The Awakening of Latin America Read online

  THE AWAKENING OF LATIN AMERICA

  CHE GUEVARA PUBLISHING PROJECT

  THE DIARIES:

  The Motorcycle Diaries (1952)

  Latin America Diaries (1953–55)

  Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War (1956–58)

  Diary of a Combatant (1956–58)

  Congo Diary (1965)

  The Bolivian Diary (1966–67)

  Che: The Diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara

  ALSO AVAILABLE:

  Che Guevara Reader

  Global Justice: Liberation and Socialism

  Self-Portrait: A Photographic and Literary Memoir

  Marx & Engels: A Biographical Introduction

  Guerrilla Warfare

  Our America and Theirs

  THE AWAKENING OF

  LATIN AMERICA

  A classic anthology of Che Guevara’s writings

  on Latin America

  Ernesto Che Guevara

  Edited by María del Carmen Ariet García

  Copyright © 2013 Che Guevara Studies Center and Aleida March

  Copyright © 2013 Ocean Press

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Poetry translated by Manuel Talens and Sue Ashdown.

  ISBN: 978-1-921700-91-0

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2011943982

  First edition published in 2013

  Published in Spanish as América Latina: Despertar de un Continente

  PUBLISHED BY OCEAN PRESS

  PO Box 1015, North Melbourne, VIC 3051, Australia

  E-mail: [email protected]

  OCEAN PRESS TRADE DISTRIBUTORS

  United States: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution

  Tel: 1-800-283 3572 www.cbsd.com

  Canada: Publishers Group Canada

  Tel: 1-800-663 5714 E-mail: [email protected]

  Australia and New Zealand: Palgrave Macmillan

  Tel: 1-300-135 113 E-mail: [email protected]

  UK and Europe: Turnaround Publisher Services

  Tel: (44) 020-8829 3000 E-mail: [email protected]

  Cuba and Latin America: Ocean Sur

  E-mail: [email protected]

  www.oceanbooks.com.au

  [email protected]

  Contents

  Ernesto Che Guevara: Biographical Note

  Chronology of Ernesto Che Guevara

  Editor’s Preface

  Introduction

  María del Carmen Ariet García

  PART ONE

  Discovering Latin America 1950–56

  Introduction

  Travels in Argentina (1950)

  Excerpts from “The Bicycle Diaries”

  First Trip through Latin America (1951–52)

  Excerpts from “The Motorcycle Diaries”

  A Second Look at Latin America (1953–56)

  Excerpts from “Latin America Diaries”

  Doctors and their Environment

  The Role of the Doctor in Latin America

  Reading Notes

  Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

  La crónica del Perú by Pedro Cieza de León

  La araucana by Alonso de Ercilla

  Facundo (Civilización o barbarie) by Domingo F. Sarmiento

  El Evangelio y el Syllabus y Un dualismo imposible by Dr. Lorenzo Montúfar

  Martín Fierro by José Hernández

  Obras escogidas by Enrique Gómez Carrillo

  Martí: Raíz y ala del libertador de Cuba by Vicente Sáenz

  Breve historia de México by José Vasconcelos

  Trayectoria de Goethe by Alfonso Reyes

  La rebelión de los colgados by Bruno Traven

  Biografía del Caribe by Germán Arciniegas

  Mamita Yunai by Carlos Luis Fallas

  Canto General by Pablo Neruda

  Guatemala: la democracia y el imperio by Juan José Arévalo

  El hechicero by Carlos Solórzano

  Journalism (1953–54)

  “The View from the Banks of the Giant of Rivers”

  “Machu-Picchu: An Enigma in Stone of the Americas”

  “The Dilemma of Guatemala”

  “The Workers of the United States: Friends or Enemies?”

  Poems (unpublished)

  To the Bolivian Miners

  Who Cares?

