"Che" redirects here. For other uses, see Che (disambiguation).
| Che Guevara | |
|---|---|
 "Guerrillero Heroico" Che Guevara at the La Coubre memorial service. Taken by Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960. | |
| Born | Ernesto Guevara June 14, 1928 [1] Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina |
| Died | October 9, 1967 (aged 39) La Higuera, Vallegrande, Bolivia |
| Cause of death | Executed |
| Resting place | Che Guevara Mausoleum Santa Clara, Cuba |
| Organization | 26th of July Movement, United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution,[2]National Liberation Army (Bolivia) |
| Religion | None (Marxist humanist) [3][4][5] |
| Spouse | Hilda Gadea (1955–1959) Aleida March (1959-1967, his death) |
| Children | Hilda (1956–1995), Aleida (b. 1960), Camilo (b. 1962), Celia (b. 1963), Ernesto (b. 1965) |
| Signature |  |
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtʃe geˈβaɾa];[6] June 14,[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxistrevolutionary, physician, author, intellectual,guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitouscountercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.[7]
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty andalienation he witnessed.[8] His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result ofcapitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, andimperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution.[9] This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raúl and 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 dictatorFulgencio Batista.[10] 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.[11]
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 aswar criminals during the revolutionarytribunals,[12] instituting agrarian 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[13] and bringing the Soviet nuclear-armedballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.[14] Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later inBolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and 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; he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century,[16] while an Alberto Kordaphotograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."[17]
