THE ICON AND SYMBOL OF REBELLION (Who was CHE GUEVARARA)

                                             

                                      

By Elizabeth H. Elys

All through history, revolutions have changed all of us. They have shaped the way we live today. Che Guevara is the ultimate revolutionary icon and is a symbol of rebellion, nonconformity, and social inequality. He always fought so common man could be equal, against social injustice, slavery and ethnic discrimination.

As a matter of fact, he was selected by TIME magazine as among "the most influential people of the 20th century." Throughout history, few has died yet never ceased to have a profound impact on the living like
he did, especially now that his revolutionary ideals, which he once lived by and died fighting for, have made their way to attract the contemporary men and women of 21st century all over the world with the help of variety of easily accessible means.

Che Guevara is one of the most well know and distinguished revolutionaries who ever lived. While many people are familiar with his achievement of helping to overthrow and rebuild the Cuban government, his image has expanded well beyond his political success.

Many people associate  Che Guevara with the word "revolution" while others remember him as guerrilla. While everyone has their own interpretation of Che, others solely recognize his picture on clothing, books, artwork...

Who was really Che Guevara?

CHE GUEVARA described as "an intellectual" and also the most complete human being of our age. He was Argentine- Cuban nonfiction writer, essayist, diarist and political theorist.

As a writer of nonfiction, Guevara is best known for the training manual entitled LA GUERRA DE GUERRILLAS (1960 Guerrilla Warfare) and his posthumously published EL DIARIO DE CHE EN BOLIVIA (1968) The Diary of CHE Guevara. He is also the author of numerous collections of speeches and articles on such wide ranging topics as socialist morality and economic planning.

Che Guevara was interested in everything, from sociology an philosophy to mathematics. There were plenty of books in the Guevara home. As a young child, Guevara became interested in reading, Marx, Engels and Freud found in his father library. He showed particular interest in the work, especially poetry of Walt Whitman, F. Garcia Lorca, Antonio Machado and Pablo Neruda. It was later confirmed by his father, that he began to explore Marxist and other socialist literary work at home during the presidency of Juan Peron, who ultimately was the greatest inspiration of Che.

In 1930, when he was two years old, he moved to Cordoba, Spain because of asthma. As he grew up, he watched the Spanish refugees from the Spanish Civil War fight against the fascist dictator Francisco Franco. He was influenced by the war and refugees. In Buenos Aires, Argentina went to medical school He graduated in 1953.

During the 1950"s Ernesto Che Guevara, at this time, a medical student and his  friend Alberto Granado took a motorcycle trip through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela.  Ernesto’s adventures
throughout South America led to his observations of different socio-economic classes there, revealing misery, oppression and injustice affecting the lower class people, caused by the upper class. Ernesto’s profession as a doctor also led him to observe the lack of resources in the South American continent due to imperialist countries taking everything. These two experiences led to Ernesto formation as revolutionary later on his life as his political and his analysis shows throughout his journal the MOTORCYCLE DIARIES.

Che Guevara suffered from a lifelong asthmatic condition that might have prevented any other man from participating in guerrilla warfare as he did, but he was determined to not let his ailment interfere with
his ideals for a just society. This condition may be why, as a doctor, he specialized in allergies.

In Mexico City he met Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. Che Guevara joined Castro followers at a farm, where they were training for guerrilla war tactics. The tactics were those firs used by Mao Tse Tung. At this time, Ernesto Guevara first was nick named "CHE" which is Italian pal.

Guevara played an important role in converting Castro to communism, often quoting Marx, Engels, Mao Tse- Tung and other. As an intellectual and idealist, he was able to speak to Castro about Aristotle, Kant, Marx or Faulkner and also about his loved poetry of Sara de Ibanez, his favorite writer.

Che Guevara became part of Fidel Castro’s effort to overthrow the Batista government in Cuba.  He served as a military advisor to Castro and led guerrilla troops in battles against Batista forces. When Castro took power in 1959. Guevara became in charge of LA CABANA FORTRESS prison. Later he became president of the Cuban national bank and helped to shift the country’s trade relations from the USA to Soviet Union. He was appointed minister of industry. He left this post in 1965 to export the ideas of CUBA s revolution to other parts of the world. In 1966, he began to try to incite the people of Bolivia to rebel against their government, but had little success. With only a small guerrilla force to support his effort, Guevara was

captured and killed in LA HIGUERA by the Bolivian army on October 9,1967.

Journalist H. L. Matthews writes about Guevara in his book, REVOLUTION IN CUBA:  His dedication to his revolutionary beliefs was deeply religious. CHE had a missionary’s faith in the innate goodness of man,
in the ability of workers to dedicate themselves to ideals and to overcome selfishness and prejudice. It was the other side of the coin of his passionate indignation against injustice and exploitation of the humble. He saw the solution in an exalted form of Marxism that would bring freedom and brotherhood. Such men are born to be martyrs.