Nowadays, you can meet young people wearing T-shirts with the image of Che Guevara, find backpacks with his portrait and other items with his photograph. Why is it so popular? Who is Che Guevara? His biography will answer these questions.
Full name- Ernesto Rafael Guevara Lynch de la Serna. This man became a famous revolutionary in Latin America and was awarded the title of Comandante during the Cuban Revolution in 1959. According to some sources, he used the nickname Che to emphasize his Argentine origin; and according to others, he received it in Mexico. The word "che" was often used as an interjection in Argentina, meaning "friend"
Personality of Che Guevara
Who is Ernesto Che Guevara? Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928. Since childhood, I grew up as an enthusiastic, intelligent and inquisitive person. The joy of his life was overshadowed only by asthma, which later helped him avoid military service. From the age of 4, the boy became addicted to reading books and politics. I read Marx, Lenin, France, Verne, Dumas, London, Hugo, Gorky, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Freud. He was keenly interested in the events of World War II and social life in America. At the same time, he loved painting and poetry. Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine.
The hobbies of childhood and youth shaped the character of the future revolutionary. Ernesto was a harsh man, but courageous, caustic in barbs, but a faithful and devoted comrade, romantic, but firm.
Crucial moment
Che Guevara's great passion was travel. He made an 8-month trip across countries Latin America together with his comrade and friend Alberto Granado, doctor of biochemistry. Together they visited Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Seeing the suffering of the common people, they dreamed of devoting their lives to treating lepers.
Ernesto was upset by the downtroddenness and need of the common people, the corruption and cruelty of the authorities, and he began to think about how he could help people. He thought a lot about this, began to be active political activity. Gradually, Guevara came to the conclusion that the only thing that could somehow change the situation was a social revolution. His active actions did not leave the US authorities unnoticed: they began to support the Guatemalan rebels and accused the president of trying to create communism.
Guevara suggested that the government arm the people and fight back, but Arbenz could not withstand the onslaught and resigned in June 1954. Che Guevara had to move to Mexico, the freest country in Latin America at that time. Here a fatal meeting with Cuban revolutionaries took place. Guevara met Fidel Castro, and they found much in common in their views and opinions. Che Guevara was preparing to take part in the Cuban Revolution and was willing to risk everything for its success.
Merits of Che Guevara
Who is Ernesto Che Guevara in the Cuban Revolution? He is its direct participant and activist. On December 2, 1956, he, along with a small group of Cuban revolutionaries, entered into battle with the troops of dictator Batista, but was defeated. Only a few survived, among whom was Guevara. They were able to take refuge in the Sierra Maestra mountains. However, the battle did not stop, and in the summer of 1957 the partisans started fighting in the valleys. The fighters for justice earned the trust of the common people, and soon the military ranks began to be replenished with new rebels...
In March 1958, Castro and his army began to advance. In this battle, the 8th column under the command of Che Guevara recaptured the city of Santa Clara and destroyed the garrison of government troops.
On January 1, 1959, the rebels managed to penetrate the capital of Cuba, Havana. Che Guevara received citizenship there, was proclaimed comandante and joined the ranks of the country's leadership. Despite all this, he continued simple life without luxury.
Che Guevara sincerely believed that he could create an ideal communist society, but all his hopes were dashed. The bureaucracy began to grow greatly, and bribery began to appear.
The Comandante decides to launch a Latin American revolution. For this, he left his friends, his government post, and renounced his military rank and citizenship in Cuba. On November 7, 1966, Guevara began keeping a diary, where for 11 months he described all the events that took place and his thoughts about them.
The expedition to Bolivia turned out to be the last for Che Guevara. In 1967, he and his squad were captured. The next day after being captured, he and two comrades were shot.
This is how the great reformer, revolutionary and political figure Che Guevara lived. He became a truly legendary personality that people still remember to this day. We hope that now you know who Che Guevara is.
On June 14, 1928, the future symbol of the revolution, Comandante Che Guevara, one of the most controversial famous personalities of the past century.
Ernesto Rafael Guevara Lynch de la Serna appeared in a family of aristocrats, lived a bright but short life, and after his death became a human icon, a symbol of struggle and protest. At the same time, most young people who adorn themselves with a portrait of Che have difficulty imagining what kind of person he was, what ideas he professed and who he fought against.
