldiers and captured the wounded Che Guevara at the moment when one of the Bolivian partisans, Simeon Cuba Sarabia “Willy,” tried to carry him away. Che Guevara biographer John Lee Anderson wrote about the moment of Che's arrest from the words of Bolivian sergeant Bernardino Huanca: the twice wounded Che, whose weapon was broken, allegedly shouted: “Don't shoot! I am Che Guevara, and I am worth more alive than dead.”
Che Guevara and his men were tied up and escorted on the evening of October 8 to a dilapidated adobe hut that served as a school in the nearby village of La Higuera. For the next half day, Che refused to answer questions from Bolivian officers and spoke only to Bolivian soldiers. One of these soldiers, helicopter pilot Jaime Nino de Guzman, wrote that Che Guevara looked terrible. According to Guzman, Che had a through wound in his right shin, his hair was dirty, his clothes were torn, his legs were dressed in rough leather sock covers. Despite his tired appearance, Guzman recalls, “Che held his head high, looked everyone straight in the eyes and asked only to smoke.” Guzman says he "liked" the prisoner and gave him a small bag of tobacco for his pipe. Later that evening on October 8, despite his hands being tied, Che Guevara slammed Bolivian officer Espinosa against a wall after he entered the school and tried to snatch the pipe from Che's smoking pipe as a souvenir for himself. In another instance of insubordination, Che Guevara spat in the face of Bolivian Rear Admiral Ugartecha as he attempted to question him hours before his execution. Che Guevara spent the night of October 8-9 on the floor of the same school. Next to him lay the bodies of his two killed comrades.
The next morning, October 9, Che Guevara asked to be allowed to see the village schoolteacher, 19-year-old Julia Cortes. Cortez would later say that she found Che "a sweet-looking man with a soft, ironic gaze" and that during their conversation she realized that she "could not look him in the eye" because his "gaze was unbearable, piercing and so calm." During the conversation, Che Guevara told Cortez that the school was in poor condition and it was anti-pedagogical to educate poor schoolchildren in such conditions while government officials drove Mercedes, and stated: “That is precisely why we are fighting against this.”
On the same day, October 9, at 12:30, an order from the high command from La Paz came by radio. The message said: “Proceed with the destruction of Senor Guevara.” The order, signed by the President of the Bolivian military government, Rene Barrientes Ortuño, was transmitted in encrypted form to CIA agent Felix Rodriguez. He entered the room and said to Che Guevara: “Comandante, I’m sorry.” The execution was ordered despite the US government's desire to transport Che Guevara to Panama for further interrogation. The executioner volunteered to be Mario Teran, a 26-year-old sergeant in the Bolivian army, who personally wanted to kill Che Guevara in revenge for his three friends killed in earlier battles with Che Guevara’s squad. To ensure that the wounds fit the story the Bolivian government planned to present to the public, Félix Rodriguez ordered Teran to aim carefully so that it would appear that Guevara had been killed in battle. Gary Prado, the Bolivian general who commanded the army that captured Che Guevara, said the reason for executing the comandante was the high risk of him escaping from prison, and that the execution was overturned by a trial that would have focused world attention on Che Guevara and Cuba. In addition, negative aspects of the Bolivian President’s cooperation with the CIA and Nazi criminals could come to light at the trial.
30 minutes before the execution, Felix Rodriguez tried to ask Che where the other wanted rebels were, but he refused to answer. Rodriguez, with the help of other soldiers, got Che to his feet and took him out of the school to show him to the soldiers and take photos with him. One of the soldiers filmed Che Guevara surrounded by Bolivian army soldiers. Afterwards, Rodriguez took Che back to the school and quietly told him that he would be executed. Che Guevara responded by asking Rodriguez whether he was Mexican-American or Puerto Rican-American, making it clear to him that he knew why he did not speak Bolivian Spanish. Rodriguez replied that he was born in Cuba, but immigrated to the United States and is currently a CIA agent. Che Guevara only grinned in response and refused to talk to him further.
A little later, a few minutes before the execution, one of the soldiers guarding Che asked him if he thought about his immortality. “No,” Che replied, “I think about the immortality of the revolution.” After this conversation, Sergeant Teran entered the hut and immediately ordered all the other soldiers to leave. One on one with Teran, Che Guevara told the executioner: “I know: you came to kill me. Shoot. Do it. Shoot me, you coward! You will only kill a person!” Teran hesitated as Che spoke, then began firing his M1 semi-automatic rifle, hitting Che in the arms and legs. For several seconds, Guevara writhed in pain on the ground, biting his hand to keep from screaming. Teran fired several more times, fatally wounding Che in the chest. According to Rodriguez, Che Guevara's death occurred at 13:10 local time. In total, Teran fired nine bullets at Che: five in the legs, one each in the right shoulder, arm and chest, the last bullet hit the throat.
