Che Guevara's name. 'Comandante of the Cuban Revolution'

Nowadays, even those who wear T-shirts with the image of the legendary revolutionary know little about who Ernesto Guevara, nicknamed Che, really was. Therefore, today we will fill this gap.

So, according to official data, Ernesto was born on June 14, 1928 in the Argentine city of Rosario in the family of Ernest Guevara Lynch and Cely de la Serna. However, in reality, he was born at least a month earlier. But in this way, the parents would have to admit to their wife’s premarital pregnancy, and, given the strict morals, this could end in tears. Therefore, the birth of the first child was announced a month later. The child was named after his father.

Guevara Sr. planned to open a factory for processing Paraguayan tea in Rosario, but an economic crisis broke out in the country, and soon after the birth of their first child the family was forced to move to the farm that Celia inherited.

When Tete, that was the name of little Ernesto in the family, grew up, he received a good education at school, quite sufficient to enter the National University of Buenos Aires at the Faculty of Medicine. I dreamed of becoming a surgeon, but my studies took too long. In any case, Ernesto managed to be a sailor on an oil tanker, traveling to Trinidad and British Guiana. And a little later he makes two trips across countries at once Latin America, having traveled to all the largest countries.

In Guatemala, a young doctor meets his first love - the fiery revolutionary Ilda Gadea from Peru, who managed to engender in her husband a spark of non-acceptance of reality, making Ernesto a man capable of fighting for his ideals. Moreover, Guevara becomes an ultra-revolutionary, for whom there are no conventions in the choice of forms and means. And meeting Fidel Castro in 1955 becomes the starting point in Ernesto’s fate.

By that time he received the pseudonym “Comrade Che”. Back in 1954, when Guevara arrived in Mexico to work in a heart center, he stood out among his colleagues for his frequent use of oral speech Spanish interjection Che, characteristic of Argentines. In Russian it's something like "Hey".

But work at the Center does not satisfy the impulsive Guevara. He is lured by the new “amigo” Fidel, inviting him to work as a ship’s doctor on the later famous Granma. From this moment on, Comrade Che not only takes part in hostilities, he becomes one of Fidel’s most trusted people, to whom Castro entrusts the most difficult tasks. And there was no case when Guevara did not live up to these hopes.

If you look for an analogy of his troops in Soviet history, it turns out that Ernesto commanded the “penal battalions.” It was he who was the first to break into heavily fortified cities and break the resistance of the “imperialists” with a furious assault. Accordingly, the “guys” in Guevara’s “team” were selected so that, without asking unnecessary questions, they would be ready to carry out any order.

The war in Cuba continued until the spring of 1959. And as soon as Fidel was promoted to President of the Cuban Republic, one of the first decrees of the victorious people was the decree declaring Che Guevara a citizen of Cuba with the rights of a born Cuban. And he is “given” as his wife a born Cuban, Aleida March.

When folk hero was completely assimilated, he became right hand Fidel not only nominally, but also officially, having been appointed head of the industry department.

But it is difficult to be only “a little bit God.” Che Guevara doesn't succeed either. In March 1965, Che accused the USSR of “selling its aid to people’s revolutions” based on its own selfish interests. In Moscow, this speech is perceived as an insult. And Fidel Castro is faced with a difficult dilemma: to decide who is more dear to him: Che’s favorite or the USSR? The sane Fidel chooses Soviet Union. In response, Ernesto writes Farewell letter, in which he renounces his wife, children and Cuban citizenship. With pain in his heart, Fidel reads this letter to the people...

And Che at this time is already in the Belgian Congo, where he is training Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s partisans (supporters of Patrice Lumumba, who was killed several years earlier) with the goal of overthrowing the government. After the failure of the uprising he ends up in Bolivia.

But here, too, fate doesn’t particularly spoil him. Poorly trained and poorly armed rebels are defeated by American troops rapid response- one after another. On October 8, 1967, during the battle in the Yuro Hollow, the wounded Che was captured, and the very next day Sergeant Mario Teran shot the revolutionary, as it would later be recorded, “while trying to escape.” In fact, the wounded hero did not even think about running away...

Only after almost three decades did Che's killers reveal the truth about last days hero and his burial place. The bodies of Che and six of his comrades were buried in a mass grave, razed to the ground and filled with asphalt on the runway of an airfield in the vicinity of the village of Valle Grande. Later, when the asphalt is opened, the remains of the fallen partisans will be delivered to Havana, and the skeleton with the tag “E-2” will be identified as the remains of Che.

