Ernesto+Che+Guevara

=__Ernesto "Che" Guevara:__=

=**//Early Years//:**=

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928. He was the eldest of five children, son of Celia de la Serna y Llosa and Ernesto Guevara Lynch, decedents of Spanish and Irish. Growing up in a family with leftist leanings, Che Guevara was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy. His father, a staunch supporter of Republicans from the Spanish Civil War. Che Guevara learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12. During adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry.

Sigmund Freud's ideas fascinated him as he quoted him on a variety of topics from dreams and libido to narcissism and the Oedipus complex. His favorite subjects in school included philosophy, mathematics, engineering, political science, sociology, history and archaeology. In 1948, Che Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. In 1951 he made a nine moths 8,000 kilometer continental motorcycle trip around most of South America. For the latter, he took a yeas of the studies to embark with his friend Alberto Granado, with the final goal of spending a few weeks volunteering at San Pablo leper colony in Peru.

On the way to Machu Picchu, he was struck by the crushing poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers worked small plots of land owned by wealthy landlords. Later on his journey, Che Guevara was especially impressed by the camaraderie among those living in a leper colony. Che Guevara used notes taken during this trip to write an account entitled __The Motorcycle Diaries__. In total, the journey took Che Guevara through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and to Miami, before returning home. By trip's end, he came to view Latin America not as collection of separate nations, but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide liberation strategy. His conception of a border-less, united Hispanic America sharing a common Lationo heritage was a theme that prominently recurred during his later revolutionary activities. In June 1953 he completed his studies and received his medical degree.

= = =**//Initiating his fight//:**=

In Guatemala City, Che Guevara sought out Hilda Gadea Acosta, a Peruvian economist who was well-connected politically as a member of the left-leaning APRA, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance. She introduced Guevara to a number of high-level officials in the Arbenz government. Che Guevara then established contact with a group of Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro. During this period he acquired his famous nickname, due to his frequent use of the Argentine diminutive interjection //che.//

Che Guevara was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed militia organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose, but frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to medical duties.Guevara’s repeated calls to resist were noted by supporters of the coup, and he was marked for murder. After Hilda Gadea was arrested, Che Guevara sought protection inside the Argentine consulate,where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later and made his way to Mexico. He married Gadea in Mexico in September 1955. The overthrow of the Arbenz regimented Che Guevara's view of the United States as an imperialist power that would oppose and attempt to destroy any government that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality Latin America and other developing countries.

Che Guevara arrived in Mexico City in early September 1954, and worked in the allergy section of the General Hospital. During this time he renewed his friendship with Ñico López and the other Cuban exiles whom he had met in Guatemala. In June 1955, López introduced him to Raul Castro who introduced him to his older brother, Fidel Castro. After talking with Castro Che Guevara decided that Cuban's movement was what he was looking for, soon he became close friend with Castro and together they made a revolutionary couple that would change the world in the Cuban Revolution.

=**//Cuban Revolution//:**=

On November 1956 Fidel Castro and Che Guevara with more 80 revolutionaries went to Cuba by boat from Mexico and established a base in Sierra Maestra, to overthrow Batista and his dictatorial government. The revolutionaries stay in the jungle and slowly advance in the through the country. Spreading Marxist ideas along the cities Castro and Che gain support of the peasants to overthrow Batista's regime. After years of fighting the guerrilla advance to Havana at the same time the dictatorial regime enter in crises and popular revolts against Batista, who fled the country, goes out. In January 1, 1959 the revolutionaries seized power with Castro as the new leader and Che Guevara as head of National Bank.

Che Guevara was important to Cuban Revolution due his aggressive attitude in the battles and for being an extraordinary excellent commandant. In 1961 Che transfer himself to the Industry Ministry. But tired of the bureaucratic life he decide to leave Cuba and help others third world countries with their revolution. He goes to Africa but his ideas are not very welcome and he goes back to South America hiding from the C.I.A.

=//**Capture and Execution:**//=

On October 7, 1967, an informant apprised the Bolivian Special Forces of the location of Che Guevara's guerrilla encampment in the Yuro ravine. On October 8, they encircled the area with 1,800 soldiers, and Guevara was wounded and taken prisoner while leading a detachment with Simeón Cuba Sarabia. Che Guevara was tied up and taken to a dilapidated mud schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera on the night of October 8. Che Guevara was shot through the right calf, his hair was matted with dirt, his clothes were shredded, and his feet were covered in rough leather sheaths. Despite his haggard appearance, he recounts that "Che held his head high, looked everyone straight in the eyes and asked only for something to smoke." Later that morning on October 9, 1967, Bolivian President René Barrientos ordered that Guevara be killed. The executioner was Mario Terán, a half-drunken sergeant in the Bolivian army who had requested to shoot Che.

A few minutes before Guevara was executed, he was asked by a Bolivian soldier if he was thinking about his own immortality. "No," he replied, "I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution." When Sergeant Terán entered the hut, Che Guevara then told his executioner, "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man!" Terán hesitated, then opened fire with his semiautomatic rifle, hitting Guevara in the arms and legs. Guevara writhed on the ground, apparently biting one of his wrists to avoid crying out. Terán then fired several times again, wounding him fatally in the chest. In all, Che Guevara was shot nine times. This included five times in the legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, once in the chest, and finally in the throat. Months earlier, during his last public declaration to the Tricontinental Conference Guevara wrote his own epitaph stating "Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons."


 * Created by A rthur Peixoto.**
 * Sources:** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Epoca/0,6993,EPT721447-1655,00.html http://guiadoestudante.abril.com.br/estudar/saiba-mais/che-revolucao-cubana-504842.shtml