A month before his execution, Che Guevara wrote an epitaph for himself, which included the words: “Even if death comes unexpectedly, let it be desired, such that our battle cry can reach the ear that can hear, and another hand would reach out to take our weapon".
The body of the shot Guevara was tied to the skids of a helicopter and taken to the neighboring town of Vallegrande, where it was displayed to the press. After a military surgeon amputated Che's hands and placed them in a jar of formaldehyde (to confirm the identification of the victim's fingerprints), Bolivian army officers took the body to an unknown location and refused to say where it was buried.
On October 15, Fidel Castro informed the public of Guevara's death. Guevara's death was considered a heavy blow to the socialist revolutionary movement in Latin America and throughout the world. Local residents began to consider Guevara a saint and addressed him in prayers “San Ernesto de La Higuera”, asking for favors.
1995-1997 search for a mass grave
On July 1, 1995, in an interview with Che's biographer John Lee Anderson, Bolivian General Mario Vargas said that "he participated in Che's burial and that the body of the Comandante and his friends was buried in a mass grave near a dirt airstrip outside the mountain town of Vallegrande in central Bolivia." Anderson's article in the New York Times led to the beginning of a two-year search for the remains of the partisans.
In 1997, the remains of a body with amputated arms were exhumed from under the airstrip near Vallegrande. The body was identified as Guevara's and returned to Cuba. On October 16, 1997, the remains of Guevara and six of his comrades killed during the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia were reburied with military honors in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, where he won the decisive battle for the Cuban revolution.
Family
Father - Ernesto Guevara Lynch (1900, Buenos Aires - 1987, Havana).
Mother - Celia de la Serna y Llosa (1908, Buenos Aires - 1965, Buenos Aires).
Sister - Celia (b. 1929), architect.
Brother - Roberto (b. 1932), lawyer.
Sister - Anna Maria (b. 1934), architect.
Brother - Juan Martin (b. 1943), designer.
First wife (1955-1959) - Peruvian Ilda Gadea (1925-1974), economist and revolutionary. The marriage produced a daughter, Ilda Beatriz Guevara Gadea (1956, Mexico City - 1995, Havana), her son, grandson Che, Canek Sanchez Guevara (1974, Havana - 2015, Oaxaca, Mexico), writer and designer, Cuban dissident emigrated to Mexico in 1996 year.
The second wife (since 1959) is Cuban Aleida March Torres (b. 1936), a fighter of the July 26 Movement. Born in marriage:
- daughter Aleida Guevara March (b. 1960), pediatrician and political activist,
- son of Camilo Guevara March (b. 1962), lawyer, employee of the Ministry of Fisheries of Cuba,
- daughter Celia Guevara March (b. 1963), veterinarian,
- son of Ernesto Guevara March (b. 1965), lawyer.
Memory of Che Guevara
Monuments
- 4-meter monument-statue in Rosario (installed in 2008). The author is sculptor Andres Cerneri.
- 70-centimeter bust monument in Vienna (installed in 2008). The author is artist Gerda Fassel.
- Memorial complex Mausoleum of Che Guevara in Cuba.
- Monument-bust in Vinnitsa (installed in 2008).
Holiday
On October 8, Cuba celebrates the Day of the Heroic Partisan, thus remembering Comandante Guevara and his exploits.
Che Guevara was declared the symbol of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students.
Enterprise named after Che Guevara
A ferronickel plant in Holguin province is named after Che Guevara.
In 2013, the year of the 85th anniversary of the birth of Ernesto Che Guevara, his manuscripts were included in the register of documentary heritage of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.
Image on banknotes
- Che is traditionally, with all monetary reforms, depicted on the front side of the three Cuban pesos bill.
The image of Ernesto in art
Portrait by Fitzpatrick
The world-famous two-color full-face portrait of Che Guevara has become a symbol of the romantic revolutionary movement, but at the moment, according to some, it has largely lost its meaning and has turned into kitsch, which is used in contexts far removed from the revolution. It was created by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick from the photograph “Heroic Guerrilla,” taken at a funeral rally in Havana by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960 at 12:13 p.m. Che's beret bears the José Martí star, a distinctive feature of the Comandante, received from Fidel Castro in July 1957 along with this title.
Alberto Korda made his photograph public domain, but filed a lawsuit for using his portrait in a vodka advertisement.
The image of Ernesto in literature and poetry
Che's image inspired not only revolutionary groups like the Black Panthers and the Red Army Faction (RAF), but also a number of writers. Julio Cortázar wrote the story “Reunion,” which tells the story of the landing of guerrillas on an island in the first person. Although all the characters in the story have fictitious names, some of them are recognizable as real figures of the Cuban revolution, in particular the Castro brothers. The narrator on whose behalf the story is told is easily recognizable as Che Guevara. A quote from the commander's diaries is included in the epigraph of the story.