For many years, Comrade Che was a symbol of the revolution, a Cuban Danko. And heroes die early. He illuminated everything for a moment (in history these 10-11 years cannot be called anything other than a moment), but still no, no, and will appear on anyone’s T-shirt. But today, unfortunately, more and more often such an image is simply a tribute to fashion. Or a sign of a desire for a free life. But it’s sometimes more difficult to dispose of this freedom than to conquer it. Both the example of Cuba and the example of the USSR, by and large, only confirm this...

Ernesto Che Guevara - full name Ernesto Guevara de la Serna - was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario (Argentina). At the age of two, Ernesto suffered a severe form of bronchial asthma (and this disease haunted him all his life), and to restore his health, the family moved to Cordoba.

In 1950, Guevara was hired as a sailor on an oil cargo ship from Argentina, visiting the island of Trinidad and British Guiana.

In 1952, Ernesto went on a motorcycle trip to South America with his brother Granado. They visited Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.

In 1953 he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Buenos Aires and received a medical degree.

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.

In November 1966 he arrived in Bolivia to organize the partisan movement.
The partisan detachment he created on October 8, 1967 was surrounded and defeated by government forces. Ernesto Che Guevara was.

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; in October 1997, the remains of Che Guevara were reburied in the mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara in Cuba.

In 2000, Time magazine included Che Guevara in its lists of "20 Heroes and Icons" and "The 100 Most Important Persons of the 20th Century."

The Comandante's image appears on all banknotes in denomination three. Cuban pesos.
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.

On October 8, Cuba celebrates the Day of the Heroic Guerrilla in memory of Ernest Che Guevara.

Che Guevara was married twice and has five children. In 1955, he married Peruvian revolutionary Ilda Gadea, who gave birth to Guevara's daughter. In 1959, his marriage to Ilda broke up, and the revolutionary married Aleida March, whom he met in a partisan detachment. They had four children with Aleida.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Ernesto Guevara was born in the city of Rosario (Argentina). This event in the family of a Basque and an Irish woman occurred on June 14, 1928. Ernesto was the first of five children. His parents always supported the Republican Party in the Spanish Civil War. Veterans of the resistance army visited their house several times. This could not but affect young Ernesto. His father repeated more than once that his son was the flesh and blood of Irish rebels.

It is interesting to note that all family members loved to read. About 3,000 books were stored on the shelves. Among them are books by Franz Kafka, Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jules Verne, William Faulkner and many others.

Youth

In 1948, the future national hero of Argentina successfully passed the exams for the medical department in National University in Buenos Aires. Literally two years later he issued academic leave for an epic trip to Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado. On a motorcycle, two comrades traveled around half of the mainland and saw with their own eyes the main attractions, got acquainted with amazing nature and various peoples of a large continent. He wrote down his thoughts and impressions in a diary. Later, these recordings ended up on the front pages of the New York Times under the loud headline “The Motorcycle Diaries.”

Returning to Argentina, 22-year-old Ernesto sat down again - this time to complete his studies, and finally receive his well-deserved doctorate. He achieved his goal in 1953. But with all his thoughts and feelings he was directed to another world - a world of justice and freedom, directly opposite to thriving poverty and lawlessness.

Revolutionary activities

At the end of 1953, Ernesto Guevara moved to Guatemala, where he actively participated in political and public life countries. From there, under threat of arrest, he was forced to flee to Mexico. There he met his future wife, Ilde Gadea, who introduced him to the circle of revolutionary-minded emigrants from Liberty Island.

In the summer of 1955 he was expected fateful meeting with Raul Castro, who soon introduced him to his brother, Fidel Castro. The latter invited Guevara to join the Cuban revolutionary group to fight the dictatorial regime of Batista. The Argentine agreed without any doubt, because the success of the Cuban uprising is the first step towards victory in the continental revolution. And this was his main dream and goal in life.

Victory

The path to victory was difficult. Some died during the fighting, others were arrested and shot. However, Fidel Castro was supported by most of the country's population. As a result, in the summer of 1958, Batista’s army was completely defeated.

Guevara was awarded the highest military rank- Comandante. He became an honorary citizen of Cuba and second in command after Fidel Castro. But the honors didn't change him. He led a modest lifestyle and opposed all sorts of excesses and luxury. But the main thing is that he continued to wage his fair fight for equal rights, poverty eradication and new social society throughout the South American continent.

Other biography options

• IN short biography Ernesto Che Guevara cannot be ignored about the appearance of the word “Che” in his name. The fact is that the “comandante” often used the interjection “che”, which was literally translated as “friend”.
• In 1962 the world was on the brink nuclear war largely thanks to the efforts of Guevara. It was he who participated in bringing nuclear missiles to Cuba.
• In 1967, Che Guevara was captured and subsequently executed in La Ichera.

