Ernesto 'Che' Guevara sits at a desk, holding a cigar, the late 1950s. (Photo by Pictorial Parade)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1952
Santa Clara, Cuba
Ernesto Che Guevara during the battle of Santa Clara. (Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1955
Che Guevara gives a press conference, Photograph, 1955 (Photo by Imagno)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1958
Che Guevara (Photo by Popperfoto)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1959
Ernesto Che Guevara (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1959
Ernesto Che Guevara (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1959
Che Guevara (Photo by Joseph Scherschel)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1959
Che Guevara, Manuel Urrutia and Camilo Cienfuegos during celebration of Fidel Castro's rebel victory. (Photo by Joseph Schersche)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1959
Che Guevara (Photo by Lee Lockwood)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1960
Che Guevara with ABC news correspondent Lisa Howard. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1960
Havana, Cuba
From left, Cuban revolutionaries, Premier Fidel Castro and National Bank President Ernesto Che Guevara (center), share a laugh with a Russian politician and Soviet First Deputy Chairman Anastas Mikoyan (1895 - 1978) (right) who was on a state visit, Havana, Cuba, 1960. (Photo by PhotoQuest)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1961
Punta De Este, Uruguay
Ernesto Che Guevara
Gallery of Che Guevara
1961
Punta De Este, Uruguay
Che Guevara
Gallery of Che Guevara
1961
Soroa, Cuba
Che Guevara in Soroa in the Pinar del Rio Province (Cuba). In 1961. (Photo by adoc-photos)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1962
Che Guevara (Photo by Alan Oxley)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1962
Che Guevara (Photo by Alan Oxley)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1964
Ernesto Che Guevara (Photo by Bob Parent)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1964
(R-L) Che Guevara, Cuban hero, and Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, sitting on viewing platform during July 26th celebration of the revolution. (Photo by Lee Lockwood)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1964
New York, New York, USA
Che Guevara appears on the CBS current affairs program Face the Nation, New York, New York, December 14, 1964. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1964
New York, New York, USA
Che Guevara appears on the CBS current affairs program Face the Nation, New York, New York, December 14, 1964. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1967
Ernesto Che Guevara (1928 - 1967). (Photo by Central Press)
Gallery of Che Guevara
1967
Bolivia
Che Guevara (1928 - 1967, second from left) with fellow members of the ELN (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional de Bolivia, or National Liberation Army of Bolivia) at Nancahuazu Camp in the Bolivian jungle, 1967. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
From left, Cuban revolutionaries, Premier Fidel Castro and National Bank President Ernesto Che Guevara (center), share a laugh with a Russian politician and Soviet First Deputy Chairman Anastas Mikoyan (1895 - 1978) (right) who was on a state visit, Havana, Cuba, 1960. (Photo by PhotoQuest)
(R-L) Che Guevara, Cuban hero, and Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, sitting on viewing platform during July 26th celebration of the revolution. (Photo by Lee Lockwood)
Che Guevara (1928 - 1967, second from left) with fellow members of the ELN (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional de Bolivia, or National Liberation Army of Bolivia) at Nancahuazu Camp in the Bolivian jungle, 1967. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
(Guerrilla Warfare by the revolutionary Che Guevara has be...)
Guerrilla Warfare by the revolutionary Che Guevara has become the guidebook for thousands of guerrilla fighters in various countries around the world. Guevara intended it to be a manual on guerrilla warfare, as inspiration for revolutionary movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, stressing the need for an underpinning political motivation to guerrilla methods, organization, and supply. Guevara emphasizes that guerrilla warfare is a favorable method against totalitarian regimes, where political opposition and legal civil struggle is impossible to conduct.
(The young Che Guevara’s lively and highly entertaining tr...)
The young Che Guevara’s lively and highly entertaining travel diary, now a popular movie and a New York Times bestseller. This new, expanded edition features exclusive, unpublished photos taken by the 23-year-old Ernesto on his journey across a continent, and a tender preface by Aleida Guevara, offering an insightful perspective on the man and the icon.
Che Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, and diplomat. He dedicated his life to bring about the downfall of imperialism and the establishment of socialism. It is through his relentless work that he became the countercultural symbol of rebellion and revolution. He aided Fidel Castro in overturning the Batista government during the late 1950s and then held key political offices during Castro's regime.
Background
Ethnicity:
Che Guevara had Spanish-Argentinian, Basque, Spanish-Mexican, Spanish-Chilean, and 1/64th Irish, ancestry.
