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Che Guevara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
12/16/2007 07:49:36 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna
Che Guevara in 1963
Alternate name(s):
Che
Date of birth:
June 14, 1928[1]
Place of birth:
Rosario, Argentina
Date of death:
October 9, 1967 (aged 39)
Place of death:
La Higuera, Bolivia
Major organizations:
26th of July Movement
Che Guevara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna(June 14,[1] 1928 – October
9, 1967), commonlyknown asChe Guevara, El Che or
j
ustChe was anArgentine-bornMarxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas.
As a young man studying medicine, Guevara travelled
throughout SouthAmerica, bringing him into direct contact
with the impoverishedconditions in which manypeople
lived. His experiences and observations duringthese trips
ledhimto the conclusion that the region's socio-economic
inequalities could onlybe remediedby socialismthrough
revolution, prompting himto intensifyhis studyof Marxism
and travel toGuatemala to learn about the reforms being
implemented there byPresident JacoboArbenz Guzmán.
While in Mexico in 1956, Guevara joined Fidel Castro's
revolutionary26th of JulyMovement, which seizedpower
fromthe regime of the dictator[2] General FulgencioBatista
inCuba in 1959. In the months after the success of the
revolution, Guevara was assigned the role of "supreme
prosecutor", overseeingthe public showtrials and
executions of hundreds of military andcivilian leaders
associatedwith the previous regime.[3][4] After serving in
various important posts in the newgovernment and writing
a number of articles and books on the theory and practice
of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the
intention of fomenting revolutions first inCongo-Kinshasa, and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a military
operation supported bythe CIAand the U.S. Army Special Forces.[5] Guevara was summarily executedby the
BolivianArmy in the town of La Higuera near Vallegrande onOctober 9, 1967.[6]
After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements and a cultural iconworldwide. An
Alberto Korda photo of himhas receivedwide distribution and modification, appearing on t-shirts, protest banners,
and in manyother formats. The MarylandInstituteCollege of Art called this picture "the most famous photograph in
the world and a symbol of the 20thcentury."[7]
Contents
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Page 2
Che Guevara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
12/16/2007 07:49:36 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara
Guevara (center) with friends as a
young child.
1 Familyheritage and earlylife
2 Guatemala
3 Cuba
4 Disappearance fromCuba
5 Congo
5.1Expedition
5.2Interlude
6 Bolivia
6.1Insurgent
6.2Capture and execution
6.3The BolivianDiary
7 Legacy
7.1Legacy inCuba
7.2Legacy inCuban-AmericanCommunity
7.3Legacy elsewhere in LatinAmerica
7.4The "Cult of Che"
8 Timeline
9 Guevara's publishedworks
10 See also
11 Source notes
12Content notes
13 References
13.1Printed matter
13.2Websites
14 Further reading
15 External links
Family heritage and early life
ErnestoGuevara de la Serna was born inRosario, Argentina, the eldest of five
children in a familyof Spanish and Irish descent; bothhis father and mother
were of Basque ancestry.Basque[›] One of Guevara's forebears, PatrickLynch, was
born inGalway, Ireland, in 1715.Galway[›] He left for Bilbao, Spain, and traveled
fromthere toArgentina. Francisco Lynch(Guevara's great-grandfather) was
born in 1817, and Ana Lynch(his grandmother) in 1868. Her son, Ernesto
Guevara Lynch(Guevara's father) was born in 1900. Guevara Lynch married
Celia de la Serna yLlosa in 1927 (one of her non-lineal ancestors was José de la
Serna e Hinojosa, Spanishviceroyof Peru), and theyhad three sons and two
daughters.
Growing up in this leftist-leaningdéclassé familyof aristocratic lineage, Ernesto Guevara became known for his dynamic personalityand radical perspective even as a boy. He idolizedFrancisco Pizarro and yearned to have been one of his
soldiers.[8] Though suffering fromthe crippling bouts of asthma that were to
afflict himthroughout his life, he excelled as an athlete. He was an avid rugby
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Che Guevara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
12/16/2007 07:49:36 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara
Birthplace of Ernesto "Che"
Guevara in Rosario. The building
was erected by Enrique Ferrarese
and designedby Arq. Bustillo.
Another view.
Guevara on aburro at the age of 3
union player despite his handicap and earnedhimself the nickname "Fuser" —a
contraction of "El Furibundo" ("The Raging") and his mother's surname,
"Serna" —for his aggressive style of play. Ernesto was nicknamed "Chancho"
("pig") byhis schoolmates because he rarelybathed, something he was rather
proud of.[9]
Guevara learnedchess fromhis father and
beganparticipating in local tournaments by
the age of 12.[10] During his adolescence,
he became passionate about poetry,
especiallythat of Pablo Neruda. Guevara,
as is commonpractice among Latin
Americans of his class, also wrote poems
throughout his life. He was an enthusiastic and eclectic reader, with interests
ranging from adventure classics byJackLondon, Emilio Salgari and Jules Verne
to essays on sexuality bySigmundFreud and treatises on social philosophyby
Bertrand Russell. Inhis late teens, he developed a keen interest in photography
and spent manyhours photographingpeople, places and, during later travels, archaeological sites.
In1948 Guevara entered the Universityof Buenos Aires to study medicine. As a student, he spent longperiods
traveling aroundLatinAmerica. In1951 his older friend, AlbertoGranado, a biochemist, suggestedthat Guevara
take a year off fromhis medical studies to embarkon a trip theyhad talked of makingfor years, traversing South
America. Guevara and the 29-year-oldGranado soon set off fromtheir hometown of Alta Gracia astride a 1939
Norton 500cc motorcycle they namedLa Poderosa II ("The MightyOne, the Second") with the idea of spending a
few weeks volunteering at the SanPablo Leper colony in Peru on the banks of the AmazonRiver. Guevara narrated
this journey inThe Motorcycle Diaries, whichwas translated into English in 1996 and used in 2004 as the basis for a
motionpicture of the same name, directedbyWalter Salles.
Witnessing the widespreadpoverty, oppression and disenfranchisement throughout LatinAmerica, and influencedby
his readings of Marxist literature, Guevara decided that the only solution for the region’s inequalities was armed
revolution. His travels and readings also ledhimto viewLatinAmerica not as a group of separate nations but as a
single entityrequiring a continent-wide strategyfor liberation. His conception of a borderless, unitedIbero-America
sharing a common 'mestizo' cultureIbero-America[›] was a theme that wouldprominentlyrecur during his later
revolutionary activities. Upon returningtoArgentina, he expeditedthe completion of his medical studies, completed
his education as a medic in order to resume his travels inCentral andSouthAmerica and receivedhis diploma on12
June 1953.Diploma[›]
Guatemala
On 7 July1953, Guevara set out on a trip throughBolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua,
Honduras, andEl Salvador. Duringthe final days of December 1953 he arrived inGuatemala where President Jacobo
Arbenz Guzmánheaded the secondfullydemocratic and modern government in the wholeLatin-American region
that, through land reform and other initiatives, was attemptingto bring an end to the U.S.-dominatedlatifundia
system. In a contemporaneous letter to his Aunt Beatriz, Guevara explainedhis motivation for settlingdown for a
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