Che Guevara’s Life: His Words, Facts, And Death

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who was often known as Che. Che Guevara was a Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, and military theorist. Che Guevara was an eminent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution.

Guevara was born on June 14, 1928, into a middle-class family in Rosario, Argentina. He had asthma in his youth but still managed to determine himself as an athlete. He absorbed the left-leaning political views of his family and friends, and by his teens had become politically active, joining a group that opposed the government of Juan Perón.

The Cuban Revolution

Although, as Guevara’s interest in Marxism grew, he decided to leave medicine, accepting that only revolution could bring justice to the people of South America. In 1953, he travelled to Guatemala, where he witnessed the CIA-backed displacing of its leftist government, which only served to deepen his judgments.

In 1955, Guevara was married in Mexico, where he connected Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who was planning the displacing 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. In the next few years, he would present as a primary advisor to Castro and lead their growing guerrilla forces.

Che Guevara’s Books:

• 1952: The Motorcycle Diaries.
• 1963: Our America and Theirs.
• 1963: Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War.
• 1967: The Che Reader.
• 1967: The Bolivian Diary.

Che Guevara’s Death:

On October 9th, 1967, Bolivian soldiers put Che Guevara to death. Bolivian soldiers instructed, attired, and escorted by U.S. Green Beret and CIA operatives. His implementation remains a historic and debatable event; and thirty years later, the occurrences of his guerrilla foray into Bolivia, his capture, killing, and burial are still the concern of public interest and debate around the world. The third sentence of a front-page New York Times article warned, “Mr. Guevara, 39 years old, has been reported killed or captured before.”

That caution was warranted, such as the legend of Guevara, whose symbolism was growing only more powerful. As his image evolved from an emblem of leftist movements to a more general badge of defiance, it was harnessed as a marketing tool. Later, many marvelled at how, in death, the communist revolutionary had been put to work for capitalism.

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.”

“I don’t care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.”

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.”

“I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. It exists when people liberate themselves.”

“Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead.”

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• He was part Irish.
• Guevara was passionate about playing rugby.
• He loved poetry.
• His nickname comes from a dialectical tic.
• He studied medicine.
• Two treks shaped his early political identity.
• A coup hardened his violent stance against the United States as an imperialist power.
• He was head of the national bank in Cuba.
• Guevara assisted in armed revolutions in 3 countries.
• His remains were missing until 1997.