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Che Guevara, born in Rosario Argentina, is best known for his role during the Cuban Revolution, where he and his friend Fidel Castro overthrew the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
What is the connection to Cordoba? Little Ernestino suffered from Asthma, and the humid Rosario climate did not agree with him, his parents moved to Alta Gracia, a then upper class mountain resort near Cordoba, where the mountain air gave the young Che relief from his attacks.
Argentineans use the word 'che' like today's teenagers use 'cool'. When Che lived in Guatemala (where he also met his first wife Hilda Gadeo a Peruvian revolutionary for the first time) he earned his famous nickname, as he used the word CHE at every opportunity and the Guatemalans referred to him as 'Che'...a far cry from his real first name Ernesto. |
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His house in Alta Gracia, which is now converted into a museum in his memory. His parents were quite wealthy, and he enjoyed a privileged childhood and youth with upper class schooling, private tutoring and a host of sports.
In 1952 he spent 6 month riding his motorcycle, called the Poderosa II, around the length and width of South America, to experience first hand the plight of South America's poor. He kept a journal "Motorcycle Diaries", which was later made into a movie. Present day motor cycle aficionados flock to the museum to pay a visit to his house, the Villa Beatriz |
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After his motor cycle travels, he and one of his travel companions had a short adventure rafting down the Amazon River on a rickety raft called the Mambo Tango - after he abandoned his primary transport, the Motor Cycle, in San Pablo, Peru. The Mambo Tango was given to him by residents of San Pablo, a leper colony. They drifted down the Amazon all the way to the frontiers of Peru, Brazil and Colombia.
It was not his only sea borne experience, as he and Fidel Castro, whom he met on a journey to Mexico, with a small group of revolutionaries sailed to Cuba on a barely floating yacht called Granma to start the famous and fateful Cuban revolution. |
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| Rich and handsome....young Ernesto after he returned from his motor cycle escapade, finished his studies to become a doctor of medicine. |
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| His Doctor's License, issued by the Ministry of Health of the Nation...24. June 1953 |
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| A rather gruesome graduation picture...naked cadaver and all |
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| No word how the first wife Hilda Gidea finished up, but once the Cuban revolution was successfully over, Che married Aleida March de la Torre, a revolutionary woman from Villa Clara. He had one child by his first wife, and four more by his second. |
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When Che and Fidel together with their tiny army of revolutionaries arrived on Playa de las Colorades, Cuba, only 17 of them survived the first onslaught of Batista's army. They regrouped in the mountains of Sierra Maestra, and local inhabitants and rural workers joined them. Che was named Commander. December 1958 Batista's rule started to tumble, and on 1 January 1959, Commanders Cienfuegos and Che Guevara took Havana. Next day they entered the city with Che riding alongside Fidel Castro.
Che became a Cuban citizen a few weeks after, and held a number of administrative jobs (Ambassador, President of the National Bank, Industry Minister. But he got bored with bureaucratic work and left Cuba March 14, 1965. |
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| Back into guerrilla warfare for Che. He changed his name to Ramon Benitez, and went to the Congo, to show the local guerrillas how to run a revolution. The Congolese had other ideas, disorganization, squabbling, tribal divisions, mass desertion caused the plan to fail. |
In 1966, Che entered Bolivia under the pseudonym of Adolfo Mena Gonzalez, to lead the Bolivian Revolution. Yet another name, Ramon, became his battlefield nickname. This attempt at one more socialist revolution came soon to an end. In 1967 the Bolivian army started to hunt Che down. On Oct 7, he was cornered in the El Yuro Canyon. He was shot in the leg, and the wounded revolutionary was transferred to La Higuera School for interrogation.
On October 9, 1967, at 1:10 pm, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was shot dead by officer Mario Teran. His body was thrown into a communal grave in Valle Grande.
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| The last report |
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| A bronze statuette of Ernestino on the front porch of his house in Alta Gracia, Cordoba |
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The famous photograph of Che, taken by Alberto Korda in 1960, is probably the longest lasting legacy of Che. Copyright to the photo now belongs to Argentina's soccer hero Diego Madrona, who has refused to give a copy to the museum...
This image graces thousands of t-shirts, CD covers, Smirnoff Vodka advertising, and Taco Bell ads.
Taco Bell got into trouble over this, as they used a beret wearing Chihuahua to bark 'Viva Gorditas' to a cheering crowd, which did not make Miami's Cuban American community very happy.
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Che was honored with a postage stamp issued in Argentina in 1997, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. There are no streets, plazas of edifices named after him. The Argentineans never forgave him for becoming a Cuban citizen, and many say : 'What has he done for Argentina, except create a tourist attraction'.
But both the Argentinean National Flag as well as the Cuban one hand side by side in this little museum.