For the birthday of the legendary revolutionary, we present rare archival photographs and Interesting Facts from the life of Comrade Che.
Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in the Argentine city of Rosario, in the family of the architect Ernesto Guevara Lynch (1900–1987). Both Ernesto Che Guevara's father and mother were Argentine Creoles, and his ancestors included Irish and California Creoles. On his mother's side, Che was a descendant of the last Viceroy of Peru.
Pictured left: Ernesto Che Guevara in the arms of his mother Celia de la Serna, 1928. Right: Ernesto Che Guevara at the age of five in the Alta Gracia mountains with his sister Celia.
At the age of two, Ernesto suffered a severe form of bronchial asthma and this disease haunted him all his life. To restore his health, the family moved to the Argentine province of Cordoba.
For the first two years, Ernesto was unable to attend school and was homeschooled (he learned to read at age four) because he suffered from daily asthma attacks. After that, he underwent training intermittently due to health conditions high school in Alta Gracia. In addition to Ernesto, whose childhood name was Tete, a diminutive of Ernesto, the family had four more children: Celia, Roberto, Anna Maria and Juan Martin. All children received higher education.
In his youth, Che Guevara was fond of football (like most boys in Argentina), rugby, equestrianism, golf, gliding and loved to travel by bicycle. From the age of four, Guevara became passionate about reading; fortunately, in the house of Che’s parents there was a library of several thousand books. Ernesto Che Guevara was very fond of poetry and even composed poems himself. Che Guevara was born in Argentina, and became interested in Cuba at the age of 11, when Cuban chess player Capablanca came to Buenos Aires. Ernesto was very passionate about chess.
Ernesto was strong in the exact sciences, especially mathematics, but chose the profession of a doctor. Che Guevara wanted to devote his life to treating lepers in South America, like Albert Schweitzer, whose authority he bowed to. In 1945, he graduated from college and entered the medical faculty of the University of Buenos Aires.
In 1950, already a student, Ernesto became a sailor on an oil cargo ship from Argentina and visited the island of Trinidad and British Guiana. Afterwards, he traveled on a moped, which was provided to him by Mikron for advertising purposes, with partial coverage of the travel expenses.
Since childhood, Ernesto Che Guevara wanted to devote his life to treating lepers in South America. While traveling around South America with doctor of biochemistry Alberto Granados, they earned their living by doing odd jobs: washing dishes in restaurants, treating peasants, or acting as veterinarians. When Che and Alberto reached Colombia, they were arrested for looking suspicious and tired.
But the police chief, being a soccer fan familiar with Argentina's soccer success, released them after learning where they were from in exchange for a promise to coach the local soccer team. The team won the regional championship, and fans bought them plane tickets to the capital of Colombia, Bogota. In the photo: the “Mambo Tango” raft, which was donated to Ernesto Che Guevara and Alberto Granado by patients of the San Pablo leper colony.
From 1953 to 1954, Guevara made his second long trip to Latin America. He visited Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and El Salvador. In Guatemala, he took part in the defense of the government of President Arbenz, after whose defeat he settled in Mexico, where he worked as a doctor. During this period of his life, Ernesto Guevara received his nickname Che for the characteristic Argentine Spanish interjection Che, which he abused in oral speech.
During his second big trip to Latin America in 1955 in Mexico, Che Guevara met. After this meeting, Che Guevara discarded all his medical work and realized that his destiny was revolution. He joined Castro and the revolutionary movement and soon joined his revolutionary squad. In December 1956, a group of 82 revolutionaries arrived on the coast of Cuba in the province of Oriente and launched an attack against the Batista regime.
On June 5, 1957, Fidel Castro allocated a column led by Che Guevara consisting of 75 fighters. Che was awarded the rank of commandante (major). During the Cuban revolution of 1956-1959, comandante was the highest rank among the rebels, who deliberately did not give each other higher military ranks. The most famous comandantes are Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos.
During his life, Che, leading partisan detachments, was wounded in battle twice. He wrote to his parents after the second wound: “Used two, five left,” meaning that he, like a cat, had seven lives.
In November 1958, Guevara led a guerrilla attack in the province of Oriente against government troops; in December, Guevara's column captured a strategic point in the province - the city of Santa Clara in the center of Cuba. In 1959, Batista fled the country, which came under the control of the revolutionaries.
