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  • Explanatory Article, Global History (1900-present), International Relations, Journalistic Explanatory, Latin American Studies, People, Political History, World History
  • October 28, 2018

Che Guevara: Road to Radical

Photo of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960 | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photo of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960 | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Alexander Manibusan

Alexander Manibusan

His face is known all over the world. With his long thick hair and charismatic stare, Che Guevara is globally recognized as a symbol for revolution and rebellion. He was the young medical student who sought to free the world not only from disease but also from oppression, poverty, and corruption by any means necessary. Around the world, especially in Latin America, Che Guevara is seen as a hero of the poor. But in other places, such as in the United States, he is regarded as a communist warlord whose radicalism only left chaos. But who was this Che Guevara? And how is it that this Argentinian physician became one of the most polarizing characters in modern history?


Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. As a child, Guevara suffered from asthma attacks, and he was mostly taught at home by his mother. This is where Guevara’s mental cogs about politics began to turn, for he was exposed to his mother’s radical views, and he also read several controversial leftist works in his family’s library. And at the age of fourteen, Guevara joined the Partido Unión Democrática, an organization that opposed the Argentine dictator Juan Perón. Influenced by his chronic asthma and his grandmother’s death from cancer, Guevara decided medicine was what he wanted to do, and in 1948, he went to the University of Buenos Aires.1


“I dreamed about being a famous researcher. I dreamed of working tirelessly to achieve something that could really be put at the disposal of humanity…” —Ernesto Guevara2


Guevara in Argentina in 1951 | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

In 1953, Guevara finished his studies and became a physician, but a few years before that, he decided to take a few motorcycle trips around Latin America. The first trip was in 1950, and the second was from 1951 to 1952 with his friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist. The two medical students would travel through Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. Guevara then went to the United States by himself, only to be extremely broke before heading back to Argentina.3 It was on this second trip that Guevara and Granado witnessed unimaginable levels of poverty, disease, and hunger. During their time in Chile, Guevara wrote in his diary how the hospitals they visited had filthy operating rooms, poor lighting, limited surgical instruments, and virtually no awareness of hygiene. Compared to Argentina, Chile’s standard of living was low and unemployment was high. Even for those who did work, such as the Chilean miners, the authorities provided them with little protection.4 After Guevara became a doctor, he went on another trip—this time to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

This third trip only added more inspiration for Guevara to enter the political realm, for he observed the mobilization of workers and reforms in Bolivia following the Bolivian Revolution in 1952. It was then and there that Guevara believed that in order for him to change the world for good, he was going to need more than just medicine.5


In the early 1950s, the world was in the early stages of the Cold War. The two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, each believed that their ways of ordering their economies and politics was the right way, and the rest of the world was forced to join one side or the other. Much like the rest of the world, Latin American countries’ decisions could mean their survival or destruction. This was an especially difficult for time for Latin American countries because many of them were run by their country’s elites or military dictators. Many within those countries saw communism as their solution for liberty, which led the United States to become involved in Latin American affairs, both overtly and covertly, to control its communist potential.6

Take Guatemala: from the 1940s to the early 195os, the natives had their land taken away by the United Fruit Company, an American corporation that had banana plantations in the country. The democratically-elected president Jacobo Árbenz sought big changes in his country, including giving those appropriated lands back to the natives. He was able to redistribute some of the uncultivated lands to the Guatemalan peasants, while compensating the landowners.7 However, in 1954, Árbenz was overthrown by a U.S.- sponsored military coup.8 The United States claimed that they were simply preventing communists from taking private property. After all, they said, Árbenz did embrace Marxist ideas and his government did contain members from the Communist Party. In reality, however, the U.S. was protecting an American company’s profits and the government that replaced Árbenz turned out to be murderous.9


Guevara was actually working in Guatemala as a doctor when this happened. In fact, it was in Guatemala that he earned the nickname “Che,” which roughly translates as “hey you.” However, when Árbenz was overthrown, Guevara was shocked and sought refuge in the Argentinian embassy. Guevara witnessed not only just how powerful the United States was, but also how imperialistic and intimidating it was. How can a country that believes in democracy and freedom aggressively attack a smaller nation? For the next two months, still in the embassy, Guevara studied all he could find on Marxism. However, no matter how much he studied, Guevara felt there was no hope to further change Guatemala from its current state.10 From the embassy, Guevara escaped to Mexico City, where he would continue studying Marxism and eventually meet Cuban revolutionaries Fidel and Raul Castro.11


