There are a lot of misconceptions about Che Guevara. Plenty speculate that he was from Cuba because of his part in the revolution in country. Others believe he was an uneducated man that just wanted to cause trouble across the world. Even some believe he was a hero that did good. Che Guevara is a individual that everybody should understand why many look at him as the iconic figure he is today. We will be explaining who he was, what drove him to the path he chose and why he is a icon in today's society.
I don't care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.
Che Guevara
Dr. Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Santa Fe province, Argentina. Che was raised in to a large upper middle class family of of Spanish descent and was the eldest of five children. His family had strong leftist views and leanings. Poltical perspectives were introduced to him at a young age.
Che was a talented kid when it came to academics. He excelled quicker then his peers. With a strong passion for reading, Che would read a lot, in which he would read books by Karl Marx to H.G Wells. He suffered from asthma throughout his life, but that didn't stop him when it came to athletics. He was cyclist, played football, swimmer and even a rugby, in which he was an aggressive athlete in the sport that earned him the nickname "Fuser".
Che entered the University of Buenos Aires in 1948 to major in medicine. During his time as a medical student, he and a friend would take two road trips around Latin America all the way up to Miami Florida. With an estimated to be 12,000 kilometers, Che witnesseda lot . These road trips were on a motorcycle which he built himself. The road trips played a major role when in comes to the person he became by fundamentally changing the way he viewed himself and the poor economic conditions in Latin America. He saw poverty was a big issue in Latin America, in which be blamed imperialism and capitalism. His solution to solve this problem was to turn and become a strong advocate of communism. In 1953, Che graduated college with a degree in medicine.
In 1954, Che took another trip across Latin America again. This time he landing him in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Guatemala was under the power of President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán . With a socialist government inplace by Árbenz , a coup was established which was backed by the United Sates, this made Che very angry and he deiced to settle in Guatemala to become a revolutionist. Later that year, Che met with Fidel and Raul Castro in Mexico to help fight against Batista government. Starting off as the doctor, Che became a military leader in the fight due to the fact that the invading forces had mass amounts of casualties. He eventually became the second in command behind Fidel Castro during the invasion. He was on of the few people Castro trusted.
After the victory of Castro in the Cuban revaluation, Che was instructed to round up and deal with the former Batista officials. Che conducted a large amount of trials against the Batista supporters and instructed the execution to about 500 of these supporters. Internationally, Che was seen as a merciless murderer, but in Cuba, most of the citizens were fine with the decisions because they were angry and believed these individuals should be killed due to the crimes that were committed under them. Che was known for his harsh discipline against deserters and traitors, because of this, Guevara became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness
During this time Che married his first wife Hilda Gadea Acosta in Mexico of September 1955. They had a daughter named Hilda Beatriz "Hildita" Guevara Gadea on February 1956. The marriage ended in a divorce in May 1959 ,after Gadea went to Cuba during the revolution, she was confronted with the announcement by Che that he had fallen in love with another woman, Cuban native Aleida March, and requested a divorce. Aleida was a memeber of Castro's Army. Che and Aleida onJune 2, 1959. They had four children together, Aleida, Camilo, Celia, and Ernesto.
With power in the Cuban government, Castro and Che changed the capitalistic government by giving back land to the citizens of the country. Che highly advised Castro to that he should become close allies with the Soviet Union. Che was the reason that missiles were bought in to Cuba from the Soviet Union. During the Cuban missile, Che was pressuring the Soviet Union to launch an attack with the missiles against the United States , the Soviets backed down. Due to this, Che was openly critical to the Soviets for backing down. Castro not happy with Che's opinion of the Soviets because of the close relationship, he ordered Che to leave Cuba in 1965.
After leaving Cuba, Che decided to form other revaluations in other areas of the world. He first to the Congo in Afica to offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the ongoing conflict in the there. Then in the late 1966, Che traveled to Bolivia. Not being wanted in the country by Bolivian government, Che had to come up with an alternative method to enter the country.
Before departing for Bolivia, Che altered his appearance by shaving off his beard and much of his hair also dying it grey so he would be unrecognizable. On November 3, 1966, Che secretly arrived in La Paz Bolivia on a flight from Montevideo posing as a middle-aged Uruguayan businessman under the false name Adolfo Mena González.
Three days later he made his way from La Paz to a rural south east region of Bolivia to form his guerrilla army. Che guerrilla force consisted with about 50 men called the National Liberation Army of Bolivia. After a matter of time, Ches guerrilla force grew larger. After having winning battles against the Bolivian army, the Bolivian government began to overestimate the true size of Che's guerrilla force. The end results for Che were failed recruiting attempts in efforts to grow the guerrilla force. Many citizens in the area willingly informed the Bolivian authorities and military about Che's guerrilla forces and their movements in the area.
On October 1967, an informant gave the Bolivian Special Forces of the location of Guevara's guerrilla forces encampment, giving away their position. On October 8, Bolivian Special Forces overthrew Che's guerrilla force with the help of two battalions numbering 1,800 soldiers, Che was finally captured. Che was tied up and taken to a mud schoolhouse in the nearby village later that evening. The following day, the Bolivian president ordered Che to be killed. The order was sent to the unit holding Che. The United States government's did not agree with the order due that they desired that Che be taken to Panama for further interrogation by the CIA. 27-year-old Bolivian army sergeant, Mario Terán volunteered to killed Che because of all the men he lost due to the conflict. Terán was ordered to not shoot Che in the head because they wanted it to appear that he was killed by the Bolivian army during a fire fight. Before being executed, a officer of the Bolivian army took a photo of him and his men with a distort Che.
Sergeant Terán entered the hut to shoot Che, where upon Che's reportedly last words were"I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward. You are only going to kill a man." Terán shot Che with a self-loading M2 carbine hitting him in the arms and legs. Che reportedly slowly fell to the ground biting one of his wrists to avoid crying out, Terán fired another burst to the chest, which killed Che. Che was shot a total of nine times by solder, five in his legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, and once in the chest and throat. Che was pronounced dead at 1:10 pm local time according to the Bolivian government. US National Security Advisor Walt Whitman Rostow stated the decision to kill Che "stupid" but "understandable". After Che's death, a military doctor amputated his hands, which were preserved to be sent to Buenos Aires for fingerprint identification, they were later sent to Cuba. Bolivian army officers transferred Che's body to an undisclosed location and refused to reveal whether his body had been buried or cremated. In late 1995, the retired Bolivian General revealed that Che's corpse lay near an airstrip close to the execution site. A multi-national search for the remains was conducted, which would last more than a year. In July 1997 , Cuban geologists and Argentine forensic anthropologists found the remnants of seven bodies in two mass graves, one of the remains had amputated hands. Bolivian government officials later identified the body as Che's.
The legacy of Che is one that still lingers today, especially in the hearts of young youths that demonstrate a sense of rebellion. Bands like Rage Against the Machine would showcase the icon during performances. Tee shirts of Che can be seen all across the country in retail shops. The man will always be remembered in history.