Since Fidel Castro came to power, repressions against his political opponents began in Cuba. After the rebels occupied the city of Santiago de Cuba on January 12, 1959, a show trial was held there of 72 police officers and persons in one way or another associated with the regime and accused of “war crimes.” All 72 were shot. Executions in the Havana fortress-prison of La Cabaña were personally administered by Che Guevara, who was appointed commandant of the prison and led the appeal tribunal. After Castro's supporters came to power in Cuba, more than eight thousand people were shot, many without trial.
Photo from 1959. From left to right: Raul Castro, Antonio Nunez Jimenez, Ernesto Che Guevara, Juan Almeida.
After the victory of the revolution, Che Guevara received Cuban citizenship, was the head of the garrison of the La Cabaña fortress (Havana), and director of the Administration industrial development country, participated in the preparation of agrarian reform.
From November 1959 to February 1961, Ernesto Che Guevara was president of the National Bank of Cuba. In February 1961, Ernesto was appointed Minister of Industry and head of the Central Planning Council of Cuba. This image is the famous photograph of Che at the Cuban Ministry of Industry, 1963.
In 1960, Che Guevara, at the head of an economic mission to Cuba, visited the countries of the socialist bloc, including the Soviet Union.
Being a Marxist, Ernesto Che Guevara reproached the "brotherly" socialist countries The USSR and China are imposing on the poorest countries conditions of exchange of goods similar to those dictated by imperialism on the world market.
In April 1965, Ernesto Che Guevara sent a letter to Fidel Castro about his decision to continue participating in the revolutionary movement of one of the countries of the world and left Cuba.
In addition to the Latin American continent, Ernesto Che Guevara also carried out partisan activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries of the world (the data is still classified as secret). Photo: Democratic Republic Congo, 1965. Che holds a child in his arms, and a Congolese guerrilla has his finger on the trigger of a rifle. Photo: AFP
In November 1966, Che Guevara arrived in Bolivia to organize the guerrilla movement. The partisan detachment he created on October 8, 1967 was surrounded and defeated by government forces. Ernesto Che Guevara was wounded, captured and killed the next day.
On October 11, 1967, his body and the bodies of six more of his associates were secretly buried near the airport in Vallegrande. In July 1995, the location of Guevara's grave was discovered. And in July 1997, the remains of the Comandante were returned to Cuba, and in October of the same year they were reburied in the mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara in Cuba.
After Che's death, many residents of Latin America began to consider him a saint and addressed him as San Ernesto de La Higuera. It is not without reason that many say that not a single dead person was as similar to Christ as Che in the photograph familiar to the whole world, where he lies on a table at school, surrounded by Bolivian military personnel.
Che Guevara is the national hero of Cuba, his portrait is on Cuban pesos, and in schools, daily classes begin with the song “We will be like Che.” In Argentina, the revolutionary’s homeland, there are many museums dedicated to him, and in the city of Rosario in 2008, a 4-meter bronze statue of Che Guevara was installed. Among Bolivian workers, Che Guevara has the status of a saint - he is called Saint Ernesto when they ask for intercession and help. Catholic Church in those parts he sharply opposes this order, but cannot do anything in this situation.
A man with an iron will, a sharp character, caustic humor, courageous and ready to stand up for a comrade at any second - Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, better known now as Che Guevara.
An idol of the revolutionary youth of Argentina, popular all over the world, Che, seeing the need and downtroddenness of the people, the indifference and corruption of the top, even in his youth thought about how to help ordinary people. And over time, he comes to the conclusion that reforms and outside charity will not make the peoples of Latin America free from poverty and lawlessness.
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
Firmly deciding that there is only one way out - social revolution, Che Guevara leaves in the summer of 1953. A passionate lover of travel, Ernesto set off on his longest journey.
At the end of 1953, Guevara arrived in Guatemala and took an active part in the local political life. After Arbenz's cabinet seized land from the American campaign, US authorities accused the president of communism and supported the Guatemalan rebels. Unable to withstand pressure, Arbenz resigned in June 1965.
However, if all this had not happened, perhaps Che Guevara’s acquaintance with the Cuban revolutionaries would not have happened. This acquaintance that determined his future fate took place in Mexico, where the Argentine moved under the threat of imminent arrest. The Cubans tried to overthrow the Batista dictatorship in their country. The leader of the group was Fidel Castro, who sought to make the lives of Cubans based on equality and justice. 
