Guevara - Che: The Diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara

LET ME SAY, AT THE RISK OF
SEEMING RIDICULOUS, THAT THE
TRUE REVOLUTIONARY IS GUIDED BY
GREAT FEELINGS OF LOVE.

ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

CHE SYMBOLIZES NOT SELLING OUT, STAYING TRUE TO WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. BENICIO DEL TORO

CHES LIFE IS AN INSPIRATION FOR EVERY HUMAN BEING WHO LOVES FREEDOM. NELSON MANDELA

IN THESE PRESENT TIMES, WHEN FOR MANY ETHICS AND OTHER PROFOUND MORAL VALUES ARE SEEN TO BE SO EASILY BOUGHT AND SOLD, THE EXAMPLE OF CHE GUEVARA TAKES ON AN EVEN GREATER DIMENSION. RIGOBERTA MENCHU

THE POWERFUL OF THE EARTH SHOULD TAKE HEED: DEEP INSIDE THAT T-SHIRT WHERE WE HAVE TRIED TO TRAP HIM, THE EYES OF CHE GUEVARA ARE STILL BURNING WITH IMPATIENCE. ARIEL DORFMAN

CHE IS SOMEONE WE WILL NEVER TRULY FATHOM BECAUSE HIS ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS, AND HIS DEDICATION TO ENDING THAT SUFFERING, WILL ALWAYS SEEM MYSTERIOUS TO US, WHO ON MOST DAYS CANNOT EVEN IMAGINE THE EQUANIMITY OF HIS INNER FREEDOM. ALICE WALKER

CHE WAS THE MOST COMPLETE HUMAN BEING OF OUR AGE. JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

THERE WAS NO PERSON MORE FEARED BY THE COMPANY [CIA] THAN CHE GUEVARA BECAUSE HE HAD THE CAPACITY AND CHARISMA NECESSARY TO DIRECT THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE POLITICAL REPRESSION OF THE TRADITIONAL HIERARCHIES IN POWER IN THE COUNTRIES OF LATIN AMERICA. PHILIP AGEE, FORMER CIA AGENT

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO CARRY INSIDE THEM THE DIGNITY OF THE WORLD, AND ONE OF THOSE IS CHE. FIDEL CASTRO

ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

CHE

THE DIARIES OF
ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

THE BASIS OF THE MOVIE

CHE

FROM STEVEN SODERBERGH
AND BENICIO DEL TORO

Cover design: Ocean Press
Cover art 2008 IFC in Theaters LLC
Cover photo: Benicio Del Toro as Che Guevara

Text and photographs from Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War and The Bolivian Diary by Ernesto Che Guevara Copyright 2009 Aleida March and the Che Guevara Studies Center

Text from The Motorcycle Diaries, Che Guevara Reader, Guerrilla Warfare, Latin America and Self-Portrait by Ernesto Che Guevara Copyright 2009 Aleida March and the Che Guevara Studies Center

This limited edition selection from Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, The Bolivian Diary and other works by Ernesto Che Guevara Copyright 2009 Ocean Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-921700-84-2
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008910124

PUBLISHED BY OCEAN PRESS
E-mail:

O ne of Time magazines icons of the century, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928. He made several trips around Latin America during and immediately after his studies at medical school in Buenos Aires, including his 1952 journey with Alberto Granado, on the unreliable Norton motorbike described in his earlier journal The Motorcycle Diaries.

He was already becoming involved in political activity and living in Guatemala when, in 1954, the elected government of Jacobo rbenz was overthrown in a CIA-organized military operation. Ernesto escaped to Mexico, profoundly radicalized.

Following up on a contact made in Guatemala, Guevara sought out the group of exiled Cuban revolutionaries in Mexico City. In July 1955, he met Fidel Castro and immediately enlisted in the guerrilla expedition to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Cubans nicknamed him Che, a popular form of address in Argentina.

On November 25, 1956, Guevara set sail for Cuba aboard the yacht Granma as the doctor to the guerrilla group that began the revolutionary armed struggle in Cubas Sierra Maestra mountains. Within several months, he was appointed by Fidel Castro as the first Rebel Army commander, though he continued ministering medically to wounded guerrilla fighters and captured soldiers from Batistas army.

In September 1958, Guevara played a decisive role in the military defeat of Batista after he and Camilo Cienfuegos led separate guerrilla columns westward from the Sierra Maestra described in this book.

After Batista fled on January 1, 1959, Guevara became a key leader of the new revolutionary government, first as head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform; then as president of the National Bank. In February 1961 he became minister of industry. He was also a central leader of the political organization that in 1965 became the Communist Party of Cuba.

Apart from these responsibilities, Guevara represented the Cuban revolutionary government around the world, heading numerous delegations and speaking at the United Nations and other international forums in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the socialist bloc countries. He earned a reputation as a passionate and articulate spokesperson for Third World peoples, most famously at the conference at Punta del Este in Uruguay, where he denounced US President Kennedys Alliance for Progress.

As had been his intention since joining the Cuban revolutionary movement, Guevara left Cuba in April 1965, initially to lead a Cuban-organized guerrilla mission to support the revolutionary struggle in the Congo, Africa. He returned to Cuba secretly in December 1965, to prepare another Cuban-organized guerrilla force for Bolivia. Arriving in Bolivia in November 1966, Guevaras plan was to challenge that countrys military dictatorship and eventually to instigate a revolutionary movement that would extend throughout the continent of Latin America. The journal he kept during the Bolivian campaign became known as The Bolivian Diary. Che was wounded and captured by US-trained and run Bolivian counterinsurgency troops on October 8, 1967. The following day he was murdered and his body hidden.

Che Guevaras remains were finally discovered in 1997 and returned to Cuba. A memorial was built at Santa Clara in central Cuba, where he had won a major military battle during the revolutionary war.

LET THE FLAG UNDER WHICH WE
FIGHT BE THE SACRED CAUSE OF
HUMANITY.

ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

June 14, 1928 Ernesto Guevara is born in Rosario, Argentina, of parents Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna; he will be the eldest of five children.

JanuaryJuly 1952 Ernesto Guevara travels around Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado.

March 10, 1952 General Fulgencio Batista carries out a coup dtat in Cuba.

July 6, 1953 After graduating as a doctor in March, Ernesto Guevara sets off again to travel through Latin America. He visits Bolivia, observing the aftermath of the 1952 revolution.

July 26, 1953 Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful armed attack on the Moncada army garrison in Santiago de Cuba, launching the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the Batista regime.

December 1953 Ernesto Guevara meets a group of Cuban survivors of the Moncada attack in San Jos, Costa Rica.

December 24, 1953 Ernesto Guevara arrives in Guatemala, then under the popularly elected government of Jacobo rbenz.