tHe mAn naMEd Che...

Who is this man they call Che? His image is everywhere but few people really knew who the man behind the famous image is.

My first encounter with him was in PUP, I saw his picture hanging on a wall of a small room occupied by student activists. I do not know anything about the man, but that first encounter was not the last but only the beginning. I saw the man behind the picture again sometime in 1997, later I learned that it was the year when his skeletal remain was discovered. From a movie to books I slowly began to learn about the man they call Che. Read and maybe you too can now wear the shirt because you know who he is.

Che Guevara was born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna on 14 June 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, into a relatively upper-middle class family. His father was a construction engineer. He was the first of five children.

Enrolled in the University of Buenos Aires in 1948, studies medicine, becomes interested in leprosy. His asthma disqualifies him for military service.

In 1951, he takes off on a motorcycle journey with his good friend, Alberto Granado. They travel from Buenos Aires, down the coast of Argentina, through the Andes into Chile, and then north into Peru, Columbia and Venezuela. The diary Che kept during this time has been published as: The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America.

In September of 1954, he moves to Mexico City, finding work in the General Hospital. Through Hilda Gadea, a Peruvian Marxist, he meets Fidel Castro and involves himself in the planned invasion of Cuba. He marries Hilda Gadea. They had a daughter, Hildita.

Under the influence of Castro, Alberto Bayo and the writings of Mao Tse Tung, he begins to form the primary axioms of his philosophy of guerrilla warfare. In this time he also began to be called 'Che', for his habit of ending his sentences and calling his friends 'Che'- which is an Argentinean expression for buddy.

In 1956, the revolutionaries land in Cuba on the

"yacht" Granma, initiating a three-year guerrilla war against the dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Che is included at first for his medical expertise but soon rises through the ranks to become the Commandante of the Revolutionary Army of Barbutos. In this role, he is directly responsible for dozens of executions of defectors and Batista loyalists. The revolutionaries succeed in overthrowing the Batista regime in January of 1959. Che is now considered second only to Castro, who appoints him Governor of the National Bank.

He marries Aleida March de la Torre, with whom he eventually has four children.

Becomes disillusioned with Soviet Communism, makes a formal break in a speech delivered in February of 1965. Calls for guerrilla-type revolutionary actions in Africa, Asia and South America.

Che goes underground, traveling through Africa, eventually assembling a group of Cubans to fight in the Kinshasa rebellion in the Congo. The rebellion fails and Che withdraws in August of 1965.

In November 1966, he leads a group of guerrillas through southeastern Bolivia, hoping to inspire the peasants and workers into a revolutionary movement that would spread all throughout Latin America, sparking off "twenty new Vietnam". Dispirited by casualties, illness and depression, the ragged group is cornered by a Bolivian battalion (which had been trained by US Special Forces in anti-guerrilla warfare) in a gorge on October 8. Two jets and a helicopter provide air support. Che is taken to the nearby town of La Higuera.

He refuses all attempts at interrogation by CIA and Bolivian officials. The Bolivian president, General Rene Barrientos, orders the execution of Guevara as soon as possible.

9 October 1967. After a few false starts and Che's telling them to get it over with, six or more shots are fired into Guevara's torso. His last words have been: "Shoot, coward! You are going to kill a man."

After his death, a death mask was made and his hands were cut off to ensure identification. His body was buried in a secret grave. Guevara was 39 years old.

In June of 1997, a team of Cuban and Argentinian scientists recovered the skeleton, missing both hands, of Guevara in the town of Vallegrande, Bolivia. The bones have since been "repatriated" to Cuba.

I have books about him, five (5), if you want to borrow just text me.