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
At their first meeting, Ernesto and Fidel’s views revealed many similarities. The Argentine was ready to give his life for the success of the Cuban, and therefore continental, one. Che emphasized that
“The partisan must be an example of impeccable behavior and willingness to sacrifice himself for the common cause.”
The struggle was difficult, the losses were great, but the goal was achieved: peasants and residents dissatisfied with Batista joined Fidel Castro’s troops, and in the summer of 1958 the offensive of Batista’s army ended in complete failure. Ernesto Che Guevara is awarded the highest military rank - commandant, receives Cuban citizenship and enters the country's governing bodies. But that doesn't change him. Che still lives modestly, opposing luxury and excess. The Cubans saw him working in construction, unloading a ship, and understood: this man was doing this because he couldn’t do it any other way, he couldn’t imagine his life any other way.
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
Since the mid-50s, Che Guevara's faith in the victory of communism throughout the world reached its apogee: he, together with the Cubans, was building a new society where there would be no poor people and beggars, where people would have equal rights, where power would truly belong to the people. However, what manifested itself in Cuba in the early 60s worried Che: the number of officials increased sharply, and bribery found a place among the seasoned fighters of the Sierra Maestra.
The Argentine begins to think about how to reduce the influence of negative factors on the life of society. Seeing a way out in expansion social conflict, Che Guevara sets his goal - the Latin American revolution. He was confident that the inhabitants of the continent were ready to repeat the Cuban experience, and therefore, after March 14, 1965, Che disappeared from the political arena. Since November 1966, the most reliable source of events is the Bolivian diary of Che Guevara, which Ernesto keeps until the last battle. 
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
Captured and executed in La Ichera (1967) for his desire to help ordinary people, for defending his views, for his desire to rid the continent of the control of the American authorities. However, even now in the gaze frozen on famous photo, you see the characteristic perseverance and courage!
Today, June 14, marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Latin American revolutionary, commander of the revolution in Cuba, Ernesto Che Guevara. He became the most striking symbol of the national liberation, communist and leftist movements of the twentieth century. And even in this century he remains a true icon for all who seek social justice. Numerous biographers of Che have asked and are asking the question: why, of all the many freedom fighters, this particular man became a leftist banner?
The answer has not yet been found, and is unlikely to be found. But one thing is certain: Che Guevara embodied a seemingly incredible mixture of two ideals. On the one hand, he was what in the USA is called a self-made man: born on June 14, 1928 in Argentina, a descendant of Irish rebels and Peruvian rulers, a brilliant athlete and an excellent doctor, who consistently did everything to be seen and remembered. On the other hand, Che was an exemplary revolutionary: having absorbed the ideas of Marxism from childhood, he was going to devote his life to the selfless treatment of lepers, but found himself in the role of a partisan commander.
Over the 39 years of his life, Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, who took the revolutionary pseudonym Che, which emphasized his Argentine origin (che is a common reference to a man in Argentina), accomplished a lot. He spoke excellent Spanish and French, learned to read at the age of four, made two long trips throughout Latin America in his youth, received a medical degree, and eventually became one of the most brilliant theorists and practitioners of guerrilla warfare.
Che was married twice, both times to comrades in the revolutionary struggle, and managed to become the father of five children - three daughters and two sons. But most importantly, he became a legend during his lifetime, and even more so after his death. Even the fact that his grave could not be found for three decades supported the “myth of Che Guevara,” and many young followers refused to believe in his death, and he himself was “seen” every now and then different countries peace. Alas, this myth remained a myth: Che really died on October 9, 1967 in Bolivia in the vicinity of the village of La Higuera. But like any mythologized hero, Che is surrounded by a lot of speculation and rumors. Today MIR 24 tells its readers about nine true facts that reveal the story of Che Guevara as a revolutionary and partisan commander.
We will talk about how an ordinary doctor managed to turn the whole world upside down in the program “Our Cinema. A story of great love" on June 16 at 9:30 on the MIR TV channel.