The spirit of Che Guevara appears in Victor Pelevin’s novel “Generation “P””, where he dictates to the main character a text entitled “Identicalism as the highest stage of dualism” (the title clearly parodies the title of Lenin’s work “Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism”). The text, in particular, says: “Now the words of the Buddha are available to everyone, but salvation finds only a few. This is no doubt due to the new cultural situation that ancient texts of all religions called the coming “dark age”. Companions! This dark age has already arrived. And this is connected primarily with the role that so-called visual-psychic generators, or objects of the second kind, began to play in human life.” Popular song Hasta siempre, Comandante(“Goodbye, Comandante”), contrary to popular belief, was written by Carlos Pueblo before the death of Che Guevara, in 1965 (Carlos Pueblo himself gave the song the epigraph “The first lyrics were written when Fidel read a letter from Che”). The most famous versions are performed by the author, Buena Vista Social Club, Natalie Cardon, Joan Baez. This song was then covered and modified many times. The punk rock band Electric Guerrillas' song "Bolivia" is dedicated to Che's Bolivian campaign.
The circumstances of Che Guevara's stay in Czechoslovakia are described in fictionalized form in the novel by the French writer Jean-Michel Guenassy, “The Amazing Life of Ernesto Che” (2012)
Soviet writers did not ignore Che Guevara either. For example, the poet Dmitry Pavlychko, now considered a classic of Ukrainian literature, wrote a cycle of poems about the Cuban Revolution. One of them begins like this:
In the fog S'erry tank stands
Nemov is a terrible mayor
Hitting Yogo with a grenade
Ernesto Che Guevara!
There is a tank in the fog of the Sierra,
Like a scary ghost.
He was hit with a grenade
Evgeny Dolmatovsky’s poem “The Hands of Guevara” and Evgeny Yevtushenko’s “Cuban Cycle” are also widely known. The group "Pesnyary" also has a song "The Ballad of Che Guevara".
The following lines of the Soviet poet Yaroslav Smelyakov are dedicated to Che Guevara:
He was the responsible person of the poor fatherland,
A minister with an apostolic face and a pirate's beard.
There is no peace for him in anything, this experience is sad,
He locked the hell out of his office and went into the trenches himself.
Descending from the partisan mountains, breathing the midnight heat,
Major Ernesto Che Guevara died in a foreign country.
- Song "In Memory of Che Guevara" Spanish. I. Kobzon finale “Song-81”
- Song "Che Guevara" by the group "Uma2rmaH"
- Song "Happy Birthday, Ernesto!" group "PSHO ProRock"
- Song "Che Guevara" by the group "Lavika"
- Song "Che Guevara" by the group "Corridor"
- Song "Comandante" by the group "NedRa"
- Song “The Adventures of Che Guevara” by the group “Ivan-Kaif”
- In the song of the DDT group “Counter-revolution” there are the lines: “The north wind tears your shadows - Che Guevara, Voltaire, Harry Potter and Lenin”
- In the song “Wind of Freedom” by the group “Two Airplanes” there are lines about the commandant.
- Song “Comandante Che” by Alexander F. Sklyar
- Song “Viva La Revolucion” (study Noggano) by the group Casta (album KhZ)
- Song "Ernesto's Order" by the group "Brutto"
- The song "Che Guevara" by the group "Barto"
- The song “Che Guevara” by the folk group “Tol Miriam” (free translation of the song “Goodbye, Comandante” by Carlos Pueblo)
Films about Ernesto
- "What!" (eng. Che!) (1969) - dir. R. Fleischner, as Ernesto Guevara - Omar Sharif
- doc. film “Tell me about Che” (1988) - dir. P. Richard, filmed in Cuba, the film included memories of people who knew Che Guevara closely, as well as newsreels in which he was captured. Presented at the X Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
- The biographical film “Che Guevara: The Motorcyclist Diaries” (Spanish) is dedicated to the pre-revolutionary stage of Che Guevara’s life. Diarios de motocicleta) (2004, in the role of Ernesto Guevara - Gael Garcia Bernal). During the credits at the end of the film, Che Guevara's son appears performing the song on an acoustic guitar.
- "Che" (Spanish) Che) (2005) - directed by Josh Evans, in the role of Ernesto Guevara - Eduardo Noriega
- doc. The film “I am alive and thirsty for blood. Che." (2005, 2 episodes) - dir. Alexander Chernykh, idea of the project Konstantin Ernst (Channel One)
- doc. film “The Hands of Che Guevara” (Spanish) Las manos de Che Guevara) (2006) - dir. Peter de Kock, about the search for the severed hands of Ernesto Guevara after the execution
- "Che" (Spanish) Che) (2008) - dir. Steven Soderbergh, as Ernesto Guevara - Benicio del Toro (two films about the revolutionary struggle in Cuba and the revolutionary struggle in Bolivia)
In musical culture
Youth music rock festival “Che Guevara Fest”, held annually in Moscow in 2004-2009 by the Independent National Creative Corporation and the Vanguard of Red Youth.