Che Guevara was born on June 14, 1928, in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina, into a middle-class family of Celia de la Serna y Llosa and Ernesto Guevara Lynch. His family was somewhat aristocratic and could trace their lineage to the early days of Argentine settlement. The oldest child in the family, Guevara had four younger brothers and sisters.
Both his father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, a part-Irish civil engineer, and his mother, Celia de la Serna, came from prominent well-to-do families, and both held left-wing political views. Celia and Ernesto brought up their children in a bohemian, financially precarious environment. Freedom of thought and action was encouraged.
As a toddler, Guevara, who was called Tete by his family, began experiencing severe asthma attacks, a condition that plagued him throughout his life. Hoping that an improved climate would help his condition, Guevara's father moved the family to the mountain resort town of Alta Garcia, near Córdoba, where Guevara spent his childhood.
Education
At a young age, Ernesto was introduced to many political perspectives, primarily that of the leftists. This left a deep impact on the mind of this budding revolutionary. He developed an affinity for reading and was known to be a voracious reader. During his early days, he read the works of various revolutionaries and political leaders of the world, including Karl Marx, William Faulkner, Andre Gide, Emilio Salgari, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Albert Camus among others.
Due to his health, as a young child, Guevara was schooled at home by his mother, with whom he remained very close throughout his life. Although suffering from asthma, he excelled as an athlete and a scholar. In his late teens, Guevara went to look after his grandmother in Buenos Aires. She was elderly and did not survive long. After graduating from high school with honors at the age of 19, he enrolled in medical school at the University of Buenos Aires. A decision that may have been prompted by his frustration at being powerless to keep his grandmother alive.
He was a believer in the idea that a patient's state of mind is as important as the medicine he or she is given. He remained very close to his mother and stayed fit through exercise, although his asthma continued to plague him. He decided to take a vacation and put his studies on hold. He embarked on two long journeys; a 4500km solo bicycle journey through the rural provinces of Northern Argentina in 1950, and a nine-month, 8,000-kilometer continental motorcycle trek through most of South America with his friend Alberto Granado in 1951.
These two journeys played an instrumental role in changing his views of himself and the then prevailing economic conditions. He was baffled by the ruthless exploitation of the poor and amazed at the friendliness prevailing amongst desperate people. The notes taken during the two trips evolved to form a book titled The Motorcycle Diaries. The book became a New York Times bestseller. By October of 1952 Guevara was back at the university in Buenos Aires. Guevara submitted a thesis on allergies, passed his qualifying medical examinations, and was awarded his medical degree in the spring of 1953.
Upon receiving a degree in medicine in 1953, Guevara embarked on another journey, which further strengthened his views against capitalism and the need to save the world from it. He became politically active, first in Argentina and later in Bolivia and Guatemala. Rather than providing medical services the poor could never afford, Guevara decided to commit his life to assist the disadvantaged and the oppressed. Always restless and adventuresome and wanting to avoid required military service in Perón's army, Guevara set out for Bolivia to witness the work of the country's infant revolutionary government.
However, he soon moved on and spent the next two years traveling through Central America, including stops in Ecuador, Panama, and Costa Rica, before landing in Guatemala, where he witnessed the Central Intelligence Agency-backed overthrow of its leftist government, which only served to deepen his convictions. It was about this time that he acquired his nickname "Che," an Argentine expression meaning (more or less) "hey there." When the Central Intelligence Agency overthrew Arbenz, Che tried to join a brigade and fight, but it was over too quickly. Che took refuge in the Argentine Embassy before securing safe passage to Mexico.
Guevara spent much of the following two months holed up in the embassy studying the works of Marx and Lenin. Whereas his experience in the leper colony had pushed him to take up the cause of the poor, his experience in Guatemala led him to affirm armed conflict as the only means to bring about significant social change and liberation from the grip of imperialist forces. Deeply troubled by the poverty and the exploitation of the poor, he resolved to fight for a better world. It was in 1955 that he was introduced to Cuban revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro. The two joined hands to work against imperialism.
Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl were planning the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's government. When their small armed forces landed in Cuba on December 2, 1956, Guevara was with them and among the few that survived the initial assault. Over the next few years, he would serve as a primary advisor to Castro and lead their growing guerrilla forces in attacks against the crumbling Batista regime.
Che had been looking for a way to strike a blow against the imperialism of the United States that he had seen firsthand in Guatemala and elsewhere in Latin America; he eagerly signed on for the revolution, and Fidel was delighted to have a doctor. At this time, Che also became close friends with fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos. Che was one of 82 men who piled onto the yacht Granma in November 1956.
