In the late 20th century, a tough guy wearing a beret appeared on the clothes of young Americans. He was handsome, had a big beard, and looked ahead firmly.
This man has a red star on his beret, which during the Cold War was the symbol of revolutionaries.
In a capitalist country like the United States, "revolutionaries" are the enemies of the government. Young Americans print this person on their clothes to promote their "counter-mainstream" spirit.
In the following decades, this bearded revolutionary became a cultural symbol that spread throughout the world. His name was Che. Guevara.
Guevara , his name is known to everyone in the world. As a revolutionary star in Cuba and even the entire earth, Guevara was the idol of a generation during the Cold War.
Like his comrade Castro, Guevara also came from a good background and was a son of the upper class in America. However, he abandoned the hedonistic life and followed a group of comrades to fight guerrillas in Cuba, and finally established an independent Cuban regime.
After the establishment of Cuba, Guevara was already the leader of the country and should have enjoyed power, but he resolutely abandoned his identity as a leader and continued to lead the revolutionary struggle, and was finally killed in Bolivia .
Che Guevara was controversial after his death. Those who loved him believed that he was the "real world Jesus " and an idealist who saved mankind. But some people criticized him for being arrogant and naive, and for being simple and crude in his revolutionary methods, which led to the failure of the revolution.
So, how legendary is Guevara’s life? Why was his revolutionary path criticized by Premier Zhou? How did Guevara die in the end?
1. Che Guevara: I am the son of America
Che Guevara, this is actually not Guevara’s real name.
The word "Che" means "greeting warmly" in Central American languages. Guevara performed heroically in guerrilla fighting, and his comrades would shout "Che Guevara" when they saw him. Over time, this "Che" became his name.
Guevara's real name was Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna. Before he participated in the revolution, he was often called "Enesto".
Guevara's family was born in Ireland . They immigrated from Europe in the early 18th century and have lived in Argentina for more than 200 years.
In June 1928, Guevara was born in Losario, Argentina. His family was very wealthy. His parents' ancestors were officials in the colonial period. The family had a large amount of land to grow " mate tea " to support the family.
His parents gave Guevara a high-quality education. He could speak Spanish and English. According to his parents' plan, Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1948, majoring in medicine.
Medicine is the flagship major of University of Buenos Aires. It is not only famous in South America, but also has a high status in Europe. Guevara entered medical school, but after two years of studying, he began to have new ideas about his life.
Guevara's uncle and aunt were members of the Communist Party. They often educated Guevara in communist ideas and encouraged him to break through family restrictions, go see the outside world, and understand the sufferings of the general public.
Ever since he was born, Guevara rarely traveled far away. Now that he has the freedom after going to college, he also wants to go outside.
In January 1950, it was summer in South America. Guevara got on his motorcycle and walked out of campus to travel around Argentina. He traveled to most provinces in Argentina and saw the hardships of the people at the bottom of Argentina, a large agricultural country.
At that time in South America, Argentina was already considered a wealthy country, but the lives of ordinary farmers and workers were still difficult, lacking necessary social security, and seriously imbalanced education and medical resources, which made Guevara heartbroken.
After traveling through Argentina, Guevara had a big question in his heart: "Why is there so much suffering in this fertile land where I am?"
In 1951, Guevara took his friend Alberto and set out again. The goal is to travel throughout Latin America.
Guevara braved the pressure from his family and took a year off from school. With a little money, he got on a British Norton motorcycle and set off.
The two people first went west to the border of Chile , and then went north along the Andes Mountains that traverses the north and south of South America, riding through all the major countries in South America except Brazil .
When they had no money, Guevara and his friends taught people to play football and guitar to earn some gas money. The two of them almost fell into desperation in the second half of the trip, but no one gave up easily.
Guevara was deeply impressed by the wealth of South America. Those large farms, large factories, prosperous cities, and busy ports were producing wealth day and night.
However, in mountainous areas and rural areas, and even in the suburbs of cities, the number of poor people is huge, and children cannot even afford shoes, let alone receive education.
Most men work hard in factories and mines, while women do the farm work, but their income is only enough to feed themselves.