Few of our contemporaries were able to stir up public consciousness so much and leave behind so many mysteries and secrets as the symbol of the 20th century - Che Guevara.

The story of Ernesto Guevara is still replete with blank spots. And the most difficult thing is to understand and explain everything that lay behind the motives and impulses of this unique person, how he collected ideas that captivated entire peoples and countries, where and how he drew strength.

Ernesto was born on June 14, 1928 in the family of Irish-born architect Ernesto Guevara Lynch. Royal blood flowed in his veins, which he inherited from his mother, Doña Celia de la Serna la Llosa. A distant ancestor of Ernesto's mother, José de la Serna e Hinojosa (1770-1833), was a Spanish general, colonial official and the penultimate viceroy of Peru. Perhaps it was in Che Guevara, after many, many years, that the spirit of a brave and noble nobleman, accustomed to commanding events and people, was revived.

On the family's yerba mate plantation, Ernesto Guevara Lynch became the first in the area to pay his workers in cash, causing discontent among local planters. The eldest Guevara tried to educate his five children comprehensively: the house had a huge library of several thousand books, the doors of the house were always open to children of various classes - both from rich families and from families of ordinary workers. For example, Ernesto was friends with the daughter of the poet and journalist Córdoba Ituburu, who shared the ideas of the communists.

In the years civil war During Spain and the Second World War, Guevara’s house hosts many military figures, as well as political activists, who talk and discuss a lot about what is happening in the world. Most likely, it was at this time that Ernesto formed an understanding of the complex diversity of the world and sketches and ideas for the future concept of his worldview appeared.

Ernesto suffered from asthma from the age of two until the end of his life, so most of the time school curriculum He is studying at home. After receiving secondary education, in 1945 Ernesto entered the medical faculty of the University of Buenos Aires. As a student, he enjoys reading Sartre, Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, and the works of Argentine socialist authors. He himself keeps a diary and composes poems, which after his death will be published in multi-volume editions.

Young Ernesto has enough energy for a lot of things: he plays football, engages in rugby, horse riding, golf, gliding, travels a lot, preferring to travel by bicycle, hired a sailor, and visits several countries. Already at this age, the young man decides for himself that his main calling in life will not be his personal life, but serving people, following the example of those selfless people whom he sincerely admired. In 1952, together with the doctor of biochemistry Alberto Granadas, Ernesto Guevara visited Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Colombia, visiting and studying the work of leper colonies. On the road, travelers did not disdain any kind of work, helping to repair, heal, carry heavy loads and harvest crops, observing everyday life along the way. ordinary people and the difficult living conditions of the Indians.

In 1953, Guevara received a diploma in surgery and dermatology. And instead of going to serve in the army, he goes to Bolivia, where at that time the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement party came to power. Truly global things are happening in the country: the nationalization of mines, agrarian reform, the involvement of workers and peasants in government... Ernesto Guevara works a lot, meets different people, travels, including to the sacred places of the Indians, carefully studying their culture.

He visits Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, meets, communicates and enters into discussions with revolutionary figures different countries. In the same year, Ernesto met revolutionary Hilda Gadea Acosta. The young man captivated Ilda with his knowledge of Marxism, depth of judgment and choice life goal- to help ordinary people and fight for justice.

During the military conflict in Guatemala in 1954, Ernesto Guevara received his first combat experience: he participated in the group air defense, helped transport weapons, participated in propaganda work, as a result of which he was included in the list of “dangerous communists” designated for destruction. Che Guevara has to flee to Mexico.

In Mexico in 1955, he married Ilda Gadea Acosta. Ernesto tries himself as a journalist, continues to practice medicine and leads active life, meeting many progressive-minded people. One of them would later call Guevara “a continental revolutionary who thinks not so much about Argentina as about Latin America as a whole”...

In Mexico, Ernesto meets Fidel and Raul Castro, this meeting welcomes him to the future Island of Freedom - Cuba. It is interesting that after the meeting, Fidel Castro noted the great revolutionary maturity and courage of Che Guevara’s ideas. In preparation for the expedition to Cuba, all members of the detachment underwent active physical training: cross-country throws, judo classes, physical training in the gym, military exercises. In turn, Che Guevara taught the squad members how to provide first aid.

Needless to say, the courage of the 82 people who went out to sea in storm and rain on a small ship designed for 10 people. Their landmark was the island of Cuba, their goal was freedom. Only a week later the ship arrived on the shores of Cuba, and the detachment immediately came under fire from Batiste’s military. More than half of the expedition members were lost.