The Communist Symbol | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Marxist theory is a collection of economic, social, and political ideas developed by German philosopher Karl Marx.12 This theory has been used in labor, anti-colonial, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements. Although it can be used in a variety of movements, Marx was specifically interested in the behavior of industrial capitalism. He observed that the wealth produced by a factory was made possible by the workers who worked for long hours for little pay. However, only a few, such as the factory owners, benefited from most of this wealth creation, while the workers were left impoverished.13 What Marxist theory provides is an alternative to this capitalist process. In Marxist vocabulary, the capitalist elite is called the bourgeoisie and the workers are called the proletariat. Because of the class conflict inherent in the process of capitalist production, Marx predicted that the proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie.14 In fact, the objective of Marxist theory is to overthrow the bourgeoisie, establish a dictatorship of the working class, and begin the process of communism, where, ideally, wealth is distributed evenly to everybody. Once in charge of the state, the proletariat will be able to transform the oppressive nature of the state and replace it with an organization that administers the coordination of society’s production, or “the administration of things.” The state structure of oppression will then “wither away” and humanity will enter an egalitarian society and live according to the Marxist phrase “from each according to his abilities—to each according to his needs.”15 This would be the communist stage that Marx envisioned as the necessary resolution of the class conflicts of the capitalist stage of development. There would no longer be rich and poor—there would no longer be social oppressions of any kind. However, in order to establish that classless society, the proletariat must first create a revolution to seize power from the bourgeoisie.


Che Guevara (left) and Fidel Castro (right) in 1961 | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

After the replacement of Árbenz, Guevara believed that the U.S. was his enemy and presumed that it was vital to destroy the agents of capitalism and imperialism. When he met Fidel and Raul Castro, he agreed to help them overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba.16 In 1956, Guevara and eighty-two other fighters, guerrillas, sailed to Cuba, determined to overthrow the dictator Fulgencio Batista. However, once they arrived, they were ambushed and half of the group was instantly killed. In the midst of the ambush, Guevara was left with two things to choose: a first-aid kit or a box of bullets. With adrenaline flooding him and the will to survive, he chose the box of bullets.17 It was there, on that Cuban beach, that Che Guevara was no longer some ordinary doctor. Rather, he converted to a guerrilla fighter, who would not let anything stand in his way, even if it means killing others.

After fleeing to the Sierra Maestra mountains, the remaining guerrilla fighters had to reformulate their mission. For the next two years, they recruited peasant farmers and other Cubans to join their cause.18 With strategic and swift lightning raids, they gradually crushed Batista’s forces. In December 1958, fighters under the command of Guevara invaded the city of Santa Clara. Hearing this news, Batista feared his defeat was unavoidable, and so he fled to the Dominican Republic. On January 8, 1959, Cuba was now in the hands of the Castros and Guevara.19


The overthrowing of Batista wouldn’t have been possible without the utilization of guerrilla warfare. Derived from the Spanish term for “little war,” guerrilla warfare describes the tactics small groups can use against bigger, typically better-equipped, forces. Usually, guerrilla fighters rely on tactics such as ambush, espionage, and sabotage. By no means is guerrilla warfare a new concept. During the American Revolution, the colonists learned from the natives to hide in dense forest regions and attack the British army by surprise. In World War II, guerrilla (or underground) forces in France fought against Nazi occupation. Other examples include the American Civil War, the Chinese Civil War, and the Vietnam War.20

In 1961, Guevara’s handbook, Guerrilla Warfare, was published. In it, he describes how the Cuban rebels were able to be so successful. He writes that it is not necessary to wait for all the ideal conditions for a revolution to occur. Especially when it comes to colonialism or imperialism, Guevara mentions certain things can create fertile ground for revolution and that guerrilla fighters, with lightning speed, can engage against weak government forces. This can be accomplished easily in rural regions since government forces are weaker there than in cities.21 Guevara writes not only about how guerrilla warfare works, but also how to create a revolution, and that it is possible for popular forces to win a war against an army bigger than them. 22 Guevara’s work would become a sort of manual for organizations such as the guerrillas of the Argentine Workers Revolutionary Party, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Mexico.23


In Cuba, Guevara was responsible for setting up medical clinics and taught peasants how to read. In fact, over time, the literacy rates in Cuba rivaled that of the United States and western European countries.24 He would also draft a law that redistributed land to the people.25 Under the new Castro government, all Cubans now had access to jobs, medical care, and free education.26 Although everyone had food to eat and a roof over their head, Cuba never became a paradise.

