All Power
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Spanish: [ˈtʃe ɣeˈβaɾa];[3] 14 June 1928[4] – 9 October 1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.[5]
Che Guevara
Guerrillero Heroico Picture taken by Alberto Korda on 5 March 1960, at the La Coubre memorial service
Minister of Industries of CubaIn office
11 February 1961 – 1 April 1965Prime MinisterFidel CastroPreceded byOffice establishedSucceeded byJoel Domenech BenítezPresident of the Central Bank of CubaIn office
26 November 1959 – 23 February 1961Preceded byFelipe PazosSucceeded byRaúl Cepero BonillaPersonal detailsBorn
Ernesto Guevara
14 June 1928[1]
Rosario,Santa Fe Province,ArgentinaDied9 October 1967(aged 39)
La Higuera,Vallegrande,BoliviaCause of deathExecution by shootingResting placeChe Guevara Mausoleum
Santa Clara, CubaNationalityArgentinianSpouse(s)
Hilda Gadea (m. 1955; div. 1959)
Aleida March (m. 1959)
ChildrenHilda (1956–1995)
Aleida(born 1960)
Camilo (born 1962)
Celia (born 1963)
Ernesto (born 1965)ParentsErnesto Guevara Lynch
Celia de la Serna y LlosaAlma materUniversity of Buenos AiresOccupationCombat medic,Author,Guerrilla, Government officialProfessionPhysicianKnown forGuevarismSignatureMilitary serviceNickname(s)CheAllegianceRepublic of Cuba[2]Branch/serviceCuban Revolutionary Armed Forces
National Liberation Army (Bolivia)Years of service1955-1967Unit26th of July MovementCommandsCommanding officerof theCuban Revolutionary Armed ForcesBattles/warsCuban Revolution
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger, and disease he witnessed.[6][7] His burgeoning desire to help overturn what he saw as the capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Árbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow at the behest of the United Fruit Company solidified Guevara's political ideology.[6] Later in Mexico City, Guevara met Raúland Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.[8]Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second in command and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.[9]
Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals,[10] instituting agrarian land reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba's armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion,[11] and bringing Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba, which preceded the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.[12]Additionally, Guevara was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal guerrilla warfare manual, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey. His experiences and studying of Marxism–Leninismled him to posit that the Third World's underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism, neocolonialism and monopoly capitalism, with the only remedy being proletarian internationalism and world revolution.[13][14] Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.[15]
Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives,[16]Guevara has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist movements. In contrast, his ideological critics on the right accuse him of authoritarianism and sanctifying violence against his political opponents. Despite disagreements on his legacy, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century,[17]while an Alberto Korda photograph of him, titled Guerrillero Heroico, was cited by the Maryland Institute College of Art as "the most famous photograph in the world".[18]
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