As we mark the 95th anniversary of his birth, let’s explore some intriguing facts about the life of this legend.
From a Lineage of Planters and Rebels
The future hero of the Cuban Revolution hailed from Argentina. The firstborn in a family of Latin American and Californian Creoles from the city of Rosario, he was born on June 14, 1928. Ernesto Guevara’s mother was an heiress to a tea plantation, while his father was an architect and entrepreneur. One of his mother’s distant ancestors was the Peruvian viceroy José de la Serna y e Inocosa, and his paternal grandmother was a descendant of the Irish rebel Patrick Lynch. Ernesto’s parents raised their children with an openness toward people from various social classes, welcoming both the children of the wealthy and those of ordinary workers into their home.
His father, a landowner, tried to improve conditions for his workers by switching from payment in goods to payment in cash. That decision led to business conflicts, yet nothing deterred Ernesto’s parents from holding left-wing views throughout their lives. Eventually, both of Guevara’s parents joined protests against Argentine President Juan Perón’s regime; Perón had maintained diplomatic relations with Nazi countries during World War II. According to some reports, explosive devices were even made in their home for protest demonstrations at that time.
The Guevara Family. (Ernesto is on the far left)
Between Books and Asthma
At age two, Tete (as he was called in childhood) frightened his parents with an asthma attack, a condition he would live with for the rest of his life. Because he struggled to breathe daily, he attended school intermittently and entered college at 13. He learned to read at four and had nearly finished his family’s thousand-volume library by the time he entered university. From a young age the future revolutionary was captivated not only by Jules Verne and Jack London, Anatole France and Victor Hugo, but also by the philosophical works of Freud and Sartre, Marx and Lenin. Guevara had a deep appreciation for poetry and read equally well in Spanish and French; his favorite poets included Baudelaire and Verlaine, Machado and Lorca, Felipe and Neruda.
Teachers noticed Ernesto’s curiosity—especially his interest in the exact sciences—and his leadership qualities. According to the school principal’s recollections, classmates considered him a “leader.” He fearlessly tasted ink and chalk, explored abandoned mines, and staged a bullfight with a ram. Everyone was surprised that a boy dependent on an inhaler joined so many sports clubs and activities: he played soccer and rugby, rode horses, cycled, and developed a passion for golf and gliding. Over time, asthma did not even stop him from smoking Cuban cigars; the smoke kept mosquitoes away and became a refuge for his fellow fighters from biting insects.
Ernesto Guevara (first on the right) with his rugby friends, 1947
Finding His Path
In 1953, Ernesto graduated as a doctor (all five children in the Guevara family received higher education). While studying at the medical faculty in Buenos Aires, the young man nicknamed the “king of pedals” set off on a long moped journey (the bike had been provided to him for promotional purposes by the manufacturer). On two wheels, Guevara crossed 12 Argentine provinces, covering 4,000 kilometers over rough terrain and mountain roads.
Guevara worked as a librarian, served as a sailor on an oil tanker, and traveled by motorcycle through several Latin American countries, studying how local leper colonies operated. During the journey, he and two doctor friends worked as dishwashers, veterinarians, porters, and laborers. This marked the beginning of Guevara’s path toward fighting leprosy. Having seen the world from many perspectives, he decided to dedicate himself to improving the lives of the downtrodden. After visiting what he called the “backyard of America,” Guevara was disheartened by the poverty and oppression he found; his lifelong enemy would become the “capitalist octopus.”
Guevara’s interest in Cuba was sparked by a childhood fascination with chess: he admired the homeland of his idol, world champion José Raúl Capablanca, after the great Cuban visited Argentina. But his truly fateful meeting came later in Mexico, at the cardiology institute where Guevara was practicing, when Fidel Castro appeared in 1955.
Raúl Castro with Ernesto Che Guevara
Revolutions Make Romantics
By then, Guevara had already gained his first revolutionary experience during the 1954 coup in Guatemala. Quick to act, Ernesto rushed to assist the Arbenz government and joined the ranks of local patriotic youth. The foreign rebel stood guard amid explosions and unrest. After he ended up on a list of dangerous criminals, the rookie revolutionary left Guatemala for a neighboring country. It was during his two years in Mexico that Ernesto decided to trade his medical career for revolutionary struggle. By the time he met Fidel Castro, a revolution was already being prepared in Cuba.
In the revolution, Guevara proved himself a brave soldier (wounded in battle twice) and a talented commander. Castro credited him with priority in strategic and tactical planning: “He was a more skilled revolutionary than I,” Fidel said of his comrade. At the same time, the Argentine knew how to treat his subordinates with respect and remain calm in the most stressful situations. The comandante personally assisted the wounded and marched alongside his men. Guevara earned the revolutionary nickname “Che” because he frequently used the Argentine filler word “che” in conversation.
Che Guevara in Cuba
The Hunt for a Sentence
The victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 brought Guevara the position of Minister of Finance. When his parents saw their son’s signature on a Cuban banknote, they joked, “Their bank is gone.” Close family members knew Guevara’s view of money: he considered it a global evil and dreamed of abolishing it.
The Argentine was officially granted Cuban citizenship, and some historians called his later departure from Cuba “exile,” tying it to rivalry for leadership with Fidel. A letter from Ernesto to the country’s leader, however, suggested that revolutionary comrades remained friends even while in power. Castro focused on state-building, while Guevara could not sit idly by when other countries needed transformation.
In 1965, the comandante moved to the Congo, where attempts at a communist revolution in Africa failed, and then to Bolivia, where authorities launched a manhunt and a preemptive death sentence was reportedly pronounced against him. That hunt was said to involve various intelligence agencies (these pages of the revolutionary’s biography remain classified). In 1967 Guevara was captured, and on the night of October 9 he was executed: shot in a rural school building. Che Guevara was buried with his hands severed; the amputated limbs were handed to the police for fingerprinting after the hasty execution. The exact burial site remained unknown for decades; in 1997 his remains were finally discovered in a mass grave near one of the field airstrips and transported from Vallegrande to Cuba. The revolutionary died at 39.
Che Guevara in the Congo
A Symbol of Struggle
For many in Latin America, Che Guevara is treated like a saint. The famous two-tone portrait of the revolutionary by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick (based on Alberto Korda’s 1960 photograph) is one of the most reproduced human faces in the world. The romantic symbol of struggle has taken on a life of its own, and the historical figure has long been a pop icon.
The Che Guevara Monument in La Higuera
At the same time, the figure does not lend itself to a straightforward historical verdict. The Cuban national hero inspires admiration among supporters and condemnation from opponents. Critics portray him as a fanatic, a “heartless man,” a ruthless revolutionary, even “Stalin No. 2,” arguing that his ideal was communism on the Stalinist model. The comandante treated poor people for free while also endorsing repression against “enemies of the people.” He criticized the Soviet government for imposing onerous economic conditions on the poorest countries, which he said “were no different from the dictates of global imperialism.” An incorrigible idealist, Che Guevara, historians say, developed a theory of revolution that prioritized trained revolutionaries over spontaneous popular demand.
