I'm a history nut and I love teaching others about history, so here's some of my favorite and the most important/famous people in history, although some of these are lesser known.
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Basic Info: Ernesto "Che" Rafael Guevara de la Serna Argentine Marxist Revolutionary, Physician, Author, Guerrilla leader, Diplomat, and military theorist Born- June 14, 1928 Died- October 9, 1967 Children- Aleida Guevara, Camilo Guevara, Celia Guevara, Hilda Guevara, and Ernesto Guevara
Childhood and Early Life: Che was the eldest of five children. He grew up in a middle class family of Spanish-Irish descent. He was successful in both athletics and academics.
He studied in the medical field and graduated in 1953. He spent the next few years traveling through Latin America. He and his friend, Alberto Granado, traveled on a motorcycle for part of their journey. The motorcycle ended up breaking down shortly after their journey began.
They went to Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela together. After that, Che traveled to Miami alone before returning to Argentina. (His journal about here travels was published).
It was these travels and the sights of poverty he saw hat inspired him to lead a violent revolution, something he believed was the only solution.
He traveled to Guatemala and became a dedicated Marxist. He strongly believed that socialism was the answer to the world's economics problems.
Cuban Revolution: When he left Guatemala, Che traveled to Mexico next, where he met the Castro brothers. Fidel and Raúl Castro were planning to overthrow the dictator Fulgencio Batista in Cuba.
Guevara joined Fidel Castro's 26th of July movement. This contained 81 men in the Cuban Province of Oriente. On December 2, 1856, they were almost immediately detected by Batista's military and were nearly wiped out.
Che and the other survivors retreated to the Sierra Maestra and began creating a guerrilla army. Their numbers grew, and so did their strength.
While Guevara had originally joined as a doctor, he learned how to use weapons as well. He quickly became one of Castro's most trusted allies. He sometimes acted as an executioner of suspected spies, traitors, or deserters.
Their troops were victorious and entered Havana on the 8th of January 1859. After that, Guevara worked at a prison for a while and assisted in more executions.
He often attacked U.S. foreign policy and encouraged others to adopt socialist economies.
Che served as minister of industry, president of the national bank of Cuba, and Chief of the Industrial Department of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform.
He made many speeches and published his writing throughout the 1960s about politics and Cuba's laws. When he wasn't working in an office, he was working in the sugarcane fields.
When Cuba became a client state of the Soviet Union, he was disappointed, and he was further disappointed when they removed their missiles from Cuba without consulting Cuban leadership first.
After that, he looked to Mao Zedong for support and aid.
The Congo and Bolivia: Guevara traveled to New York City in December of 1964, still involved with politics and relations between the United States and Cuba.
After April of 1965, he dropped out of the public view. His whereabouts over the course of the following two yers were kept secret. However, we now know that he had been traveling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He and other guerrilla fighters were attempting to help the Patrice Lumumba Battalion. (has anyone else read The Poisonwood Bible?)
He renounced his Cuban citizenship and resigned his ministerial position in the Cuban government. His efforts in the Congo failed, and he fled to Tanzania, and then to Prague.
In 1966, he traveled secretly to Bolivia. His goal was to create a guerrilla army in Sabra Cruz. He had some success at first, but he and his army found themselves on the run from the Bolivian military.
Death: The guerrilla army was almost completely destroyed on October 8, 1967 by a special force of the Bolivian army assisted by CIA advisers.
Guevara was wounded during the battle, resulting in him being captured and shot. His hands were cut off and preserved so his fingerprints could be used to confirm his identity. His body was secretly buried in an unknown location.
In 1995, Jon Lee Anderson, was convinced he knew the resting place of Che Guevara. He believed that they had been buried in a mass grave in Vallegrande. In 1997, they found what they believed to be the remains of Guevara and his revolutionaries. They were taken to a monument in Santa Clara.
There are still debates today as to whether or not he remains actually belonged to him.
Legacy: Che Guevara was known for his cruel ways and extreme views, but he was also known for his incredible military strategy.
Cool Facts: • he got the nickname "Che" while he was in Argentina. It came from a verbal mannerism of the Argentines. They punctuated their speech with the interjection che • he was part Irish • he was very skilled at rugby • he was a big fan of poetry, especially Cesar Vallejo and Pablo Neruda • he suffered from asthma, which may have inspired him in his medical studies. He carried out an allergy research at a hospital in Mexico City
Movies and More: The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) (there is a book and a movie) Che: Part One and Two (2008) A Bullet for Che (2012)
He wrote the book Guerrilla Warfare, which was published in 1960. There's several other books documenting his life.
Quotes:
"If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine." "We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it." "Every day people straighten up the hair. Why not the heart?" "Let the world change you and you can change the world."