Ernesto Guevara has been familiar with the ideas of Marxism since childhood
An Argentine Creole, a descendant of Irish rebels, the architect Ernesto Guevara Lynch - the father of Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna - earned the hostility of his plantation neighbors by starting to pay his workers in money rather than food. Been to Guevara's house former leaders Republican Spain, who emigrated to Argentina after the victory of General Franco. Che Guevara's father and mother actively participated in the anti-fascist Argentine movement during the first presidency of Juan Peron, who supported the Axis countries.
The future partisan went to Cuba as a doctor
After the defeat of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, on whose side Che was going to fight, but did not have time, Ernesto Guevara fled to Mexico. He went there following the associates of Fidel Castro, whom he met during the Guatemalan events. It was in Mexico that Che first met the youngest of the Castro brothers, Raul, and then the eldest, Fidel. On the night he met the latter, he was enrolled in a rebel detachment that intended to go to Cuba on the Granma yacht, as a doctor - in accordance with his diploma.
At the same time, Che and his comrades underwent a full course of partisan training: multi-day marches, study of small arms and other weapons, hand-to-hand combat and guerrilla tactics. And as a doctor, Guevara taught his comrades in arms how to provide first aid: bandaging, treating wounds, applying splints and everything else. Including injections, which cost him dearly: during one of the practical classes, his comrades took a test on injections, giving them to Che himself, who eventually endured more than a hundred injections.
Incurable asthma did not prevent the revolutionary from fighting
From the age of two, Ernesto Guevara suffered from bronchial asthma, sometimes experiencing several attacks a day. It was because of this disease that he was forced to study at home for the first two years of school, as attacks followed one after another. But instead of succumbing to the disease, the boy Ernesto began to fight it. Despite his asthma, he was actively involved in sports, and even though he had to sit on the bench with an anti-asthma inhaler in his hand, Guevara was both a football player and a rugby player, traveled on a moped, and practiced gliding. Serious physical activity The only thing that was not required was chess, a sport that made Guevara become interested in Cuba at the age of 11, when the famous Cuban grandmaster Capablanca came to Argentina.
At the same time, young Ernesto “rejected” President Peron from serving in the Argentine army, promptly causing an asthma attack with the help of a cold bath. But in the Cuban Sierra Maestra mountains, he, along with other rebels, marched, carried boxes of ammunition on his chest and participated in battles. According to the recollections of his comrades, they did not understand how Che could walk when his illness was constantly choking him, and yet he walked through the mountains with a duffel bag on his back, with a weapon, with full equipment, like the most enduring fighter.
Che invented his own Molotov cocktail recipe
Since Che, in childhood and early youth, managed to watch his parents making “hell machines” at home, and later listened carefully to the stories of Spanish Republican emigrants about the practice of guerrilla warfare, by the time he sailed on the Granma after training in a Mexican guerrilla camp he became a true master of underground warfare. One who managed to invent one of the simplest and effective recipes a flammable mixture consisting of gasoline and oil mixed in a certain proportion. Unlike most other “Molotov cocktails” of that time, Che’s recipe made it possible to produce this guerrilla weapon in any conditions, without requiring any special chemicals or special equipment - just gasoline, oil and bottles. Cuban partisans actively used ready-made “cocktails” as weapons against enemy infantry, cars and light armored vehicles, as well as for setting fire to buildings.
An immigrant who received the rights of a native Cuban
Just a little over a month after the victory of the Cuban revolution, on February 9, 1959, by a special presidential decree, Che was declared a citizen of Cuba with the rights of a born Cuban. This was the second such case in the history of the island: the first immigrant with the rights of a native Cuban was in the 19th century the Dominican General Maximo Gomez, one of the outstanding leaders of the struggle for the liberation of Cuba from Spanish rule.
Only one military rank in your entire military career
When Fidel Castro and his associates left Mexico, which had become inhospitable, on board the Granma yacht purchased from a Swedish ethnographer for 12 thousand dollars, none of them had any military ranks. Only in Cuba, when the number of partisans began to grow and it was necessary to assign “Granmov” members to the roles of commanders, did they begin to receive new ranks. The highest among them at that time was the rank of “comandante,” that is, major—the partisans did not assign higher titles to each other, emphasizing their democracy. Che became comandante on June 5, 1957, when 75 soldiers were placed under his command. He no longer received any other titles - neither in Cuba nor in other countries.
