Che Guevara Latin American Hero

CHE GUEVARA LATIN AMERICAN HERO

Ernesto Guevara or later famously known as “Che” was born in Argentina to a rebellion family. His own mother had a radical reputation for smoking cigarettes in public. He became a medical student in Argentina but later decided to put his studies on hold as he traveled throughout Latin America. Che travelled through Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and eventually ended up in Miami where he decided to return back to Argentina. But during his trip, he saw the poverty and misery throughout Latin America and wanted to do something about it.

Che Guevara decided to return to Argentina so he can finish his medical school in 1953. After he finished school he left to travel through Latin America again and ended up in Guatemala. In Guatemala Che heard of some inspiring reforms that were taking place under Arbenz and he wanted to participate. But after president Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown by the CIA in 1954, Che sought refuge in the Argentine Embassy before he was able to travel to Mexico where he would eventually meet up with Fidel Castro.

            Fidel Castro was a son of a wealthy sugarcane growing family. As a law student, he was inspired by the anti-imperialistic themes of the student movement. In 1948, when Castro heard that the United States formed the OAS in Colombia, he decided to travel to Colombia to attend an anti-imperialist meeting of student activist. Later on Fidel and his brother, along with others, were exiled from Cuba for resisting the military dictatorship of U.S. backed Fulgencio Batista.

            It was in opposing the United States that both Castro and Che saw eye to eye. Within hours of their first meeting, Che pledged to join Castro in launching a peoples revolt in Cuba. In November of 1956, they got together along with 82 invaders and boarded onto a small yacht named Granma, which was designed to carry only 12, and left for Cuba. For 2 years this invasion went on and the guerillas took over city after city. Batista finally saw no future in Cuba and decided to flee in 1958. The Castro brothers, Che, and along with the remaining invaders received a big welcome in Havana.

            Che stayed in Cuba for the next few years, but he eventually left. Che developed a theory of guerilla warfare based on his experience in Cuba. He believed that in Latin American Countries revolutionary conditions can be created. He committed small guerilla groups, like the one of Granma, so that they can jump start a larger revolution. He vowed that he himself would repeat what he did in the Sierra Maestra Mountains but at a continental scale. Che traveled to Bolivia and launched a revolution with only 50 guerillas. This time though he did not succeed. The peasants did not join the guerrillas because they seemed suspicious. Eventually Che was captured and executed in 1968. Che Guevara became a hero for many Latin Americans including me. 

"Biography Of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara"

http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofcuba/a/09cheguevara.htm
Movie "Chevolution" (2008)
Chevolution