To what extent did Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara have a significant role in the Cuban Revolution…
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was a significant revolutionary leader in the Cuban Revolution and is remembered for his involvement as a cultural icon and as second-in-chief to leader Fidel Castro. Born on June the 14th, 1928, and executed on October 9th, 1969, this Argentine revolutionary who joined with Castro in the 26th of July Movement to overthrow the regime of General Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, has since his death had momentous and extraordinary influence as one of the most recognizable figures in the 20th century. Guevara is a radical icon and role model to people everywhere because of his acts and for his famous feature in the photograph entitled
…show more content…
Guevara’s long history of research, sources and varying experiences from which he established his very complex and intelligent views was an important asset to the movement. Che’s motorcycle trips were the experiences which shaped his worldview for the better. Passing through places like Chile, where “at Che’s ‘Notas de viaje show was what first really opened Ernesto’s eyes to the depth of the social problems afflicting America” [3]. One of Guevara’s most notable trips was the giant Chuquicamata copper mine in the north of Chile. This visit where they experienced drastic poverty and inhumanly conditions was when Che first became questioning whether or not he agreed with communism. The trips on motorcycles helped Guevara develop a strong understanding of the social issues apparent at the time and helped fuel his passion for justice. “Because of the circumstances in which I travelled, I came into close contact with poverty, hunger, and disease; with the inability to treat a child because of a lack of money; with the stupefaction provoked by continual hunger and punishment” [4]. Guevara’s extensive research into Marxism, humanism and communism and also the welfare of people, all helped mould his belief system. “Che emphasized the interest of these writing, which deal with the problems of the liberation of man as a social being, with communism as the solution to …show more content…
Under Batista’s leadership the Cuban economy was in debt and severely unsuccessful. It was overly dependent on the United States of America and Che wanted the Soviet Union’s partnership instead. Che believed that to pair up with other communist countries was a smarter way of approaching business relationship. The United States of America owned a lot of Cuba’s sugar cane industry and this made it difficult for Cuba’s economy to properly thrive and survive. Guevara’s knowledge, skills and belief in progress occurring over a short period of time helped the economy immensely faster than ever before. Guevara’s actions of cutting Northern American ties with the sugar cane industry gave Cuba’s economy freedom and the will to survive. Guevara also began implementing partnerships with China as well and helped boost Cuba’s economy as well. Although his role in the Cuban Bank was short, Guevara helped the economy stand alone and built strong and prosperous relationships with other successful countries. Thus, proving Guevara’s role as head of the Cuban Bank an effective
The Cuban Revolution was touchy topic for the United States and Cuba. America’s alienation of Cuba didn’t help when communism from the USSR was brewing over the revolution. When the revolution gained Castro as its leader, the worry and hatred from the United States was unbearable, especially when the Soviet Union landed in Cuba to interest Castro in its aid. The US’s fear of communism, Fidel Castro, and aid from the Soviet Union was significant because it changed the US’s political role in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution.
After it became officially globally acknowledged that Cuba was in fact a communist state and was being led through a dictatorship run by Castro, it did not take long before powerful enemies and essential allies were formed. The act of seizing all foreign land with none or very little compensation was received with great hostility amongst those who lost in their property through this process, and probably the reaction that had the biggest impact on Cuba’s economy was that of the US. Castro’s communistic policies did not of course help calm this resentment and also took part in leading to the establishment of trade embargos with Cuba from the US. This meant that Cuba would now lose a very valuable buyer of their precious sugar, [5] but they did however gain another one, a powerful nation that shared quite similar Marxist ideals and were quick to form an alliance with the Cubans, the USSR.
Methods: This investigation will describe Che Guevara’s involvement in Latin American independence movements, focusing specifically on his involvement with Fidel Castro’s “26th of July” movement. His actions and words will be analyzed, and his conduct this period of political upheaval will be used as evidence in order to answer the investigative question.
However, the revolution, led by Fidel Castro, brought hope for those who supported the fight against the repressive government in the island, but it also brought a red signal of danger and fear of Cold War to other countries in America, especially for United States. Even though the revolutionary Fidel Castro was friend with the Soviet Union, Cuba never played a big role outside of the island. Nevertheless, United State anti-communism policy encouraged a violent anti-revolutionary reaction that spreader all over Latin America in the 60’s and 70’s.
