Ernesto Guevara
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Books
4
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Che Guevara, a Marxist revolutionary, led insurgent forces to defeat government troops in Santa Clara in December 1958. After Castro took power, he served as Minister of Agriculture and wrote ‘Guerilla Warfare’ 1960 before departing to spread revolution in the Belgian Congo and Bolivia. Captured and executed by the Bolivian army on October 9, 1967, his image became a symbol of rebellion.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Che Guevara — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Che Guevara by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Che Guevara — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Disgusted by the corrupt Argentine military dictatorship, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna became a dedicated Marxist in his teens. Born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina, he grew up in a middle-class family with parents Celia de la Serna and Ernesto Guevara Lynch. In 1953 he received a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires and left Argentina to join a Communist revolt in Guatemala, where he adopted the nickname Che, Argentine slang for pal.
In 1954 Che fled Guatemala after its revolution failed and moved to Mexico, where he met Fidel Castro. Joining Castro’s July 26 Movement, he sailed with 80 guerrillas to Cuba, landing on December 2, 1956. After a disastrous landing, he and about 10 others fled to the Sierra Maestra mountains. In July 1957 he was promoted to Comandante, a rank shared only with Castro, and commanded half the rebel forces. For the next 18 months he led insurgents in Las Villas province, culminating in the decisive victory at Santa Clara in December 1958, which forced Batista into exile on January 1, 1959. After Castro assumed power, he served as Minister of Agriculture and in 1960 wrote Guerilla Warfare, a manual for Third World insurgents. In 1965 he resigned his posts to spread revolution abroad, traveling to Africa and organizing Communists in the Belgian Congo, where he trained Cuban contingents and even studied French to communicate with locals.
Che Guevara married Hilda Gadea on August 18, 1955; they divorced on May 22, 1959. He then married Aleida March on June 22, 1959, and they remained together until his death. They had at least one child, Aleida Guevara, named after his second wife. As a youth, his aggressive rugby style earned him the nickname El Fuser, a contraction of El Furibundo Serna The Furious Serna. He suffered from asthma throughout his life. His nickname Che originated from his frequent use of the Argentine slang word che, meaning pal or hey, used by his Cuban comrades.
Che Guevara’s image, particularly the photograph taken by Alberto Korda, has become a symbol of rebellion and anti-imperialism worldwide. Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called him the most complete human being of our time. Despite controversy over his methods—defending the outlawing of dissident factions as necessary for revolutionary democracy—he is revered by many as a freedom fighter. In 1997 his remains, buried in an unmarked grave in Bolivia, were exhumed and relocated to Cuba. He has been portrayed in films such as The Motorcycle Diaries 2004 by Gael García Bernal and in Che: Part One 2008 and Che: Part Two 2008 by Benicio Del Toro. He also inspired the character Che in the musical Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. He gave his life for his ideals.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Che Guevara — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Che Guevara's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Che Guevara — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Am One of Those People Who Believes That the Solution to the World’s Problems Is to Be Found Behind the Iron Curtain.
Man Really Attains the State of Complete Humanity When He Produces, Without Being Forced by Physical Need to Sell Himself as a Commodity.
Hatred Is an Element of Struggle; Relentless Hatred of the Enemy That Impels Us Over and Beyond the Natural Limitations of Man and Transforms Us into Effective, Violent, Selective, and Cold Killing Machines. Our Soldiers Must Be Thus; a People Without Hatred Cannot Vanquish a Brutal Enemy.
The Question Is One of Fighting the Causes and Not Just the Effects. This Revolution Is Bound to Fail If It Doesn’t Succeed in Reaching Deep Inside Them, Stirring Them Right Down to the Bone, and Giving Them Back Their Stature as Human Beings. Otherwise, What’s the Use?
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.
Passion Is Needed for Any Great Work, and for the Revolution Passion and Audacity Are Required in Big Doses.
This Journey Has Only Served to Confirm This Belief, That the Division of America into Unstable and Illusory Nations Is Complete Fiction. We Are One Single Mestizo Race with Remarkable Ethnographic Similarities, from Mexico Down to Magellan Straits.
When I Began to Study Medicine Most of the Concepts I Now Have as a Revolutionary Were Then Absent from My Warehouse of Ideals. I Wanted to Be Successful, as Everyone Does. I Used to Dream of Being a Famous Researcher, of Working Tirelessly to Achieve Something That Could, Decidedly, Be Placed at the Service of Mankind, but Which Was at That Time All About Personal Triumph. I Was, as We All Are, a Product of My Environment.
I Now Know by an Unbelievable Coincidence of Fate That I Am Destined to Travel.
