Cuba's Government and Ernesto Guevara
Ernesto “Che” Guevara Che Guevara was the Argentine born Marxist guerrilla who helped oust the corrupt Cuban government and set up a communist system 90 miles from the US. Che under the leadership of Fidel Castro helped lead a small guerrilla band of soldiers to take over the country. After the old government was out Che helped Castro decide communism as the way to go for Cuba. He helped Castro try to quickly industrialize the country, set up social reforms to try, and make Cuba a better place for its citizens. Che supported the struggle against imperialism by taking bands of guerrillas to Congo and Bolivia to help with revolutions there. Ernesto Guevara was born May 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He was born to Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna, two Argentines that were fairly well off at the time. At two years old, Che was diagnosed with asthma, which could plague him for the rest of his life. His asthma affected his family’s life, forcing them to move until they found a place where his asthma could be stabilized. Che was home schooled until the age of nine because of his illness. Guevara took after his mother in that he was attracted to danger and he ended up with his father’s temper. Guevara did all right in school, but it wasn’t until he got to college that he started to shine. At first Che wanted to study engineering at the University. After the death of his grandmother Che decided to study medicines instead of engineering. He was accepted to the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. By college, his parents were separated, though still married, and Che became to come into his own. He worked part time jobs while he was in school to help pay for his needs. Che started to take weekend hitchhiking trips across Argentina. After awhile the trips started getting longer as he began to want to see more and more of Latino America. Che was introduces to Fidel Castro, the young Cuban revolutionary, in Mexico City in 1955. After several hours of talking Fidel invited Che to join the guerrilla movement. Che accepted on the spot, he was to take on the position of being the group’s doctor. After receiving military training Che was quickly promoted as an officer in Castro’s ranks. In 1956 almost all of Castro’s group was arrested officially for breaking Mexico’s immigration laws, despite the media frenzy sayin...
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...ed for what he believed in, the fight against imperialism. This courage is what made the Argentine born Marxist such an inspirational figure around the world. Che was a symbol of hope and a better life for the people of Cuba, and the world.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara A Revolutionary Life. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
Castaneda, Jorge G. Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
Harris, Richard. Death of a Revolutionary: Che Guevara’s Last Mission. New York: W.W. Norton, 1970.
“Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara”. Bolivia Web. 1997. (13 April 1999).
Perez - Stable, Marifeli. The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course and Legacy. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
Rojo, Ricardo. My Friend Che. New York: The Dial Press, 1968.
Rohter, Larry. “Cuba Buries Che, the Man, but keeps the Myth Alive.” New York Times 17 October 1997.
Ryan, Henry Butterfield. “A Look At…Myths of Cuba: Che Guevara: The Triumph Mystique.” Washington Post 2 November 1997: CO3.
Stockwell, Norman. “Reclaiming Che’s Legacy.” Capital Times 3 October 1997.
Taibo, Paco Ignacio. Guevara Also Known As Che. New York: St. Martin’s, 1997.
On July 26, 1953, the war for Cuba’s independence began, and for 6 years many Cubans fought for their freedom. The most famous of these revolutionary icons being Fidel Castro, who led the main resistance against the Cuban government. On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and the rest of the Cuban's succeeded. This revolutionary war went on to affect the entire world and Eric Selbin believes it is still affecting it. Throughout Eric Selbin's article, Conjugating the Cuban Revolution, he firmly states that the Cuban revolution is important in the past, present, and future. Selbin, however, is wrong.
Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca. "The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca" University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
Bohlen, Celestine. "The Pope In Cuba: The Two Men; Pope Captivates His Marxist Host." The New York Times. 26 Jan. (1998): A9.
White, Robert E. 2013. "After Chávez, a Chance to Rethink Relations With Cuba". The New
Clarke, Philip. “Cuba’s Newest Revolution Bloodless but Plenty Bewildering as New President Breaks Army Grip, Aims at Democracy.” The Washington Post. 22 July. 1945: B3. ProQuest. James Madison University library. 16 September 2003
literature, Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, and No One Writes To the Colonel by Gabriel
In every field of endeavor, in every activity known to Man, whether sailboarding or physics, hairdressing or chipmunk catching, there are people who excel, people who go far beyond the rest. They reach the epitome while we mere mortals look up from below and marvel. So, when you have read the 526 pages of Womack Jr.'s book [not counting the appendices], you can tell yourself that you have read THE book on Zapata and his role in the Mexican Revolution. The author used every source available, he interviewed all those who were left alive to talk. I wonder if any new printed sources will ever be found ? Certainly everyone who played a role, however insignificant, in those long ago days of 1909-1920 is now dead, making new interviews extremely unlikely. This is a work of art, a work of love, and a vast labor that surely took a few years off the life of the author, not to mention breaking some relationships. It is the definitive work so far on the subject. If you want to know the story of why and how Emiliano Zapata, a once insignificant small town horse trader and farmer, became a legendary rebel whose name resounds throughout Mexico today---a man who fought unwaveringly for the rights of small farmers and villagers to the land they worked---then you have no choice but to read this volume. This is the epitome, this is the story in unbelievable detail; political, economic, social, military. And yet, Zapata himself almost disappears in the vast bulk of detailed historical and interpretive observations. It is not so much a work on an individual as on the whole period in a small area of Mexico.
"Fidel Castro(a)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a doctor and revolutionary in Bolivia, was assassinated by the American CIA for many political reasons, thus becoming a legend and idol after the Latin American Revolution. In the United States Che is remembered only as a relic of the 1960 revolution. In Europe he became a pop icon among the youth with little or no historical reference. Only in Cuba does his legacy stand for the hope and faith of the Latin American people.
Bourne, Peter G. Fidel A Biography of Fidel Castro. First ed. New York NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986. N. pag. Print
Fidel Castro was a man who had a target on his head. Lots of people from all over the world wanted him dead. Fidel Castro wasn’t a capitalist person, he was a Communist.
The Cuban revolution was one that transformed Cuba into an independent socialist society. This revolution sent a message around the globe. The message: “ Socialism can be achieved and capitalism, with its culture stripping mechanism’s can be supplemented”. However, the revolution did leave its mark on Cuba. This can be seen in the events that took place during the early stages of the revolution. The effects of the revolution were positive for certain sections of the population and negative for others.
Che Guevara attempted to have a revolution in Bolivia and Guatemala. In Mexico, he trained for his return to Cuba in 1956. The textbook also mentions how Fidel Castro formed local camps as a new revolutionary power (510). They continued to fight in urban areas. It was not until 1959 where they defeated Batista and his government. Many people were happy because Fidel Castro became the president of Cuba. The Cuban people had faith in Fidel Castro to improve the state of Cuba and benefit the people unlike Batista. The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its People state that, “In 1958 almost all Cubans agreed that a renewed Cuban nationalism would approve their future,”
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, near Birάn in Cuba’s Eastern Oriente Province to a wealthy sugar plantation owner and a mother who was a domestic servant to his father’s first wife (Source A). Castro was the third of six children and was raised in prominently wealthy circumstances that allowed him to attend well known and well revered schools like Belen Jesuit Prep. (Source A). He was a man that could not be just labeled solely by one phrase or one convenient definition, he was loved by supporters of communist rule and he was also a face feared by many Cubans. He held multitudes of titles to countless different people, ranging from honorable military leader to a protruding symbol of the communist revolution in Latin America that was feared by the Cuban people and Americans alike.