An individual’s discovery is transformative on their perceptions of the world. This is the case for the book ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Keats’s sonnet “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”. In this book, we are taken on Che’s journey as he travels Latin America as a young man, before the fame. His diary entries lead the reader into his own eyes, as a typical young man on an adventure, not the revolutionary figure we all associate him with. Through his descriptive entries of the landscape he journeys across, we discover his deeper connection to the land of South America and the love he has for its people. As well as the beautiful things that South America has to
“A revolution is not a bed of roses ... a revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.” – Fidel Castro, 1961. This statement was certainly true for Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries during the Cuban Revolution, an armed revolt that took place between July 26th 1953 and January 1st 1959, which ended successfully. During this revolt, many of Fidel Castro’s fellow revolutionaries were killed in this process of violent revolution (My Life, p133, 2006). However, Castro and his accompanying revolutionaries, of which he was the leader, also caused their fair share of deaths using brutality in the name of revolution and political justice. Using various combat tactics, the most prominent being guerrilla warfare, the
The next portion of the paper analyses the film “The Revolution is Us” by David C. Stone. She criticizes this documentary by saying that it only tells a single story of what it means to be Cuban under the Revolution. In this instance she is referring to this Pacheco, who in the mind tells the story of what it means to be Cuban in the eyes of a manipulative government. Pacheco is a man who mentions that he would die for the revolution and feels that he in forever indented or at the service of the Revolution. Later on in this section Guerra mentions the “absence of all the most integrated Cubans from the collection deliberately provides tunnel vision into Cuban society; yet this is an advantage in that one sees citizen- deputies actively
Their premature deaths show what it might take to make a difference, positive or negative. But the actions of Che Guevara and Chris McCandless can be viewed very differently, as a meaningful, hard-fought success, or as a bloody, meaningless, irritating failure. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Argentina in 1928. Throughout
In my 27 years on this planet, I have heard little to nothing about the revolutionist and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Of the small amount of conversation which has occurred in front of me, Castro was always described in a negative way. He was described as a cruel, selfish Communist dictator who is against the ideas and beliefs of my own country. For those reasons, I have never bothered educating myself about Castro and his life. Now that I am older, my education has presented the opportunity for me to get to know Castro and see things from his perspective, the non-American perspective. Because I am curious about Castro 's rise early life, rise to power, and accomplishments during his rule, I have
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a part of the 26th of July Movement in Cuba. He became a revolutionary leader who inspired many and brought the guerrilla to victory in 1959. He was a part of the eighty-two men who sailed on the Granma from Mexico to Cuba in December of 1956 (Staten 114). The biographical film, Che: Part One directed by Steven Soderbergh, shows the journey of Che and the guerrillas as they attempted to defeat Batista’s military. Che: Part One is not simply just a depiction of Che’s life, but it brings you right into the action of the armed struggle the guerrilla faced. The revolution shaped Che into the leader he became. He started out as a simple doctor who wanted to bring the people of Cuba what they deserved. Che went through changes as the periods of the revolution went on. He grew to be a leader that would bring his people to the victories they achieved. Throughout the portrayal of the revolution, it can be seen how Che changes and adapts based on what situation he is facing and how the movie shows it. The film goes back and forth between the times Che is in Cuba fighting and after he wins the revolution and talks about his experiences.
Castro’s involvement with the foreign and domestic politics during the early Cold War period greatly influenced the outcome of the Cuban Revolution. Without the actions taken by foreign powers like the United States and Russia, some events on the domestic front may have had very different results. It is important to understand how every nation’s foreign policies can influence more than just one other nation, and this was especially true for Cuba. It was this mix and chain of events which produced the communist Cuba that we are familiar with today.
Meanwhile, as supplies and morale diminished, and with an allergy to mosquito bites which resulted in agonizing cysts on his body, Guevara considered these "the most painful days of the war" (“Che: Part One”).
I decided to write this research paper because we were assigned to find an issue or subject within Latin America to write about. One of the most widely known and influential revolutionary figure in the history of Latin America is Ché Guevara. Ché knew how to use his intelligence and judgment in all the circumstances he encountered taking advantage of each moment as if it was a highly intensive chess game he was sincerely
Like the much used stencil of Guevara's determined visage, the general perception of his life is flat and two-dimensional. No where more so, it seems, then in the country richest in Guevara's history, Cuba. An article printed July 21st 1997 in Newsweek, entitled 'Return Of The Rebel', explored Cuban society in the wake of the long-awaited discovery of Guevara's skeleton in Bolivian town of Vallegrande. In it journalist Brook Lamer explains how 'the Cuban Government played a pivotal role in creating the Che mystique, and it is not about to let its franchise slip away'[2].
It is hard to travel anywhere in the world without seeing somewhere the iconic image of Che Guevara on a T-Shirt, souvenir, or poster. The original photographer, and the Irish artist who turned that photograph into a print, are virtually unknown. However, their image has been redistributed to the point where it can effectively be called an icon or a meme. There is no small amount of irony in the fact that an icon of communism has become an emblem of capitalism: as the image has been bought and sold countless times in countless countries around the world. The iconic image of Che Guevara has a hipster chic to it, but also political panache. To don the Che Guevara image means one does not agree with the establishment and is part of the 99%. However, Che Guevara is a controversial figure too. The image has been banned in some parts of the world, because Che was a radical revolutionary who was not against the use of armed uprisings in communist revolts. Therefore, the iconic Che Guevara image created first in Cuba and turned into pop art by an Irishman is a paradoxical and typically postmodern cultural meme.