Although there was no longer poor and rich, it did not mean that the Cubans were living in a utopia. Cubans still lacked certain freedoms, such as speaking against the government or traveling outside the country. Under Fidel Castro’s regime, they tried and executed 483 people, mainly Batista’s supporters, in the span of three months.27 Castro would also often purge anyone who would speak in favor of policies he disagreed with.28 Not only did Cuba lack liberty, but it also lacked a stable economy, because Guevara assumed positions for jobs he had no expertise in. Although he tried to reestablish Cuba’s economy, Guevara ultimately couldn’t, due to the lack of sufficient money for development, the lack of established markets, and lack of advanced technology.29 Essentially, Cuba replaced one dictator with another, and so many Cubans secretly left, hoping to find freedom elsewhere. Sadly, the people Guevara was trying to help and save, ended up fleeing from him and so his dream for Cuba resulted in failure.

Although Guevara never accomplished his goal for a fair and just world, many see him as a paragon for standing against goliathan forces. However, there is also evidence that Guevara was a criminal, since he was involved in the creation of Cuba’s new notorious dictatorship. Guevara started with worthy intentions, yet when did he cross the line from being a moderate individual to a radical? What was the spark that led this physician to become a fighter for revolution? With multiple events, such as his motortcycle trips and the attack in Guatemala, did Guevara become a radical abruptly, or was it more subtle? The story of Che Guevara is a testament to humanity that reveals to us that history is a spectrum of perspectives and that anyone has the potential to transform into a radical.

 

  1. Contemporary Hispanic Biography, 2003, s.v. “Guevara, Ché (Ernesto): 1928-1967: Revolutionary Leader,” by Kari Bethel. ↵
  2. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin America Journey (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2003), 167. ↵
  3. Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, 2007, s.v. “Guevara, Che (1928-1967),” by Gary L. Anderson. ↵
  4. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin America Journey (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2003), 87. ↵
  5. Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, 2007, s.v. “Guevara, Che (1928-1967),” by Gary L. Anderson. ↵
  6. John C. Chasteen, Born In Fire & Blood: A Concise History of Latin America 4th ed. (New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2016), 275. ↵
  7. John C. Chasteen, Born In Fire & Blood: A Concise History of Latin America, Fourth Edition (New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2016), 279. ↵
  8. Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, 2007, s.v. “Guevara, Che (1928-1967),” by Gary L. Anderson. ↵
  9. John C. Chasteen, Born In Fire & Blood: A Concise History of Latin America, Fourth Edition (New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2016), 279. ↵
  10. Contemporary Hispanic Biography, 2003, s.v. “Guevara, Ché (Ernesto): 1928-1967: Revolutionary Leader,” by Kari Bethel. ↵
  11. Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, 2007, s.v. “Guevara, Che (1928-1967),” by Gary L. Anderson. ↵
  12. Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, 2007, s.v. “Marxist Theory,” by Gary L. Anderson. ↵
  13. Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, 2009, s.v. “Marxist Theory,” by Ronald Walter Greene. ↵
  14. Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, 2009, s.v. “Marxist Theory,” by Ronald Walter Greene. ↵
  15. Encyclopedia of Political Science, 2011, s.v. “Withering Away of the State”; Karl Marx, “Critique of the Gotha Programme,” in Marx: Later Political Writings, ed. Terrell Carver (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 214-215. ↵
  16. John C. Chasteen, Born In Fire & Blood: A Concise History of Latin America Fourth Edition (New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2016), 284. ↵
  17. Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, 2007, s.v. “Guevara, Che (1928-1967),” by Gary L. Anderson. ↵
  18. Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, 2014, s.v. “Che Guevara Publishes Guerrilla Warfare,” by Jennifer Stock. ↵
  19. Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, 2014, s.v. “Che Guevara Publishes Guerrilla Warfare,” by Jennifer Stock. ↵
  20. Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security, 2003, s.v. “Guerrilla Warfare,” by María López. ↵
  21. Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, 2014, s.v. “Che Guevara Publishes Guerrilla Warfare,” by Jennifer Stock. ↵
  22. Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security, 2003, s.v. “Guerrilla Warfare,” by María López. ↵
  23. Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, 2014, s.v. “Che Guevara Publishes Guerrilla Warfare,” by Jennifer Stock. ↵
  24. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, 2008, s.v., “Castro Ruz, Fidel (1926-2016),” by Michael Powelson. ↵
  25. Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, 2014, s.v. “Che Guevara Publishes Guerrilla Warfare,” by Jennifer Stock. ↵
  26. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, 2008, s.v., “Since 1959,” by Jonathan C. Brown. ↵
  27. John C. Chasteen, Born In Fire & Blood: A Concise History of Latin America Fourth Edition (New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2016), 285-291. ↵
  28. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, 2008, s.v., “Since 1959,” by Jonathan C. Brown. ↵
  29. Contemporary Hispanic Biography, 2003, s.v. “Guevara, Ché (Ernesto): 1928-1967: Revolutionary Leader,” by Kari Bethel. ↵

