Ernesto+Guevara

**Introduction** // "Hasta la victoria, siempre! ." - // Ernesto "Che" Guevara (from [|Che-Lives.com] ). This is how Che signed his letters and closed his speeches. What Che means by "Until Victory, Always!" is that he will never give up until he succeeds. This is partly why most Cubans love and idolize Ernesto. Che has his own pros and cons, mostly pros. I will be talking about these in the next four sections //.//

**Personal Background** Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He was born into a middle class family, the eldest of five children, and is of Spanish-Irish descent. Late 1951 he started traveling with his friend, Alberto Granado Jimenez, on a rickety old motorcycle named //La Poderosa// through South America. Along the way he started keeping notes of what he did and where he went with Alberto and his motorcycle. Which he later made into a book named //The Motorcycle Diaries.// When arriving in Caracas, Venezuela they parted ways. (Minster). Che states “We were just a pair of vagabonds with knapsacks on our backs” (Rohter).

Che was killed on October 09, 1967 in a Bolivian town named San Ernesto de la Higuera. He was buried along with six comrades, outside a town named Vallegrande. This information was kept a secret to deny that he left a place of pilgrimage for his followers. His remains had been missing for 30 years due to the information being kept secret. Guevara’s hands were amputated from his corpse and were preserved in formaldehyde (Rohter).

They later found a coffin with a skeleton and with out the hands, which led to finding his remains. The coffin with his remains was displayed inside the monument to Jose Marti, father of Cuban independence. His remains were finally laid to rest once again on October 17, 1997 in the provincial capital of Cuba. 150 miles east of Havana, Cuba in which he scored a victory in the struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He also establishsed a military victory there, which established his reputation (Rohter).

**Personality Traits** Che Guevara was an asthmatic child, but that did not stop him from being an active kid. In 1947, he began medical school and became a medical student at the age of 23 (Rohter). In 1953, he had completed his medical studies and was now a Physician and revolutionary. He then became a theoretician and tactician on guerrilla warfare. Che also became a communist figure in Cuba and a guerrilla leader in South America (Minster).

Guevara and Alberto were normal people, but they were also idealists and dreamers. Today, he doesn’t have the same power, like he did back in the 60’s. In the mid 1960’s he got tired of his responsibilities and set out to foment revolution elsewhere. His first attempt to stir up revolution elsewhere was in the Congo, in which it failed. The second attempt was in Bolivia, which ended with liquidation of his small group of supporters, and led to his own capture (Rohter). **Obstacles** Guevara, like all people, had obstacles that impeded him from doing things he really wanted to achieve or accomplish. He was wounded by Batista’s army on November of 1956. Che himself only had about 300 ragged, poorly armed and hungry men. Once he recuperated he set out, once again, but his group was almost annihilated by the Bolivian army on October 08, 1967. They had finally caught him. He was captured alive, allegedly shouting out to the ones that caught him, //"I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead."// This also led to the Bolivian army to the execution of Ernesto (Minster). By the time of his death he renounced Cuban citizenship (Rohter).

Now, few people subscribe to Guevara’s belief that power can be seized through guerrilla warfare. The Cuban government and some Cubans regard themselves as custodians of Che’s image. The Government also controls most of his literary estates. The Cuban government never liked //The Motorcycle Diaries,// so they didn’t publish it until the early 1990’s. There are marketers who use Che’s image to make profit (Rohter).

Marketers are deteriorating his image because they don’t even know the significance behind it, all they want is money. Cubans have also started excluding everything about Guevara that is not heroic. They especially exclude what is human about him (Rohter). **Historical Significance** Guevara met with Fidel Castro and Raul Castro. He met with them to overthrow Batista's dictatorship. On January 02, 1959 Castro's troops enter the Havana. Once there, he established a Marxist government. Che was very well known in the west. He was known for his opposition to neocolonialism, and all forms of capitalism (Minster).

Che is now remembered as a revolutionary figure. To young adults, he is a self-imolating figure. To marketers he is just another product to sell. In other words, he is a commercialized emblem on a t-shirt. Guevara has become a remote figure. He has also faded into history. José Rivera states, “Icons are recycled and made to wear the clothes of a new generation that is discovering them.” (Rohter).

John Lee Anderson states that Che is not just a protest figure to young Latin Americans, but the questioning kid who exists in society. Now, Castro praises Guevara. Che was 39 when the Bolivian soldiers captured and executed him. Castro also argued in favor of Guevara's continued political relevance. He has also become an international symbol to leftists and to marketers (Rohter).

Now, talking about the amputation of Guevara's hands, Jorge Castañeda states, “ They're stored somewhere in the //Plaza de la Revolucion”.// This shows that Che's hands were amputated and stored somewhere safe. Also, Bolivian military officers indicated where his remain were located at. This information led people to start scavenging for Guevara's remains (Rohter).

He was an important part in the Cuban Revolution. Che cared about the people in Latin America that were oppressed, and he gave his life fighting for them. Minster states that Che believed that the way out of oppression was by embracing a communist revolution and that he thought nothing of the people he killed. In the end, the peasants betrayed Che because they never really connected with him. Guevara believed that he knew what was right for the people. However, he never bothered to ask the people if they agreed with what he thought was right for them (Minster).

[|Lacey, Marc.] "A Revolutionary Icon, and Now a Bikini." //The New York Times//. 9 Oct. 2007. //The New York Times//. Web. 20 Jan. 2015. SE 6 [|Minster, Christopher.] "Learn About the Life of Che Guevara Pt.1" //About History.// //About//. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. SE 4 [|Minster, Christopher.] "Learn About the Life of Che Guevara Pt.2" //About// History. //About//. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. SE 5
 * References **

Minster, Christopher. "Learn About the Life of Che Guevara Pt.3" //About// //History//. //About//. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. SE 3

[|Rohter, Larry.] "Cuba Buries Che, the Man, but Keeps the Myth Alive," //The New York Times//. 18 Oct. 1997. //The New York Times//. Web. 12 Jan. 2015 SE 2

[|Rohter, Larry.] "Letter from the Americas: Che Today? More Easy Rider Than Revolutionary." //The New York Times//. 26 May 2004. //The New York Times.// Web. 12 Jan. 2015. SE 1