The Granma, designed for only 12 passengers and loaded with supplies, gas, and weapons, barely made it to Cuba, arriving on December 2. Che and the others made for the mountains but were tracked down and attacked by security forces. Fewer than 20 of the original Granma soldiers made it into the mountains; the two Castros, Che, and Camilo were among them. Che had been wounded, shot during the skirmish. In the mountains, they settled in for a long guerrilla war, attacking government posts, releasing propaganda, and attracting new recruits.
Over the next two years, Castro conducted guerrilla warfare, and Guevara served as his main ideologist. While Castro sought only to liberate his homeland, Guevara envisioned the struggle as one of many battles that would take place in the worldwide war against oppression and domination. As Castro prepared for a final offensive against Batista's forces, he placed Guevara in charge of the Eighth Column, with orders to move through the middle of the island and divide the government forces.
In a fierce and decisive battle at Santa Clara, Guevara's troops overcame their opponents, causing Batista to flee the country on New Year's Eve of 1956. Guevara was among the first of the rebel troops to enter triumphantly into Havana on January 4, 1959, and claim the capital for the revolutionary forces.
In November of 1959, Castro selected Guevara as president of the National Bank of Cuba, a position he held until February of 1961 when he became the head of the Ministry of Industry. Despite his familiarity with Marxist theory, Guevara had no practical experience in finance, economics, or government. Nonetheless, his objective was clear: move Cuba's economy away from its dependence on the export of sugar in general and its dependence on sales to the United States in particular.
In 1961, he visited China and the Soviet Union and was mainly responsible for the Soviet-Cuban relationship. He criticized the Soviet bureaucracy. After some time, he resigned from his governmental duties to resume his work as a revolutionary abroad. In 1965, he left Cuba to set up guerrilla troops, first in Congo and later in Bolivia. The following year, he tried to convince the people of Bolivia to rebel against the government but met with little success. However, after just six months, frustrated by the lack of success, commitment, and coordination, Guevara quietly returned to Cuba in March of 1966.
When Che had left, Fidel read a letter to all of Cuba in which Che declared his intention to spread revolution, fighting imperialism wherever he could find it. Despite Che's revolutionary credentials and idealism, the Congo venture was a total fiasco. Kabila proved unreliable, Che and the other Cubans failed to duplicate the conditions of the Cuban Revolution, and a massive mercenary force led by South African "Mad" Mike Hoare was sent to root them out. Che wanted to remain and die fighting as a martyr, but his Cuban companions convinced him to escape. All in all, Che was in Congo for about nine months and he considered it one of his greatest failures.
During the next six months, Guevara organized a group of Cuban guerrillas in preparation for a liberation movement in Bolivia. Guevara's plan was to follow his own guerrilla warfare strategy, as outlined in Guerrilla Warfare. He hoped to use his small army to incite a revolution in Bolivia. Once victory was achieved there, he would establish a base for operations from which he could branch out across South America, spreading revolution and liberation throughout the continent. The entire operation was, however, an abysmal failure.
First, Guevara and his Cuban troops never secured the trust of the Bolivian peasantry and consequently enlisted few recruits. Second, Guevara's staunch adherence to theoretically pure socialism allowed no room for compromise with the Bolivian Communist Party, which subsequently withdrew from Guevara's movement. Third, Castro ceased to support his friend when it became increasingly clear that Guevara's plans would not succeed. Finally, Guevara was in poor health and out of medical supplies. His asthma was plaguing him and his weight dropped below 100 pounds. Perhaps as a result of his ill health, the seasoned military tactician made numerous strategic errors in judgment.
Guevara's Bolivian revolution ended after 18 months of warfare with the Bolivian army and United States Army Rangers. Going against his own training manual, Guevara divided his forces in two with the intent of regrouping, but the two divisions lost track of each other and wandered for months trying to reunite. On August 31, 1967, one group encountered government forces, which won a decisive battle, leaving Guevara and his smaller contingent with no hope for reinforcements.
On October 8, 1967, Guevara and his remaining men were surrounded by the Bolivian army in a canyon at Quebrada del Yuro. In the ensuing battle, Guevara was seriously injured and captured. He was taken to the town of La Higuera and interrogated. The next day he was executed. After Guevara’s execution, the Bolivian army cut off his hands as proof that they’d killed him. They were preserved in formaldehyde and sent to Argentina for identification (his fingerprints were already on record in Argentina). Eventually, the hands were sent to Cuba, where Fidel Castro had proclaimed three days of mourning in the wake of Guevara’s death.