Che Guevara himself would later write: “Somewhere in the forest, during the long nights (at sunset our inaction began) we made daring plans. They dreamed of battles, major operations, and victory. It was happy hour. Together with everyone else, I enjoyed, for the first time in my life, cigars, which I learned to smoke to ward off annoying mosquitoes. Since then, the aroma of Cuban tobacco has become ingrained in me. And my head was spinning, either from the strong “Havana”, or from the audacity of our plans - one more desperate than the other.”

People around Che Guevara note his great love of reading, iron will, loyalty to ideals, self-sacrifice and concern for his comrades. In a difficult struggle with the forces of Batiste, victory was nevertheless snatched, and Che became the minister of the revolutionary government of Cuba.

In this position, he meets with prominent politicians from many other countries: Mao Zedong, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, he comes to Moscow. Guevara becomes a global symbol of the modern revolutionary, openly promoting his understanding of Marxism and castigating the shortcomings of existing socialist states.

He participates in revolutionary movements in African countries and in Bolivia. In 1967, in Bolivia, his squad comes under fire from specially trained CIA forces and Che is captured. The next day he was shot. Ernesto's burial place was unknown until 1997, when his remains were exhumed and buried with military honors in Cuba.

For many residents of Latin America and Cuba, Che Guevara became a saint; they turned to him “San Ernesto de La Higuera”, asking for protection and mercy.

The image of Che Guevara has become in the history of our time something more than just a revolutionary character. The direction of Chegevarism is a real Path of nonconformism, search and courage, a path overshadowed by romanticism and faith in the ability of man to change the world for the better.

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Che Guevara graffiti.© Photo wikipedia.org

Argentinean Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, who trained as a doctor and became one of the main characters Cuban revolution, before today remains a symbol of the pursuit of ideals. At the same time, he himself was not an ideal.

"Rosbalt Like" collected 20 facts about a man who lived fantastic life, but I would never have believed that his image would become one of the most replicated and commercially successful images of a real person.

1. Full name Che is Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, and Che is a nickname. And he was not born on June 14th.

Photo: wikimedia.org

He used the nickname to emphasize his Argentine origin. The interjection che is a common address in Argentina. As for the date of birth, his parents specifically wrote the date a month later on the birth certificate, otherwise it would have become known that the boy was conceived before the engagement, and Che’s father and mother did not want his relatives to know about this.

2. A distant ancestor of Che's mother was General José de la Serna e Hinojosa, Viceroy of Peru.

Photo: wikimedia.org

Che Guevara's family. From left to right: Ernesto Guevara, mother Celia, sister Celia, brother Roberto, father Ernesto with son Juan Martin and sister Anna Maria.

3. Che didn’t like to wash.

Ernesto's childhood name was Tete, which translated means “pig.” He always walked around as dirty as a pig. He himself said that he was called Borov. And not because he was fat, but because he was dirty. Fear of cold water, which sometimes caused asthma attacks, gave Ernesto a dislike for personal hygiene.

4. 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.

5. The name of Che Guevara appeared in newspapers for the first time not in connection with revolutionary events, and when he made a tour of four thousand kilometers on a moped, traveling all over South America.

The feature film “The Diary of a Motorcyclist” was shot about this journey.

Photo: wikimedia.org. In 1960, Che Guevara met his idols in Cuba - writers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Young Ernesto read the script on French(knowing this language from childhood) and was engaged in the interpretation of Sartre’s philosophical works “L’imagination”, “Situations I” and “Situations II”, “L”Être et le Nèant”, “Baudlaire”, “Quest-ce que la litèrature?”, "Lʼimagie." He loved poetry and even composed poems himself.

7. Che Guevara “rejected” the army.

Photo: wikimedia.org

Ernesto Che Guevara, not wanting to serve in the army, caused an asthma attack with an ice bath and was declared unfit for military service.

8. Che Guevara learned to smoke cigars in Cuba to ward off midges.

Photo flickr.com

Besides, it was cool. Although he couldn’t smoke a lot because of the same asthma.

9. Che Guevara in the early 1950s sometimes signed his letters “Stalin II.”

The sister of Fidel and Raul Castro, Juanita, who knew Guevara closely and later left for the United States, wrote about him in a biographical book: “Neither the trial nor the investigation mattered to him. He immediately started shooting because he was a man without a heart.”