Secret missions in at least three countries
After the victory of the Cuban revolution, Che Guevara turned from a guerrilla commander into an official of the new government for six years. He served as chairman of the Appeals Tribunal (earning the hatred of Castro's political opponents for not overturning a single death sentence passed by the lower revolutionary tribunals). He was head of the military training department of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, director of the National Bank of Cuba, and later minister of industry. But this did not suit the commander at all, who said: “After the revolution, it is not the revolutionaries who do the work. It is done by technocrats and bureaucrats. And they are counter-revolutionaries.”
In the end, after another representative trip, Che seeks resignation from all posts and secretly leaves Cuba. First he went to the Congo to participate in the next uprising in this country. After the defeat, he lived for six months in Czechoslovakia, where he was treated for asthma and malaria under an assumed name. And from there he went to start a guerrilla war in Bolivia, where he died on October 9, 1967.
Fatal nine bullets
The Bolivian guerrilla force, commanded by Che and consisting of one-third Cubans, was ambushed at noon on October 8th. The Comandante fired back to the last: when a bullet hit his rifle, he took up the pistol and fired all the cartridges. After being captured, Che was kept for a day in a dilapidated school in the village of La Higuera, waiting for a command from La Paz: to deliver the famous partisan for an open trial or to destroy him on the spot. It was decided to abandon the trial for fear that the commander would be able to turn him into a political tribune, and also that he would be able to escape.
The dubious honor of shooting Che Guevara in such a way that it looked like death in battle (by ordering the execution, the Bolivian government at the same time feared accusations of extrajudicial execution of a partisan) fell to Sergeant Mario Teran: according to one version, he drew the short straw , when they cast lots, on the other hand, he volunteered himself. The sergeant fired nine bullets at Che: five in the legs, the right shoulder, the arm, the chest and the throat, and only the last two wounds were fatal.
Che's body returned to Cuba only 30 years later
Che Guevara's body was taken by helicopter to the town of Vallegrande, where it was presented to the press, and then secretly buried. Where exactly one of the most famous revolutionaries of the second half of the twentieth century was buried was unknown for a long time, which gave rise to rumors about his miraculous salvation. There were even people who seriously claimed that they had met Che Guevara in the seventies and eighties. In fact, the executed partisan was buried in a small mass grave with his comrades in the struggle there, near Vallegrande, next to the unpaved runway of the airfield, to which his body was delivered by helicopter from the place of execution. In 1997, after a two-year search, the burial was found, and the remains of the famous Cuban, like his partisan comrades, were sent to Havana. They rested in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, where Che once managed to win a decisive victory for the Cuban revolution.
Che Guevara - Latin American revolutionary, commander of the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Full name Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Lynch or in Spanish Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Linch.
To understand the unusual popularity of Che Guevara, you need to delve into the biography of this Latin American revolutionary, popular for so many years. I tried to collect the most interesting and unusual facts from the life of Che Guevara.
A distant ancestor of Che's mother was General José de la Serna e Hinojosa, Viceroy of Peru.
Ernesto Che Guevara's childhood name was Tete, which translated means “little pig” * - this is a diminutive of Ernesto.
Later he received the nickname Hog:
And, of course, Ernesto continued to play rugby with the Granado brothers. His friend Barral spoke of Guevara as the most gambling player on the team, although he still constantly carried an inhaler with him to games.
It was then that he earned a rude nickname, which, however, he was very proud of:
“They called me Borov.
Because you were fat?
No, because I was dirty."
Fear of cold water, which sometimes caused asthma attacks, gave Ernesto a dislike for personal hygiene." (Paco Ignacio Taibo)
First two academic year Che Guevara could not attend school and studied at home because he suffered from daily asthma attacks. Ernesto Che Guevara suffered his first attack of bronchial asthma at the age of two, and the disease haunted him for the rest of his life.
Ernesto entered state college named Dean-Funes only at 30 and all because of the aforementioned asthma at the age of 14.
Che Guevara was born in Argentina, and became interested in Cuba at the age of 11, when Cuban chess player Capablanca came to Buenos Aires. Ernesto was very passionate about chess.
Starting at the age of 4, Guevara became passionate about reading; fortunately, in the house of Che’s parents there was a library of several thousand books.
Ernesto Che Guevara was very fond of poetry and even composed poems himself.
Che was strong in the exact sciences, especially mathematics, but chose the profession of a doctor.
