Che Guevara (1928 - 1967)

Thu Jun 14, 1928

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Image: Ernesto Guevara, Argentinian politician, Minister of Industry for Cuba (1961-1965) during an exclusive interview in his office in 1963. Photo credit to Renee Burri [magnumphotos.com]

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, born on this day in 1928, was an Argentine communist revolutionary, physician, military leader, and author who fought in the guerilla war against Fulgencio Batista and helped lead the new communist government.

Ernesto was born to an upper-class Argentine family of pre-independence Spanish (i.e. Basque and Cantabrian) and Irish ancestry. Referring to Che’s restless nature, his father noted “the first thing to note is that in my son’s veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels”.

In 1950 and 1951, he embarked on two continent-wide motorcycle journeys throughout South and Central America, observing poverty and poor working conditions that left a deep impression on his worldview. He later published a memoir of these experiences called “The Motorcycle Diaries”, dubbed by Verso Books as “Das Kapital meets Easy Rider”.

In 1956, Che Guevara sailed to Cuba to aid in the struggle against Batista, narrowly surviving an attack by Batista’s forces after they landed on the island. He became a major figure of the Cuban Revolution, promoted by Fidel Castro to Comandante of a second army column.

Following the Cuban Revolution’s success, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian land reform, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism.

Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.

“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

- Che Guevara

  • redrumM
    6·
    8 days ago

    That video is liberal anti-Che propaganda (e.g.: he not started the Cuban-USA nuclear missile crisis, I’ve stoped the video after that).

    Jon Lee Anderson, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life is usually suggested as one of the best biographies about him.