In the mountainous areas of Peru, the miners here had no clothes to wear, and there were naked people all over the mountains and plains, which greatly stimulated Guevara.
Guevara recognized the deformities of South American society: transnational corporations, compradors, and corrupt governments devoured the people's wealth, and then used this wealth to support violent institutions, which in turn enslaved the people.
When I came to the nightclub in the city, businessmen speaking French and English were chatting and laughing, but at the corner of the street, indigenous children speaking Spanish and Portuguese were begging.
After the trip in 1951, a fire ignited in Guevara's heart. He once wrote in his diary: "I returned to Argentina, but the me before was dead."
Guevara became a An internationalist, he wanted to liberate South America from the colonial economy and liberate the people of this land.
2. Revolutionaries cannot be content with the status quo. The world revolution has just begun.
In 1953, Guevara graduated from university. He did not stay to work in Buenos Aires because he might be included in the army by the military government. So he left his motherland and started a new journey.
At that time, Bolivia had just succeeded in its revolution and Estensolo overthrew the military government and established a democratic regime. Guevara chose to travel to Bolivia.
Here he witnessed the profound changes that the revolution had brought to the country. The government was completely new, the military and police were honest and law-abiding, and the people were enthusiastic. Guevara became more and more determined that only revolution could save a decadent society.
Then he went to Central America and worked in Ecuador , Guatemala , Costa Rica and other countries. He came into contact with the Communist parties in Central America. The Guatemalan Communist Party had a good relationship with Guevara. They gave him a nickname that later spread throughout the country. The name of the world - Che.
During the 1954 Guatemala coup, Guevara fled to Mexico with the Guatemalans, where he met the Castro brothers who also took refuge here.
The Castro brothers once launched a revolution in Cuba. After the failure of "Operation 726", the two brothers were arrested and imprisoned. Later, they were amnesty by the government and escaped from Cuba.
Guevara and Castro met late. After learning about the ambitions of the Castro brothers, Guevara volunteered to stay and became a military doctor in Castro's army.
At the end of 1956, Guevara returned to Cuba with the Castro brothers to fight guerrillas. They were a group of 82 people. They were shot dead and 70 people were arrested when they landed ashore. Guevara and the Castro brothers survived.
Then they operated in the Maestra Mountains in southern Cuba. This force operated for 2 years, and Castro quickly grew into one of the leaders of the force.
In 1958, the Cuban dictator Batista was overthrown. Guevara followed the guerrillas into Havana , and the revolution was successful.
The success of the Cuban Revolution was largely accidental, but it was the most influential revolution in South America after all, and Guevara became a hero in the Americas.
In 1959, Castro visited the United States. After returning home, he began socialist transformation and led Cuba to the Eastern camp.
In 1960, Guevara visited China and met Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.
Guevara saw the achievements of socialist construction in China, which made him happy. He actively consulted the top leaders of the CCP on revolutionary issues, and wanted to bring China's experience back to South America and promote the communist revolution in South America.
China is very willing to share its experience with Guevara, but after hearing the "revolution" described by Guevara, Premier Zhou frowned.
Guevara's "revolutionary" ideas were very gangster-like. Premier Zhou described it as "setting a fire and then running away, just wreaking havoc and not much else."
Premier Zhou believed that Guevara's ideas were divorced from the masses and did not take root in the soil. This kind of adventurism will eventually capsize. This evaluation just predicted Guevara's fate.
After leaving China, Guevara returned to Cuba as an official, but he was dissatisfied with the behavior of the Cuban leadership.
Guevara and Castro had differences. Castro wanted to be the leader of Cuba and build a socialist country. Guevara was an idealist and wanted to liberate all mankind. He was unwilling to become a bureaucrat.
So in 1965, Guevara gave up his Cuban citizenship and traveled to Africa as an individual to continue to lead the revolution.
3. Guevara: I have been here and fought
In 1966, Guevara came to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. , it was led by the Mobutu government supported by the West. The government's domestic management was very loose, and there was a communist trend. The communist guerrillas are at work.
Guevara brought several Cuban soldiers to Congo, preparing to teach Cuba's revolutionary experience to the Congolese guerrillas.
