Adolfo Segura

Mr. Zwinge
5/24/10
History 10
Che Guevara
Che Guevara also known as Che was born on June 14, 1928 I Rosario,
Argentina. His parents were Llosa and Ernesto Guevara. He was the
oldest of five children in an Argentine family that descended of
Spanish, Basque and Irish traits. While being with his parents his legal
name was Esterno Guevara, which appeared with de la Serna or Lynch
accompanying it. During his early life Guevara felt sympathy for the
poor.
While Guevara was growing up he was introduced to a wide variety of
political perspectives. Since Guevaras father was a proud supporter of
Republicans from the Spanish Civil War, he brought many veterans to
his home. As a boy he had asthma that threatened him through his
entire life he enjoyed swimming, soccer, golf and shooting. By the time
he was a teenager he played rugby for the University of Buenos Aires.
The rugby playing earned him a nickname Fuser because he played
aggressive, but his schoolmates named him Chancho meaning pig
because he rarely bathed and sometime used his shirt more than once
a day. Che Guevara had a passion for playing chess because his father
showed him and then started competing at the age 12. He had a
passion for poetry and as well as memorizing it word from word; he
had an estimate of 3,000 books in his home. As he grew older he

became more interested in Latin American writers such as Jorge Icaza,

Miguel Asturias, and etc.

His favorite subjects in school were mathematics, engineering, political

science, sociology, history, and archaeology.
Che Guevara had an interest to explore Latin America so he started his
expedition in 1950. He traveled by motorcycle and first traveled to
provinces of northern Argentina, the journey was about 2,800 miles.
This expedition in 1951 was a 5,000-mile journey through most South
America. He took sabbatical year to spend time with his friend Alberto
Grando and to volunteer at the San Pablo Leper colony in Peru. In his
various expeditions he saw the poverty in many countries of South
America such as: Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela,
and Panama. He took notes during his trip, which was entitled The
Motorcycle Diaries; it later became a New York Times best seller, which
was then made into a movie.
When Che Guevara returned to Argentina he completed his studies and
received his medical degree in June 1953. Later he remembered the
thoughts of his travel though Latin America because he came in close
contact with poverty, hunger, and diseases, the worst part of this was
the lack of money so they had no money to treat the children.
From these experiences he was convinced that in order to help those
nations, he had to leave his lifes studies and enter the political

process. Che Guevara went on another expedition but this time it was
different. On July 7, 1953 set out to Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. And in 1954 Guevara saw
Guatemala being interfered by the United States, at this point he
became convinced that the only to change the political establishments
is to cause a violent revolution. In Guatemala Guevara met his future
wife Hilda Gadea, they got married on 1955 in Mexico and had on
child. Guevaras wife was member of the APRA, American Popular
Revolution Alliance. She introduced him to classified officials from the
Arbenz government. This is where Guevara established contact Fidel
Castro on July 26, 1953. This happened at the same time Moncada
Barracks was under attack.
On May 15, 1954 a shipment was sent from the Communist
Czechoslovakia to Puerto Barrios, the shipment had light artillery
weapons. The United States CIA responded in a not so friendly manner
by invading the country. Che Guevara wanted to fight on the behalf of
Abenz and had joined an armed militia force that was organized by the
Communist Youth, but didnt work out so he went back to his medical
duties. Then he volunteered again but Arbenz went to the Mexican
Embassy and told his supporters to leave the country because they
were all mark for death including Che Guevara. Hidla Gadea was
arrested and Guevara was protected by Argentine consulate, where he
stayed for weeks until he could make his way into Mexico.