Against Brute Force and Injustice the People Will Have the Last Word, That of Victory.
How Easy It Is to Govern When One Follows a System of Consulting the Will of the People and One Holds as the Only Norm All the Actions Which Contribute to the Well Being of the People.
The People’s Heroes Cannot Be Separated from the People, Cannot Be Elevated Onto a Pedestal, into Something Alien to the Lives of That People.
The Only Passion That Guides Me Is for the Truth…I Look at Everything from This Point of View.
This Revolution Has Always Relied on the Willingness of the Cuban People.
If You Can Tremble with Indignation Every Time an Injustice Is Committed in the World, Then We Are Comrades.
Our Efforts Are Focused on the Push for Unity Amongst the World’s Underdeveloped Nations in Order to Present a Coherent Front.
And If It Were Said of Us That We’re Almost Romantics, That We Are Incorrigible Idealists, That We Think the Impossible: Then a Thousand and One Times We Have to Answer ‘Yes We Are’.
It’s One of Those Times When One Has to Take Big Decisions; This Type of Struggle Affords Us the Chance to Become Revolutionaries, the Highest Stage of Human Development, and It Also Gives Us the Chance to Graduate as Men.
To Send Men to the Firing Squad, Judicial Proof Is Unnecessary. These Procedures Are an Archaic Bourgeois Detail. This Is a Revolution! and a Revolutionary Must Become a Cold Killing Machine Motivated by Pure Hate. We Execute from Revolutionary Conviction!
Much More Valuable Than Rural Recruits for Our Cuban Guerrilla Force Were American Media Recruits to Export Our Propaganda.
If You Tremble with Indignation at Every Injustice Then You Are a Comrade of Mine.
Youth Must Refrain from Ungrateful Questioning of Governmental Mandates! Instead They Must Dedicate Themselves to Study, Work, and Military Service. Youth Should Learn to Think and Act as a Mass!
We Must Eliminate All Newspapers; We Cannot Make a Revolution with Free Press.
We Executed Many People by Firing Squad Without Knowing If They Were Fully Guilty. at Times, the Revolution Cannot Stop to Conduct Much Investigation.
What We Affirm Is That We Must Proceed Along the Path of Liberation Even If This Costs Millions of Atomic Victims.
My Nostrils Dilate While Savoring the Acrid Color of Gunpowder and Blood…. I’d Like to Confess , Papa, at the Moment I Discovered That I Really Like Killing.
If the Missiles Had Remained We Would Have Used Them Against the Very Heart of the United States, Including New York We Must Never Establish a Peaceful Coexistence.
Little-known facts about Che Guevara — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Jean-Paul Sartre once referred to him as The most complete human being of our time.
His Cuban comrades nicknamed him Che because he frequently used the Argentine slang word che, meaning pal or hey.
Revered by many, Guevara is considered a Stalinist by some opponents; in 1962 he defended Cuba’s outlawing of dissident factions as revolutionary democracy.
In 1997 his remains, buried in an unmarked grave near a Bolivian airstrip, were exhumed and relocated to Cuba.
His youth nickname El Fuser came from El Furibundo Serna The Furious Serna due to his aggressive rugby style.
He appeared on the cover of Time magazine on August 8, 1960.
There is no evidence that Guevara was homophobic, despite persistent rumors.
He suffered from asthma throughout his life.
Jaime Suchlicki, a professor at the University of Miami, noted the irony of capitalist markets selling Guevara’s image: What is ironic is that the capitalist market economy is selling a revolutionary that was against capitalism.
Although his official birth date is June 14, 1928, he was allegedly born on May 14, 1928; his parents hid it because they weren’t married at his conception.
Some confusion exists over whether Guevara was killed in the initial ambush or captured and executed; most sources say he was captured then executed.
Fidel Castro, in a speech on January 21, compared crimes of the dictatorship to Nuremberg and asked for a show of hands supporting executions; a private survey showed 93 percent in favor. Che was present but did not participate.
He is portrayed by Gael García Bernal in The Motorcycle Diaries 2004 and by Benicio Del Toro in Che: Part One 2008 and Che: Part Two 2008.
He inspired the character Ché in the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical Evita.
He was of Spanish, Basque, and Irish descent.
In 1953 he received a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires.
He is mentioned in the song Jesus Numa Moto by Sá e Guarabyra.
During guerrilla days, he allegedly ordered a young boy executed without trial for stealing food; after Castro took power, he issued death sentences on former comrades who rejected communism.
He is a second cousin of actor Rodrigo de la Serna.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Che Guevara.
Celebrities similar to Che Guevara — same craft, ranked by reach.
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