Essays
- Che Guevara E. Obras. 1957-1967. T. I-II. La Habana: Casa de las Americas, 1970. - (Collección nuestra America)
- Che Guevara E. Escritos y discursos. T. 1-9. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1977.
- Che Guevara E. Diario de un combatiente.
- Che Guevara E. Articles, speeches, letters. M.: Cultural Revolution, 2006.
- Che Guevara E. “Episodes of the Revolutionary War” M.: Military Publishing House of the USSR Ministry of Defense, 1974.
- Che Guevara E. Diary of a Motorcyclist. Translation from Spanish by V. V. Simonov. St. Petersburg: RedFish; Amphora, 2005.
- Che Guevara E. Diary of a Motorcyclist. Translation from Spanish by A. Vedyushkin. Cherdantsevo (Sverdlovsk region): IP "Klepikov M.V.", 2005.
- Che Guevara E. Bolivian diary (from 05/14/2013 - story)
- Che Guevara E. Guerrilla warfare
- Che Guevara E. Guerrilla warfare as a method
- Che Guevara E. “Message to the Peoples of the World Sent to the Conference of Three Continents”
- Che Guevara E. Cuba and the Kennedy Plan
- Che Guevara E. Economic views of Ernesto Che Guevara
- Che Guevara E. Speech at the Second Afro-Asian Economic Conference
- Che Guevara E. “Stone (Story)”
- Che Guevara E. “Letter from Che Guevara to Fidel Castro. Havana, April 1, 1965."
- Che Guevara E. Letter to Armando Hart Davalos
- Che Guevara E. University reform and revolution
Ernesto Guevara was born in the city of Rosario (Argentina). This event in the family of a Basque and an Irish woman occurred on June 14, 1928. Ernesto was the first of five children. His parents always supported the Republican Party in the Spanish Civil War. Veterans of the resistance army visited their house several times. This could not but affect young Ernesto. His father repeated more than once that his son was the flesh and blood of Irish rebels.
It is interesting to note that all family members loved to read. About 3,000 books were stored on the shelves. Among them are books by Franz Kafka, Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jules Verne, William Faulkner and many others.
Youth
In 1948, the future national hero of Argentina successfully passed the exams for the medical department at the National University in Buenos Aires. Literally two years later he issued academic leave for an epic trip to Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado. On a motorcycle, two comrades traveled around half of the mainland and saw with their own eyes the main attractions, became acquainted with the amazing nature and different peoples large continent. He wrote down his thoughts and impressions in a diary. Later, these recordings ended up on the front pages of the New York Times under the loud headline “The Motorcycle Diaries.”
Returning to Argentina, 22-year-old Ernesto sat down again - this time to complete his studies, and finally receive his well-deserved doctorate. He achieved his goal in 1953. But with all his thoughts and feelings he was directed to another world - a world of justice and freedom, directly opposite to thriving poverty and lawlessness.
Revolutionary activities
At the end of 1953, Ernesto Guevara moved to Guatemala, where he actively participated in the political and social life of the country. From there, under threat of arrest, he was forced to flee to Mexico. There he met his future wife, Ilde Gadea, who introduced him to the circle of revolutionary-minded emigrants from Liberty Island.
In the summer of 1955, he had a fateful meeting with Raul Castro, who soon introduced him to his brother, Fidel Castro. The latter invited Guevara to join the Cuban revolutionary group to fight the dictatorial regime of Batista. The Argentine agreed without any doubt, because the success of the Cuban uprising is the first step towards victory in the continental revolution. And this was his main dream and goal in life.
Victory
The path to victory was difficult. Some died during the fighting, others were arrested and shot. However, Fidel Castro was supported by most of the country's population. As a result, in the summer of 1958, Batista’s army was completely defeated.
Guevara was awarded the highest military rank - commandant. He became an honorary citizen of Cuba and second in command after Fidel Castro. But the honors didn't change him. He led a modest lifestyle and opposed all sorts of excesses and luxury. But most importantly, he continued to wage his just struggle for equal rights, the eradication of poverty and a new social society throughout the South American continent.
Other biography options
- In a short biography of Ernesto Che Guevara, one cannot help but mention the appearance of the word “Che” in his name. The fact is that the “comandante” often used the interjection “che”, which was literally translated as “friend”.
- In 1962 the world was on the brink nuclear war largely thanks to the efforts of Guevara. It was he who participated in bringing nuclear missiles to Cuba.
- In 1967, Che Guevara was captured and subsequently executed in La Ichera.
