For me to start claiming to be an expert on this inspiring man all of a sudden would be wrong. This is for the simple reason that for me he was always a famous but nameless face on a t-shirt that was worn on the highstreet by urban guys wearing combats. I had always wondered who he was but whenever i asked all i got were hazy and vague answers. The closest i got was "some Columbian guy" but that was it. However recently i had the luck of coming across what his name was in a t-shirt catalogue of all places. Immediately i went on the internet to find out more about him and im glad i did. He was an amazing guy, and though i'm sure there have been greater heros in history he has become my new hero and i have great respect for how he lived his life. And though i've still got lots to find out, i put this page together to inform those of you like me who didn't know who he was and what he did.

A Brief History

Ernesto Che Guevara was born on June 14 in Rosario, an important town in Argentina. At the age of two Che had his first asthma attack, a disease from which he suffered throughout his life. It increased later in life.

His father Ernesto Guevara Lynch was an engineer from a family of Irish descent. His mother, Clia dela Sena was of Irish-Spanish descent. When Che was three his family moved to Buenos Aires.

Later, his asthma attacks had gotten so worse that the doctors advised him for a drier climate. Hence once again Guevara family moved, this time to Cordoba. Guavaras were a typical bourgeois family, and in terms of their political inclinations they were known to be liberal closer to left. During the Spanish civil war they had supported the Republicans. In time their financial situation worsened. Che started Dean Funes high school where he was being educated in English. In the meanwhile, he was also learning French from his mother. At the age of fourteen Che started reading Freud, he especially loved French poetry, and he had a great passion for Boudelaire’s works. When he was sixteen, he became an admirer of Neruda.

In 1944 Guevara family moved to Buenos Aires because they were still having serious financial problems. Che started working while he was a student. He registered to medical school. In the early years of his study at the medical school he traveled throughout the northern and western Argentina, studying on leprosy and tropical diseases in the villages.

In his last year at the school, Che went on trip through the Latin America by motorbike with his friend Alberto Granadas. This gave him the chance to get to know better the exploited villagers of the Latin America.

Che graduated from medical school as a doctor in March 1953 and decided to work in a leper colony in Venezuela. He was on his way to Venezuela when he was put to jail in Peru because of his earlier publication on the natives. When he was released he went and stayed in Ecuador for a while, where he met Ricardo Rojo, a lawyer.

Meeting Ricardo turned out to be a turning point in Che’s life. He changed his mind of going to Venezuela, and instead went to Guatemala with Ricardo Rojo. When revolutionary Arbenz government was overthrown by a rightist coup, he took refuge in Argentina embassy. Soon afterword he joined the resistance he was forced to leave the Embassy. When it became too dangerous for him to stay in Guatemala, he went to Mexico. During his stay in Guatemala he had met Fidel Castro’s brother Raul as well as many Cuban exiles. In Mexico, he met Fidel Castro and his friends, and joined the Cuban revolutionaries.

Later, he left for Cuba onboard the ship Granma and took part in the front lines till the end of the war. After the Revolution he, Colonel Ernesto Che Guevara, was assigned to the command of fort la Cabana in Havana.

In 1959 he was given Cuban citizenship and married a fellow comrade called Aleida March. He was assigned to the presidency of the Institute of National Agricultural Reform, and of the National Bank of Cuba in 1959, by which he was given the financial responsibilities of the country.

In February 23rd 1961 the Revolutionary Government of Cuba assigned Che as the head of newly established Ministry of Industry. However, during the Playa Giran battle he was again called for the command of the fort.

His many visits to underdeveloped countries provided Che with a closer understanding of the exploited nations and the imperialists. This awakened the rebel in him. He decided to organize the peoples of other Latin American countries. In September of 1965, he left for the unknown countries. In October 3rd, 1965, Fidel Castro read Che’s famous farewell to the people of Cuba.

Eventually in Higueras in Bolivia he was surrounded by Barrientos’ troops on the night of October 7th, 1967. His Leg was heavily wounded and he was locked up in a school in Higueras.

Che died on October 9th 1967.

Official Declassified Information on the Death of Che Guevara