After the overthrow of the Arbinz regime Guevara view the United
States as a bad imperialist power that can overthrow any country at
any time. So he made a statement that covered everything that the
U.S. did. In his statement he includes that they attempt to destroy any
government that tries to change the socioeconomic inequality in Latin
America.
On September 1954, Guevara worked in the allergy section of the
General Hospital. He also gave lectures on medicine at the National
Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In June 1955 a friend that
Guevara spent time with in Mexico City named Nico Lopez introduced
him to Raul Castro who then formally introduce him to a person who
Che Guevara already knew, Fidel Castro. He is a revolutionary leader
held responsible for forming a plot to overthrow the dictatorship of
Fulgencio Batista on July 26, 1959. The result of doing that was Che
Guevara and Fidel Castro were arrested for a short time. When they
got out the Castro had a plot of the Cuban Revolution to bring weapons
from Cuba, they were trying to overthrow Batista. They started
attacking people in Mexico and 82 were killed or captured and
executed.
Only a few of Ches men survived and regrouped afterwards. After the
war Che and his men continued to their plan and had their factory in
which they made grenades, oven to bake bread, he taught his recruits
about his tactics, and had organized schools to teach campesinos

how to read and write, had a health clinic, and had workshops to teach
military tactics, and a newspaper business. As commander and chief
right besides Fidel Castro, Guevara punished traitors by beating them
brutally. During the guerilla campaign, he summoned a number of his
men to be executed because they were accused of being spies.
On of them was a men named Eutimio Guerra, he admitted treason
when one of Ches discovered that he was promised a large amount of
money transmitted to him (tens of thousands of pesos) in exchange for
giving the tactics of the Cuban air force. This information allowed
Batistas army to burn the rebels homes. Eutimio Guerra told Guevara
to end his life quickly. In that sense Che Guevara held a gun to his
head and fired.
At this point Guevara lost his conscience and became an abusive
leader because his goal was to make Cuba and the other nationalities
strong so the would show no fear to his enemy because the slightest
bit of weakness is what his enemies want. From his action it was clear
to his commanding officer Fidel Castro he was a great leader. He
describes Che Guevara as a intelligent and daring leader. Guevara took
many risk of saving people that were most loyal to him, on of them is
Guevaras teenage lieutenant named Joel Iglesias. During a time where
they were in combat Che wen diving from the bullets and put him in his
should leading him to a safe zone, when enemy soldiers saw him they
wouldnt of dared to fire at him.

In February 1958 Guevara created a radio station in which he

broadcasted his statements to the Cuban people and provided
radiotelephones to the rebels on the island. In 1958 he mat Aleida
March, she was a revolutionary fight and became Guevaras second
wife in 1959. In the late 1958 Guevara led major forces into the
invasion of central Cuba. During the same year in July Batistas General
Cantillo had 1,500 men to destroy Castros forces, this was known as
the Battle of Las Mercedes. Years later Guevara became an expert in
tactics and used this against Batistas army, which eventually made
them win the war. The battle ended in Santa Clara on New Years Eve.
After he had succeeded in January 1959 this gave Fidel Castros
government power. Guevara made speeches that were against
imperialism and the United States policy in the Third World.
In February the Cuban government proclaimed Guevara to a Cuban
citizen by his birth from all his hard work for liberating Cuba. When
Hildia Gadea arrived to Cuba Guevara told her that he was with
another women, and to this they both agreed a divorce on May 22. And
on June 2, 1959 he married Aleida March; she was Cuban. His ex-wife
Hilda Beatriz Guevara Gadea died on August 21, 1962. In this year
Guevara adopted to his nickname Che it represents a grand honor to
Cuba.
At the beginning of 1961-1965 he was the director the national bank.
He traveled to Russia, India and Africa to meet with leaders of the

world such as Jawaharel Nehru and Nikita Khruschev. Guevara closest

alies during that time was Cuba and the Soviet Union (Russia).
On November 1966, Che Guevara secretly arrived in La Paz, Bolivia. He
had his base camp in a Bolivian dry forest. He had about 50 men
operating as ELNs (Exercise of the Liberation National of Bolivia).
During the spring and summer of 1967 the Bolivian government realize
how big Che Guevaras army was. What Che was trying to accomplish
in Bolivia was a revolution, same as always but it fail for many reasons.
But one of the main reasons was that he expected that the Bolivian
army wasnt well equipped and not well trained but didnt know that
U.S. government sent the CIA, the were responsible for the death of
Che Guevara. Che Guevara died on October 9, 1967 at the age of 39 in
La Higuera, Bolivia.
What he tried to accomplish is still followed today by many people who
support Che, its mostly in Cuba. That is why the United States wont
send plains to Cuba or have any other contact until he is removed from
commader and officer. People still today are trying to follow his legacy.