The rest of his body was taken away, with no indication as to whether it had been buried or cremated. In the 1990s, a year-long search for his remains unearthed him in a mass grave with six other bodies. When Guevara was identified by his teeth (as well as the small tobacco pouch that one of the Bolivian soldiers had given him), he and his fellow grave-neighbors were sent back to Cuba and given full military burials in Santa Clara, the site of Guevara’s great military victory.
(The young Che Guevara’s lively and highly entertaining tr...)
1995
Politics
During his time studying medicine, Che embarked on two trips through South America - a solo journey in 1950 on a motorized bicycle and an 8000-mile trek that started on a vintage motorcycle with friend Alberto Granado in 1952. On these trips, he saw intense poverty and the exploitation of workers and farmers. After witnessing "the shivering, flesh-and-blood victims of capitalist exploitation," Che was determined to fight the system.
Contrary to popular belief, Guevara did not identify as Communist. When he was asked about the Cuban ideology in 1960, Guevara replied that he identified the revolution as Marxist rather than Communist. Essentially, Marxism is a socialist philosophy that is the antithesis of capitalism. While capitalism focuses on private ownership and a free, competitive market motivated by profit, Marxism takes a more communal approach. It focuses on public ownership as the means of production, distribution, and exchange.
Views
Perhaps the most intriguing component of Guevara's socialist philosophy was his revolutionary humanism. Guevara believed a true revolutionary was someone who felt the problems of mankind as deeply as his own. If a man was killed somewhere else in the world, that death should matter to every human being.
Representing Cuba on the international stage in 1964, Guevara attacked the United Nations for supporting racism. In an hour-long speech, Guevara denounced the United Nations’ refusal to confront apartheid in South Africa, and he also criticized the United States for the way that they treated their black population, seeing it as further proof that imperialism and capitalism had to be opposed.
As Castro and his followers took charge of Cuba, Guevara found a lot of things that needed to change on the island. He blamed outdated attitudes towards women, race, and individualism on the history of capitalism. He urged the Cuban population to embrace a new set of ideals based on gender-blindness, non-materialism, anti-imperialism, and egalitarianism.
Quotations:
"I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man."
"If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine."
"I will fight with all the weapons within my reach rather than let myself be nailed to a cross or whatever."
"A country that does not know how to read and write is easy to deceive."
"The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love."
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves."
"I would rather die standing up to live life on my knees."
Personality
According to his first wife, Guevara was obsessed with the poverty he witnessed all around him, and deeply wished to make the world better for them. One particular person who tugged at Guevara’s heartstrings was a poor, elderly washerwoman who was one of his patients. He apparently said that she was "representative of the most forgotten and exploited class." He even wrote a poem dedicated to this washerwoman, promising to make a better world for people like her.
One of Guevara’s first passions was reading. His family owned thousands of books, which only fueled his knowledge. He memorized poems by Rudyard Kipling and José Hernández, and he spent his early life reading books by such diverse authors as William Faulkner, Karl Marx, Jules Verne, Emilio Salgari, Robert Frost, Jorge Icaza, and Franz Kafka.
Chess was one of Guevara’s lesser-known passions. The young Guevara even participated in tournaments, displaying a rare talent for the game. This sense of strategy later came to great use when he joined the revolution.
Just before he was executed, Guevara was asked about other rebels in the area, but he refused to answer. When Mario Teran approached him, Guevara was said to have stood up and declared "I know you’ve come to kill me. Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man!" Teran shot him nine times in the arms, legs, and chest, all while Guevara reportedly bit into one of his wrists to avoid screaming.
Quotes from others about the person
"The most complete human being of our time."- Jean-Paul Sartre
Interests
Chess
Philosophers & Thinkers
Karl Marx
Politicians
Vladimir Lenin
Writers
Walt Whitman, John Keats, Pablo Neruda, Cesar Vallejo, Nicolás Guillén, Rudyard Kipling, José Hernández, William Faulkner, Jules Verne, Emilio Salgari, Robert Frost, Jorge Icaza, Franz Kafka
Sport & Clubs
Rugby, football, golf, swimming
Connections
Che Guevara married Hilda Gadea in 1955. The couple was blessed with a child. However, the relationship did not last long, and the two got separated in 1959 after he informed Gadea about his relationship with Aleida March. He then married Aleida March on June 2, 1959. The couple had four children.