Che Guevara

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Che’s real name was Ernesto and was born to aristocratic parents. He was called Che because in Argentinian Spanish Che is a pronoun meaning ‘you’ and he didn’t want to be recognised by his aristocratic name so he adopted the name Che and was known throughout Central America and South America as Che Guevara. His mother was a feminist one of the first women to smoke, wear trousers and drive a car and his father owned a lot of land and both had a high place in society. They were on their way to Buenos Aires from Cordoba when Ernesto was due to be born and they stopped in Rosario (a town in between Cordoba and Buenos Aires) to have Che. Che was born in Rosario with a bronchial condition which later developed into asthma.



The family moved to Alta Gracia where the fresh clean mountain air and the greenery would help his condition. It was in this house where you could see his childhood. He was a very clever boy and read all literature from a young age. However he was a rebel at school and did everything he wasn’t supposed to. He would go and play golf and swim with his younger brother which due to his asthma he wasn’t supposed to. He began studying medicine but then left his course to travel by motorbike through all of South America and Central America with a friend. On his first expedition he only made it to Chile where his motorbike broke down.



After this time out he returned to finish his studies and graduated as doctor. He did several trips around Central and South America where he saw the inequality between social classes and the poor conditions people were living in. During this time he did voluntary work, he worked as a doctor and worked in several different careers during his life. It was his trips that inspired him to play the part he played in history and essentially rebel against his privelidged background. It was on one of his trips where he met Fidel Castro in Cuba who was already beginning a revolution.



So animated was I in finding out about Che, a subject rarely mentioned in European history that I forgot to put suncream on and got sunburned. I’m not leaving the hostel tomorrow.

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