Ché Guevar The Cuban Revolution

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.

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.

In weeks 9 to 11, the movement we looked at had very similar themes, often regarding things like rebellion and standing up for culture and what a society deems is “right”. We first learned about Che Guevara and how he became an icon to both Latin America and North American culture from Dr Anna Hamling. Her lecture was on the perpective of cultural icons, how people viewed them, and what it took to become an icon. She discussed the ways that people viewed Che, some seeing him as a hero where others saw him as just a tyrant who murdered anybody who got in his way.

While in Cuba, the group became more aware of the sentiment and that revolution continues through propaganda images of the revolutionary leader, Che Guevara; these images portray him as a God.

“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

While Felgenico Batista was running Cuba many American companies grew rich off of Cuban resources while the Cuban people remained poor. An American mobster named Meyer Lansky came to Cuba to open a hotel. The mobster gave Batista 10% of the profits of the hotel and casino, so Batista became wealthy off of that. Batista became very wealthy off of American business and also organized crime. Meyer Lansky also turned Havana into a drug port. Batista did very little to help the Cuban citizens. While running Cuba Batista did not offer the people neither health care nor education. So many Cubans lived in poverty. When they became ill they wouldn’t be able to go to a doctor because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. When Batista took over the country in

In early as 1940, Celia writes about the widespread poverty in the countryside. In 1945, she writes, “if I was born to live on an island, then I 'm grateful for one thing: that the tides rearrange the borders. At least I have the illusion of change, of possibility. To be locked within boundaries plotted by priests and politicians would be the only thing more intolerable” The corruption in Cuban politics was a precursor for the revolution. It was a sign that the people wanted change, and Castro would utilize these sentiments to garner support. In 1952, Celia writes about the rise of Fulgencio Batista, and his subsequent takeover of the state as a U.S. backed dictator. She writes, “that bastard Batista stole the country from us just when it seemed things could finally change. The U.S. wants him in the palace. How else could he have pulled this off?” Celia opposes Batista and participates in marches against him, which are led by a, “young lawyer”, Fidel Castro. In 1955, she celebrates that, “the rebels have been released! Now the revolution is close enough we 'll make it stick like rice to a pot!” Four years later, the revolution would begin and Castro and his regime would continue to rule the island to this day.

During the 1950’s, Cuba was on the brink of revolution. The nation, which had suffered numerous corrupt and oppressive governmental regimes, fell victim to yet another when Fulgencio Batista seized power under a military coup in March of 1952. A cry for a just Cuba, that was economically, politically, and socially free continued to echo throughout the island. In 1959, a group of radical revolutionaries, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, overthrew the Batista dictatorship and put in place the political and social structures that exist in Cuba to this day.

In 1953, after he graduated as a doctor, Ché took off through Latin America but this with a more conscious interest in political education. It was in Costa Rica where he met six Cubans who had participated in their failed assault on the 26th of July 1953 on the presidency

The bale fires are lit, the coven has cast a circle and we are about to begin the great rite. The subject of controversy and disgust in the mundane world, mostly which comes down to misinformation is one that gives many new practitioners pause. Sex, the most talked about taboo in religion, yet it is a basic need, and in this case it is not even about sex, although the media would have you believe it was. In some groups, and solitary couple practitioners it is still an act of sex between two consenting adults, never forced or required, it is more of an act of symbolism.            

The history of Cuba has gone through many dramatic changes affecting not only the economy but the citizens as well. On January 1st, 1969 Dictator Fulgenico Batiste (Fidel Castro) fled the Island of Cuba, with his revolutionaries seizing control with the U.S backing the situation. This caused chaos and excitement in Havana, rumbling the idea of "anti-americanism." This relates back to the conflict theory, as this had a great impact on the citizens of Cuba, causing more hate on america and its people causing conflict and negativity. Within all of this chaos with Fidel Castro and Cuba’s people, America still supported the Island of Cuba. As time passed this situation caused great suspicion as the US was not sure of Castro’s intentions and his leftist ideology, thinking this would lead to an attack from Castro on US investments and properties in Cuba. American officials were nearly unanimous opposing Castro’s revolutionary movement.

Fulgencio Batista was a key figure in the Cuban revolution of 1959. Batista started his reign of power in 1933 after his military coup called ‘Sergeants Revolt’, where he ended the rule of Machado. When Batista overthrew the government, he controlled the presidency of Cuba. When Batista became president in 1940 to 1944 he drew up a democratic constitution. After Batista stepped down the next two governments were repressive and increasingly corrupt.

The Cuban Revolution was a necessary act that attempted to improve the lives of the cuban population through many horrific events. The Cuban Revolution, which began in the early 1950’s, was an overthrow of a corrupt government. Throughout Fidel Castro’s multiple attempts to improve the horrific conditions of the Cuban population, the Revolution became a long and tragic journey beginning with the 26th of July Movement, to The Bay of Pigs invasion, to The Cuban Missile Crisis.

The big question that has everyone stuck is was Che Guevara a hero or a villain. Che Guevara was a marxist revolutionary, which is a practice of communism which is not a good thing. Communism leads to dictatorship because you want everyone to share wealthiness, so everyone is equal, no one is being paid more no one is being paid less than anyone else. People can have less money than they had before but everyone is still equal. The bad part is some people are working harder than other people but they still get paid the same, also the people who do what the dictator says can get paid more money from the leader which means they might as well go back to where they started because the leader and the people who does what the leader says have more

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].