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  • Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Fidel Castro, Latin America, Marxism

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Alexander Manibusan

Alexander Manibusan

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This Post Has 64 Comments

  1. Avatar
    Priscilla Reyes 1 Apr 2019 Reply

    I had previously read this article, but in reading it again I found something new. The starting point for Guevara was the Bolivian Revolution and his main fight was against Capitalism. Whether he was involved with the dictatorship of Fildel Castro is a good question but an interesting point made was he was surprised by the power the United States imposed on Latin American countries and I agree that there was manipulation and many unethical political motives. A difference between Cuba and other countries was the use of guerrillas and their negative connotation.

  2. Avatar
    Christopher Metta Bexar 7 Mar 2019 Reply

    It was an interesting article. It’s curious how any article condemning the Peron government of Argentina is embraced by Latinos. Evita Peron in her own way attempted to help the Argentine people in ways that Guevara never attempted.
    It is good however to learn more about Guevara and what he stood for. And to get a sense of why he hated the United States. At least that part of our history books was right. He was a communist rebel. Not a Marxist leader.

  3. Avatar
    Priscilla Reyes 2 Mar 2019 Reply

    How communism led to dictatorship is an amazing question and I really liked the author’s note that Guevara’s intention for equality did not mean paradise or a country were nothing was wrong. I find it interesting that Guevara first practiced medicine and then switched to becoming a master of guerillas. I am now interested in reading the book mentioned by the author and congratulate on his choice of adding a video too because it helps to understand the concept of marxism if people do not already do.

  4. Avatar
    Vanessa Sanchez 20 Feb 2019 Reply

    Che Guevara his picture looks extremely familiar but in reality don’t know who he is. It’s pretty awesome how people consider him a rebellion symbol. Guevara left Cuba for Latin America. As many consider him as a hero many may hate him. In my opinion they way he seek rebellion was a little to extreme. But I do see the other side in how he stood up for someone he didn’t really have the obligation and if I was the victim he would definitely be the hero in my eyes. The article in general was awesome the fact that a video was added towards the end of the story was awesome it definitely show readers in a visual representation of what the article was stating.

  5. Avatar
    Bianca-Rhae Jacquez 27 Jan 2019 Reply

    This article was very insightful on the life of Che Guevara and how he got into politics. I was not aware that he started off as a doctor and his experience in Latin American hospitals was what convinced him that he wanted to pursue more than just medicine. Che Guevara is seen as a hero to some and as a villain to others and that is something I think you can only be Cuban to understand the difference.

  6. Avatar
    Samantha Luckey 6 Dec 2018 Reply

    Congratulations on being nominated for your article! Before reading this article, I already knew details about this subject, but this article provided new information and was very informative, especially the video at the end. Overall the writing was well done, and this author was able to engage the reader to continue reading on, as well as, informing the reader of important details over the Che Guevara’s life. Great work!

  7. Avatar
    Alexandra Lopez 28 Nov 2018 Reply

    Congratulations on your nomination. I really liked that the author included a video at the end of the article to sum up Che Guevara’s fight. The author did a excellent job telling the story of an educated man with a burning desire to make things right between the poor and the rich but at what cost? Overall, great read! (reposted)

  8. Avatar
    Alexandra Lopez 27 Nov 2018 Reply

    Congratulations on your nomination. I really liked that the author included a video at the end of the article to sum up Che Guevara’s fight. The author did a excellent job telling the story of an educated man with a burning desire to make things right between the poor and the rich but at what cost? Overall, great read!

  9. Avatar
    Rosa Castillo 20 Nov 2018 Reply

    Congratulations on your nomination! I thoroughly enjoyed the video you included in the end. It helps the reader understand your article and provides visual content for visual learners. What Che Guevara did for Latin Americans by overlooking land distribution and highering the literacy rates in Cuba. Che left Cuba to lead revolutions in Latin America in an effort to speak up for the rights of oppressed citizens. He is a rebel icon and the author raises great questions as to who Che Guevara was, a villain or a hero and if both when was his transition from hero to villain made? Overall great read! Good luck in the competition!

  10. Avatar
    Robert Ruiz 19 Nov 2018 Reply

    This was an interesting article. I have never heard of Che Guevara prior to reading this article and never knew people would considered him a symbol for rebellion. I guess if I was from one of these oppressed country and someone stood up for me, I would feel like he could be a symbol or rebellion and change, but I Feel the way he used the idea of rebellion a little too far. Overall this was a well, written article, and learned quite a bit in the end.

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