Che Guevara in his youth was fond of football (like most boys in Argentina), rugby, equestrianism, golf, gliding and loved to travel by bicycle.
The name of Che Guevara appeared in newspapers for the first time not in connection with revolutionary events, but when he made a four thousand kilometer tour on a moped, traveling all over South America.
Che Guevara wanted to devote his life to treating lepers in South America, like Albert Schweitzer, whose authority he bowed to.
In the 40s, Ernesto even worked as a librarian.
On his first second trip to South America, Che Guevara and doctor of biochemistry Alberto Granados (do you remember that Che wanted to devote his life to treating lepers?) earned money for food by doing odd jobs: washing dishes in restaurants, treating peasants or acting as veterinarians, they repaired radios, worked as loaders, porters or sailors.
When Che and Alberto reached Brazil, Colombia, they were arrested for looking suspicious and tired. But the police chief, being a soccer fan familiar with Argentina's soccer success, released them after learning where they were from in exchange for a promise to coach the local soccer team. The team won the regional championship, and the fans bought them plane tickets to the capital of Colombia, Bogota.
In Colombia, Guevara and Granandos were again imprisoned, but they were released on a promise to immediately leave Colombia.
Ernesto Che Guevara, not wanting to serve in the army, used an ice bath to induce an asthma attack and was declared unfit for military service. military service. As you can see, it’s not only in our country that people don’t want to serve in the army.
Che was very interested in ancient cultures, read a lot about them and often visited the ruins of Indians of ancient civilizations.
Coming from a bourgeois family, he, having a medical diploma in hand, sought to work in the most backward areas, even for free, to treat ordinary people.
Ernesto at one time came to the conclusion that in order to be a successful and rich doctor it is not necessary to be a privileged specialist, but it is necessary to serve the ruling classes and invent useless medicines for imaginary patients. But Che believed that he had an obligation to devote himself to improving the living conditions of the broad masses.
On June 17, 1954, armed groups of Armas from Honduras invaded Guatemala, the executions of supporters of the Arbenz government and the bombing of the capital and other cities of Guatemala began. Ernesto Che Guevara asked to be sent to the battlefield and called for the creation of a militia.
“Compared to me, he was a more advanced revolutionary,” recalls Fidel Castro.
Che Guevara learned to smoke cigars in Cuba to ward off annoying mosquitoes.
Che did not shout at anyone, and did not allow ridicule, but often used strong words in conversation, and was very harsh, “when necessary.”
On June 5, 1957, Fidel Castro allocated a column led by Che Guevara consisting of 75 fighters. Che was awarded the rank of commandante (major). It should be noted that during the revolution in Cuba in 1956-1959, the commandant was the highest rank among the rebels, who deliberately did not assign each other a higher military rank. The most famous comandantes are Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos.
As a Marxist, Ernesto Che Guevara reproached the “brotherly” socialist countries (USSR and China) for imposing on the poorest countries conditions of exchange of goods similar to those dictated by imperialism on the world market.
Che Guevara in the early 1950s jokingly signed his letters “Stalin II.”
During his life, Che, leading partisan detachments, was wounded in battle 2 times. Che wrote to his parents after the second wound: “used up two, five left,” meaning that he, like a cat, had seven lives.
Ernesto Che Guevara was shot by Bolivian army sergeant Mario Teran, who drew the short straw in a dispute between soldiers over the honor of killing Che. The sergeant was ordered to shoot carefully in order to simulate death in battle. This was done to avoid accusations that Che was executed without trial.
After Che's death, many residents of Latin America began to consider him a saint and addressed him as “San Ernesto de La Higuera.”
Che traditionally, with all monetary reforms, is depicted on front side three Cuban pesos bills.
The world-famous two-color full-face portrait of Che Guevara has become a symbol of the romantic revolutionary movement. The portrait was created by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick from a 1960 photograph taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda. The Jose Marti star is visible on Che's beret, hallmark Comandante, received from Fidel Castro in July 1957 along with this title.
The famous song “Hasta Siempre Comandante” (“Comandante forever”), contrary to popular belief, was written by Carlos Puebla before the death of Che Guevara, and not after.
According to legend, Fidel Castro, having gathered his comrades-in-arms, asked them a simple question: “Is there at least one economist among you?” Hearing “communist” instead of “economist,” Che was the first to raise his hand. And then it was too late to retreat.