After Castro's supporters came to power, Che became the commandant of the Havana fortress-prison of La Cabaña and the head of the appeals tribunal, which did not issue a single acquittal. According to some reports, he personally executed about 2,000 people, for which he received the nickname “The Butcher of La Cabaña.” In general, after Castro’s supporters came to power in Cuba, more than eight thousand people were shot, many without trial.

10. Was accidentally appointed Minister of Economy.

Photo: wikimedia.org

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 photo is the famous photograph of Che at the Cuban Ministry of Industry, 1963.

According to legend, Fidel Castro, having gathered his associates, 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.

11. Che Guevara was married twice and has five children.

Che Guevara with Ilde Gadea during honeymoon. Photo: wikimedia.org

In 1955, he married Peruvian revolutionary Ilda Gadea, who gave birth to Guevara's daughter. In 1959, his marriage to Ilda broke up, and the revolutionary married Aleida March (pictured), whom he met in a partisan detachment. They had four children with Aleida.

12. Che harshly criticized the USSR.

In 1963, Ernesto Che Guevara visited the USSR and spoke at a banquet in the Kremlin. His speech was harsh: “Is it really possible, Nikita Sergeevich, that everyone eats the way we do today? soviet people? In the USSR, bosses get more and more, leaders have no obligations to the masses. There is a blasphemous defamation of Stalin's merits and personality. The Khrushchev-Brezhnev group is mired in bureaucracy and nomenclature Marxism, is hypocritical about the US base in Guantanamo, and even agrees with the American occupation of this Cuban region.”

Later in 1964 in Moscow, he made an indictment against the non-internationalist policies of socialist countries. He reproached them for imposing on the poorest countries conditions of exchange of goods similar to those dictated by imperialism on the world market, as well as for refusing unconditional support, including military support, and for refusing the struggle for national liberation.

13. In some Latin American countries, after the death of Che, they seriously declare him a saint and call him San Ernesto de La Higuera.

Photo: wikimedia.org

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.

Many say that no dead man looked as much like Christ as Che in the photograph familiar to the whole world, where he lies on a table in a school, surrounded by Bolivian soldiers.

14. Che rarely sat still for a long time.

Photo: wikimedia.org

This map shows the countries (red) where Ernesto visited. The states where he participated in the revolution are highlighted in green.

15. The original of the famous portrait of Che actually looks like this:

Photo: wikimedia.org

On March 5, 1960, Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took famous photograph Ernesto Che Guevara. Initially, the photo contained the profile of a random person, but the author later removed unnecessary elements. The photo, titled “Heroic Partisan” (Guerrillero Historico), hung on the wall in Korda’s apartment for several years until he gave it to an Italian publisher he knew.

He published the picture immediately after the death of Che Guevara, and the story of the colossal success of this image began, which allowed many of its participants to earn good money. Ironically, Korda is perhaps the only one who never benefited financially from this photograph.

16. How the famous Che print appeared.

Photo: wikimedia.org

The world-famous two-color portrait of Che Guevara was created by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick from a photograph of Korda. Che's beret bears the José Martí star, a distinctive sign of a comandante (major, there was no higher rank in the revolutionary army), received from Fidel Castro in July 1957 along with this rank.

Fitzpatrick attached a photo of Korda to window glass and transferred the outlines of the image onto paper. From the resulting “negative”, using a special copy machine and black ink, he printed a poster on red paper and then gave away almost all copies of his work for free, which soon became as famous as its black and white original.

17. Che’s grave was found only in July 1995.

The original burial place of Che Guevara and 6 partisans. Photo: wikimedia.org

Almost 30 years after the murder, the location of Guevara's grave in Bolivia was discovered. And in July 1997, the remains of the Comandante were returned to Cuba; in October 1997, he was reburied in the mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara in Cuba.

18. Your very own famous quote Guevara never said Che.

Be realistic - demand the impossible! — This slogan of Paris May 1968 is mistakenly attributed to Che Guevara. In fact, he was shouted out at the University of Paris III New Sorbonne Jean Duvigneau and Michel Leris (François Dosse, History of Structuralism: The sign sets, 1967-present, p. 113).

19. In 2000, Time magazine included Che Guevara in its lists of “20 Heroes and Icons” and “One Hundred Most Important Persons of the 20th Century.”

In the photo from taringa.net, Che is seen with another person on this list, John Lennon.

20. 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.

The paradox of Che Guevara's legacy is that people wearing T-shirts with his image, as a rule, do not know that he advocated the complete subordination of the interests of the individual to the state, accused the USSR of imperialism, his hands were up to his elbows in blood, and his death was a relief met even in the leadership of Cuba. However, he became a symbol of the fight for freedom and change in society.