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Ernesto Che Guevara, 1928-67
Che Guevara was a legend even before his death. A
revolutionary hero, Marxist Guerrilla and pop icon, Guevara's
reputation and image have endured as one of the most powerful
of the 20th century. Alberto Korda's photograph has
been used worldwide. Swatch made a Che watch,
Rage Against The Machine used his photo on an album
cover, endless posters and flyers adorn walls everywhere from
Havana to Beverley Hills; Mike Tyson and Diego Maradonna
have Che tattoos on their arms.
In Cuba, Che Guevara is more than a hero, he has the status
of a saviour of epic proportions and the Cuban's make sure
that the legacy of Che lives on. In Santa Clara, the
university is named after the revolutionary and everyone must
read Che studies. Extraordinary admiration reflects an extraordinary
life.
Revolting Child
Che was born in Argentina in the town of Rosario in
1928. Che's endless suffering with severe asthma did not thwart
an enduring passion for literature and a growing compassion
for the welfare of others during childhood. Che read Freud
before he was twelve and both his mother and father encouraged
Che to read Engels and Marx. Che was also becoming
an activist at an early age; when the light and power workers
striked over pay in Che's local province, he organised a "sling-shot"
gang to destroy every street light in town overnight. Che
was only eleven at the time.
Che made the first of several journeys through Latin America
when he was only thirteen, deciding to travel around Argentina
before high school. Che's Marxist ideals, his ability to captivate
those around him continued through school, until in 1947 aged
nineteen Che entered Buenos Aires medical school
to become a doctor. Not only did Che graduate in 1953, but
in three years instead of the usual six. In this time Che
had also left his studies on numerous occasions to travel
Latin America. The most famous of these trips immortalised
in the 'Motorcycle Diaries' in which Che and his friend
Alberto Granados set off around Latin America in 1952
on a 500cc Norton called 'La Poderosa' - "The Powerful
One".
Revolutionary Road Trip
It was during the years that Che spent at university and
travelling across South America that he began to formulate
his ideas of Nationalism, Marxism and Revolutionary Change.
In 1954, after visiting many countries in the throws of social
change throughout Latin America, Che was forced to escape
to Mexico after the radical government of Jacobo Arbenz was
overthrown by the American backed Castillo Armas. In
Mexico, Che met Fidel Castro (current president of
Cuba) in the summer of 1955. Fidel Castro was the leader of
the Cuban revolutionaries, the exiles from the 26th July movement.
Castro invited Che to join them as a fighting doctor. The
Guerrillas landed in Cuba on the 2nd December 1956, and fighting
began immediately. In January 1959 the Cuban revolutionaries
were victorious, and Ernesto Che Guevara was now Commandante
of the Cuban Revolutionary Army - the highest rank. Guevara
was already a hero when he marched into Havana and he was
made a Cuban citizen in 1959. Che began to travel the globe
again, to Asia, Africa and Europe, exporting the new revolutionary
foreign Policy. In 1960, Che visited Russia, China, Korea
and Czechoslovakia, constantly developing ideas of socialism
abroad and fostering relationships between Cuba and like-minded
thinkers around the globe.
In was in 1960 that the now infamous Bay of Pigs invasion,
organised by the CIA, was repelled by Che and Cuban army.
Dutifully, Che had returned to once again pick up a gun against
Cuba's enemies. Throughout the early sixties Che campaigned
in Cuba and abroad for the socialists ideals that he believed
in.
By 1965 Cuba was well on the way to social reform. Che left
to organise similar revolutions elsewhere around the world,
and called for "twenty new Vietnams". Che travelled
extensively again in the Congo, Latin America and Vietnam
and finally reached Bolivia in 1967 where he was killed by
the Bolivian Army.
The Cult of Che
The death of Che remains shrouded in mystery and perhaps
the real chain of events surrounding his death will never
be known. His hands were allegedly removed so that the body
could not be identified in an attempt to prevent Che's burial
place becoming a shrine to future revolutionaries. In 1997
Che's body was brought to Cuba where he is now buried in Santa
Clara.
Che Guevara became a hero not only in Cuba, but also the
world. In America even before his death in 1967, Che was an
icon for those campaigning for an end to war in Vietnam. Students
wept in American campuses when news spread of his death.
To this day Che Guevara remains one of the most inspirational
and enigmatic characters of the 20th century and, alongside
Karl Marx, one of the greatest influences on Socialism, Communism
and the power of the workers to affect true social change.
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