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Che, a revolutionary romantic

Published : Friday, 14 June, 2019 at 12:00 AM  Count : 438

Che, a revolutionary romantic

Che, a revolutionary romantic

Ernesto Che Guevara was born a month prematurely in 1928 in Argentina. He died a premature death too. Not exactly he died he was murdered in Bolivia by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of America. He died on October 09, 1967. In between his life and death in only 39 years he shook the foundation of the world imperialist-capitalist forces. After his death 52 years have evolved but still he remains etched out in the memories of those who are fighting to burst asunder the capitalist yoke. But by murdering Che they made him more powerful. Che is still a terror in the minds of the exploitative class.

As they failed to obliterate Che from the minds of people they made him a consumer product. He was portrayed as a hero. As if he died to show off his heroism like a hero in a film. T-shirts with his portrait have been on sale for a long time. Young people who sport those T-shirts don't even know who Che was and what he did. It was true that he was a hero but his heroism entails a social cause and purpose. He embraced his martyrdom to change the world full of injustice.

He could lead a luxurious and comfortable life after he passed from the medical school of the University of Buenos Aires. Though initially he planned to study engineering he discarded the idea later. Much later he also threw his certificate of medical school away to become a revolutionary - a Marxist revolutionary, a guerrilla leader. A physician in his later life turned into a statesman, author, diplomat, minister and whatnot. Such vicissitudes in his life can be, of course, attributed to his educated and cultural environment of his family and its background. Che was followed by four other siblings who were all highly educated - architect, lawyer and designer etc.

Che's father's political inclination was towards a radical democratic party. Both he and his wife were book lovers. He had a large library with several thousand volumes. There were classics ranging from Spanish to Russian. There were books on history, philosophy and art. The library barring Argentine writers had a collection of the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Bakunin. "Of course, like all of us Che had his favourite authors. In childhood he preferred Salgari, Jules Verne, Dumas, Victor Hugo, and Jack London. Later he took to Cervantes and Anatole France. He read Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Gorky. Of course, he read through all the Latin American social novels which were in vogue then . . . from childhood on Che loved poetry; he knew well the works of Baudelaire, Verlaine, Garcia Lorca, Antonio Machado and he loved Pablo Neruda's verse," said his father Don Ernesto Guevara Lynch.
His mother Celia too was a woman of free nature and spirit. At that time she gave a damn to the aristocratic class of her. As for religion Che's parents were in complete agreement. Neither they nor their children went to church. Che's mother in her youth took part in feminist movement. She fought to establish the rights of women to suffrage. She was one of the first Argentine women who drove an automobile. At that time her behaviours annoyed the aristocratic class she belonged to.
No doubt Che was a romantic but he was a revolutionary romantic

No doubt Che was a romantic but he was a revolutionary romantic

Naturally his parents' progressive thoughts and independent mental make-up influenced Che greatly.

Che's parents inculcated independence in their children from the viewpoint that it would help them in future. As a result their children developed a kind of independent mentality. They began to do crazy things. One day Che and his younger brother Roberto disappeared into the thin air. His parents looked for them everywhere. Even they ransacked the nearby wood but to no avail. They then reported to police. A few days later they were found some 800 kilometres away from home. Che was then only 11 while his brother 08. They sneaked into the back of a truck and took a free ride.

But still his parents had no inkling of Che's youthful escapades and what to come next. Che set out on a 4,500 kilometre trip around north of Argentina on a motorized bicycle. In the month of December in 1951 he along with one of his senior friends Alberto Granado decided on a plan to travel to North America on Alberto's motorbike. He embarked on his journey around Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. After he finished his study at the university he received a certificate to practice medicine. But he made another expedition to different countries of Latin America. This time he went to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala. From Peru Che wrote to his parents: "If you don't hear from me in a month it means that we have been eaten by crocodiles or served up to the Jibaro Indians, who will shrink our heads and sell them to American tourists. In that case look for our debauched heads in the souvenir shops of New York."

This adventures young man's outlook on life underwent a sea change after his journey around Latin America. His entire journey is well described in his book 'The Motorcycle Diary'. He saw with his own eyes the miseries and sufferings of downtrodden and indigenous people in Latin America. His daughter wrote: "The young man who makes us smile at the beginning with his absurdities and his craziness becomes before our eyes sensitive as he tells us about the complex indigenous world of Latin America, the poverty of its people and the exploitation to which they are submitted." Gradually the realization began to dawn upon Che that serving as a doctor can cure only a few people. But if the society cannot be cured from its disease it will breed more and more wretched people. And it is the politics without which a society cannot be cured. It was may be around this time he thought of getting involved into the whirlpool of politics.

His daughter wrote again: "This young adventurist with his thirst for knowledge and his great capacity to love shows us how reality, if properly interpreted, can permeate a human being to the point of changing his or her way of thinking." The adventurist young man began to pattern himself to become a politician. Especially when he was in Guatemala he got involved in politics. It was Guatemala where his political views were profoundly radicalized. He saw for himself how the US-backed forces overthrew the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz. He then escaped into Mexico. It was where Che met Fidel Castro who along with his brother Raul and others went there to organize an armed struggle against the Batista government of Cuba. As he was a doctor he was doing a kind of research on something cardiac or allergic issues at a Social Security Institute Centre.

After he met Fidel he instantly agreed to join the armed struggle against the Batista dictatorship. First he joined the Cuban group as a doctor but as he performed outstanding military ability he was promoted to the rank of commander. He led the rebel army in the decisive battle against the Batista force from 1956 to 1958. Interestingly enough after the revolution was triumphed he was appointed head of the Industrial Department of the Institute of Agrarian Reform about which he knew nothing. But he successfully performed his duty. More interestingly later he was made the president of the National Bank of Cuba. He also did well as an economist. All these were possible because of his insatiable thirst for knowledge and will-force. The term 'No' didn't exist in his dictionary. Let's see what Fidel says about his works as the chief of the National Bank of Cuba: "In his double character of communist and economist, Che was excellent. Not because he had a degree in it, but because he had read a great deal and observed a great deal. Wherever Che was given responsibilities, he discharged them extremely well. Anything you gave him to do, he was capable of doing."

It is this unparallel, rare and unique quality that couldn't let him stay at a place for long. One mission being over he went on to accomplish the next as if it was only he who had to shoulder the burden of pain and agony of the entire mankind. Following the revolution in Cuba he travelled to Algeria to meet Ahmed Ben Bella who formed a government after winning independence from France. He then went on a mission to help the liberation movement led by Patrice Lumumba in Congo before he arrived in Bolivia in 1966. He planned to sneak into Argentina to launch a revolutionary armed struggle after the mission in Bolivia.

But his life was cut short. The local forces of the CIA in Bolivia captured him and killed him on October 08, 1967. Many people say he was restless, rash, absurd, impatient and a romantic who, if not killed in such rashness, could have done a lot more for the exploited class around the world. No doubt Che was a romantic but he was a revolutionary romantic. Lenin said: "It goes without saying, we cannot do without romanticism. An excess of it is better than a deficiency. We have always been in sympathy with revolutionary romantics, even when we disagreed with them."

The writer is a Senior Sub-Editor of the Daily Observer






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