Aleida March - Remembering Che: My Life with Che Guevara

And we will continue together
until the road vanishes...

from a poem Che wrote to Aleida.

REMEMBERING CHE

MY LIFE WITH CHE GUEVARA

Aleida March

Ocean Press www.oceanbooks.com.au

Cover design: Runa Kamijo

Book design: Vanessa Hutchinson

Copyright 2012 Ocean Press

Copyright 2012 Aleida March

Photographs 2012 Ocean Press

Photographs 2012 Aleida March

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.

Translated by Pilar Aguilera

First edition: 2012

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011943980

ISBN 978-0-9870779-9-8 (e-book)

Published in Spanish as Evocacin: Mi vida al lado del Che ISBN 978-1-921700-16-3

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To my children,

My greatest source of inspiration.

To Fidel,

To whom I owe everything.

To Alfredo Guevara,

A friend for all times.

To Abel Prieto and Roberto Fernndez Retamar,

Patrons of a different kind and of a new era.

To Mara del Carmen Ariet,

A friend, always willing to offer her help.

To Camilo Prez,

Thank you for your much appreciated support.

The publishers of this English edition of Evocacin: Mi vida al lado del Che by Aleida March would like to thank the following people for their contribution to this book:

Jo Connolly, Christine Graunas, Vanessa Hutchinson, Runa Kamijo, Mara del Carmen Ariet, Lidoly Chvez and Pilar Aquilera, for her sensitive translation.

Above all, we would like to thank Aleida March herself for being prepared to share for the first time her memories of a great legend and a great love.

O ne afternoon I held a tape recorder in my hands to collect my memories. But although I tried, I found I just couldnt do it. So I discussed this with my friend and collaborator, Mara del Carmen Ariet.

At the time, I was working to create the Che Guevara Studies Center. Together, Mara del Carmen and I had archived Ches documents, photographs, letters, poems and other personal items. It was a huge challenge. From that project emerged the plan to publish systematically all Ches works. We wanted new generations to be able to know Che and understand what he fought for, to help young people feel close to him, not just as a symbol but as a real person who, from an early age, had great dreams and realized those dreams with a creative spirit.

As the Che Guevara Studies Center has developed, we have not only aspired to encourage the study of Ches thought, life and example, but also to work with our local community in Havana to promote one of his most important qualitiesethicsso that they can understand the better world he fought for.

A few years ago, Mr. Giuseppe Cecconi, a gentle and persistent Italian man, approached me; he wanted me to write a script for a film he was making about Che. I wasnt particularly interested in that project, but I realized that, apart from anything else, I owed it to my children to give my account of my life with Che. So I began to write down my recollections, everything I had lived through, everything we had experienced together.

This book is therefore my recollections, nothing more. I am not a writer. I simply put down on paper my most cherished memories, hoping that readers might appreciate what it cost me to share these precious letters and poems that until now I held so close to my heart.

Aleida March

She held her silence for decades, finding refuge on another plane. Aleida March drew strength from her pain and then dedicated her life to planting the seed of irrepressible memory. In this book, she has given us something authentic, profound, complex and rich.

Moreover, her memories are remarkably precise and astute. Oblivion can take different forms: To perpetuate Che as a myth, an ideal, is to assign him to oblivion. As the icon of liturgies is also oblivion for Che, as is Che gazing into the future as seen through the lens of KordaKorda the poet. Similarly, the left that does not struggle, and is sluggish of mind, can no longer be considered leftit, too, is destined for oblivion.

Memory is sown in a different waythrough immortal texts, supported by an immortal example. Action as the result of a material expression of thought can be the inspiration for a new generation, one that knows how to struggle relentlessly, indefatigably, with clarity and courage.

Our Aleida, the revolutionary, despite her doubts, has shown she knows how to give. She knew that pain is nourished by the blood of martyrs and the blood of the universe. In this book she now reveals to us the Che that was missing, the loving Che, with an affection that transcends love. An eternity of love, when the essence of a life lived is revealed. A love that transcends tenderness and has nothing to do with abstract idealism. It is a love that is returned to the person offering it, and in that person finds its dwelling place.

This young urban guerrilla, who was shaped by the struggle, now many years later bravely offers herself to us in letters, notes, poems and reflections on a life full of pain, fulfillment, challenges, transgression and heartbreak. This was the love lived. Here Aleida shows us how a personality grew, how it was discovered and displayed. She shares the meeting that marked forever how two lives became united.