But Guevara forgot that the situations in Congo and Cuba are completely different. The ethnic issues here are complicated. Two adjacent villages may be enemies and cannot unite with each other. The scope of guerrilla activities is very small.
The local Africans are also in a very primitive stage, with little access to military and medical training. Most of them cannot even use thermal weapons , and their discipline is very poor. They will flee when encountering a battle.
In addition, Congolese blacks have been exploited by Europeans for many years, and the guerrillas are very repulsive to these foreign white people. They do not trust Guevara and his comrades, do not obey orders, and even go against Guevara.
Finally, amid casualties and illness, Guevara left the Congo with his few remaining comrades and sought refuge in other African countries and Europe.
After leaving Africa, Castro wrote a letter asking Guevara to return to his country, but Guevara refused on the grounds that "the revolution has not yet succeeded."
A year later, in order to realize his ideal of liberating the Americas, Guevara once again led his soldiers to South America. This time he targeted Bolivia, which had just established a military government.
Guevara came to Bolivia to fight guerrillas. The Bolivian military government and the American CIA colluded to round up Guevara. American agents and special forces closely monitored the rainforest.
Due to differences in strategic directions, the Bolivian Communist Party refused to cooperate with Guevara, and Guevara was forced to fight alone.
The revolutionary situation in Bolivia is also different from that in Cuba. It is a vast and sparsely populated place with no villages near dense forests. The guerrillas have no supplies and no fresh blood.
Guevara led the guerrillas to fight in the mountains for a year, but was unable to gain the support of the people. Instead, because of his improper way of dealing with the people, he disgusted the locals and repeatedly betrayed their traces.
One year after the war with the Bolivian government forces, in October 1967, a captured guerrilla rebelled against torture and revealed the whereabouts of Guevara's army.
On the 8th of that month, Guevara's guerrillas were ambushed by Bolivian government forces. The guerrillas suffered heavy casualties, and Guevara was wounded and captured.
Guevara's capture made the Bolivian dictator Barrientos overjoyed. He was eager to kill Guevara and establish his power, so he ordered his men to execute Guevara.
On October 9, 1967, Guevara was shot. Before the execution, Bolivian soldiers drew lots to decide who would shoot because they were afraid that execution of this hero would lead to retaliation from the communists.
After taking a few sips of wine to strengthen his courage, a soldier fired nine shots at Guevara. Guevara was shot in the arms, legs, abdomen, chest, and neck, and died half a minute later.
The Bolivian army displayed Guevara's body in a room, leaving behind a photo of the body that looked like a medieval Jesus painting.
A week later, news of Guevara's death spread around the world. Cuba held a large-scale memorial ceremony, and communist parties around the world began to commemorate this revolutionary hero.
In the end, Guevara's body was buried secretly, and his hands were cut off and preserved. It was not until the 1990s that the Cuban government retrieved Guevara's body and buried him in Santa Clara, Cuba.
In the late period of the Cold War, Guevara became a "counter-mainstream" idol. He was handsome, rebellious, and free and easy, perfectly in line with the rebellious ideological trend of the West at that time. His portrait of a "guerrilla" became the most widely circulated in the 20th century. photo.
Looking at Guevara's life, he was determined to change the world when he was a boy. After becoming a hero in Cuba, he still did not forget his original intention. He was able to give up his high official position and salary to fight guerrillas in the rainforest. This kind of courage is not possessed by ordinary people.
Of course, Guevara was too idealistic in his revolutionary approach, did not examine local conditions, and was not good at uniting the masses, which ultimately led to his failure.
But a flawed hero is still a hero. Guevara was not afraid of failure, let alone death. As a revolutionary, he only hoped that his actions could change the fate of the people at the bottom.
He once said this: "After we leave, they will build schools and hospitals for you. This is not because their conscience has discovered it, but because we have been here."
Che Guevara came to this world and Having fought for your ideals is enough.
Text/Shang Xueye
References:
1, "The Realization of Contemporary Youth's Ideals—Analysis of Che Guevara's Thoughts as an Example", Ji Shengbao, Ma Shujuan
2, "The Eternal Guevara", Beiqing