  Spain in America

  A Tear for You

  Invitation to the Road

  Uaxactún... Sleeps

  Selected Letters (1953–56)

  Books Read in Adolescence

  PART TWO

  Latin America from Within (1956–65)

  Introduction

  1956–58

  The Revolutionary War in Cuba

  Articles

  “How Cuban the World Seems to Us”

  “Our Soul is Full of Compassion”

  Interview

  Interview by the Argentine Journalist Jorge Ricardo Masetti

  1959

  Article

  Latin America from the Afro-Asian Perspective

  Speech

  Speech to the College of Medicine, Havana

  Interview

  Interview for Radio Rivadavia, Argentina

  Letter

  1960

  Articles

  “Regional Disarmament and Other Acts of Submission”

  “Don’t be Stupid, Buddy, and Other Warnings”

  “Knee Bends, International Organizations and Genuflections”

  “Caracero, the Argentine Vote and Other Rhinoceroses”

  “Ydígoras, Somoza and Other Proofs of Friendship”

  “The Marshall Plan, the Eisenhower Plan and Other Plans”

  “Nixon, Eisenhower, Hagerty and Other Warnings”

  “Accusations at the OAS and United Nations and Other Stabs”

  “The ‘Court of Miracles’ and Other Devices used by the OAS”

  “A Tiny Bit is a Big Enough Sample and Other Short Stories”

  Speeches

  Speech to the Latin American Youth Congress, Havana

  In Support of the Declaration of Havana, Camagüey

  Farewell to the International Volunteer Work Brigades

  Selected Letters

  1961

  Article

  Cuba: Historical Exception or Vanguard in the Anticolonial Struggle?

  Speeches

  “Economics Cannot be Separated from Politics.” First intervention at the CIES Conference, Punta del Este

  “The Real Road to Development.” Second intervention at the CIES Conference, Punta del Este

  Cuban Television interview about the Alliance for Progress and the CIES Conference in Punta del Este

  Letter

  1962

  Articles

  “Tactics and Strategy for the Latin American Revolution”

  “El Patojo”

  Speeches

  The Cuban Revolution’s Influence in Latin America

  Speech to the Argentines Living in Havana

  1963

  Article

  “Guerrilla Warfare: A Method”

  Letter

  1964

  Speech

  Response to the Attacks against Cuba in the UN General Assembly, New York

  Letter

  Reading Lists (Cuba 1956–65)

  PART THREE

  The Americas United: Revolutionary Internationalism (1965–67)

  Introduction

  Con
go Diary. Excerpt from the epilogue

  Message to the Tricontinental: “Create two, three... many Vietnams”

  Bolivian Diary. Excerpts

  Documents from Bolivia

  Communiqué No. 1: To the Bolivian People (March 27, 1967)

  Communiqué No. 2: To the Bolivian People (April 14, 1967)

  Communiqué No. 3: To the Bolivian People (May 1967)

  Communiqué No. 4: To the Bolivian People (June 1967)

  Communiqué No. 5: To the Bolivian Miners (June 1967)

  Instructions to Urban Cadres (January 22, 1967)

  Reading Lists (1965–67)

  Reading Plan for Bolivia

  Index

  ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

  Biographical Note

  One of Time magazine’s “icons of the century,” Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928. He made several trips around Latin America during and immediately after his studies at medical school in Buenos Aires, including his 1951–52 journey with Alberto Granado, on the unreliable Norton motorbike described in his early journal The Motorcycle Diaries.

  He was already becoming involved in political activity and living in Guatemala when, in 1954, the elected government of Jacobo Árbenz was overthrown in a CIA-organized military operation. Ernesto escaped to Mexico, profoundly radicalized.

  Following up on a contact made in Guatemala, Guevara sought out the group of exiled Cuban revolutionaries in Mexico City. In July 1955, he met Fidel Castro and immediately enlisted in the guerrilla expedition to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Cubans nicknamed him “Che,” a popular form of address in Argentina.

  On November 25, 1956, Guevara set sail for Cuba aboard the cabin cruiser Granma as the doctor to the guerrilla group that began the revolutionary armed struggle in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra mountains. Within several months, he was appointed by Fidel Castro as the first Rebel Army commander, though he continued ministering medically to wounded guerrilla fighters and captured soldiers from Batista’s army.

  In September 1958, Guevara played a decisive role in the military defeat of Batista after he and Camilo Cienfuegos led separate guerrilla columns westward from the Sierra Maestra.

  After Batista fled on January 1, 1959, Guevara became a key leader of the new revolutionary government, first as head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform; then as president of the National Bank. In February 1961 he became minister of industry. He was also a central leader of the political organization that in 1965 became the Communist Party of Cuba.

  Apart from these responsibilities, Guevara represented the Cuban revolutionary government around the world, heading numerous delegations and speaking at the United Nations and other international forums in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the socialist bloc countries. He earned a reputation as a passionate and articulate spokesperson for Third World peoples, most famously at the 1961 conference at Punta del Este in Uruguay, where he denounced US President Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress.

  As had been his intention since joining the Cuban revolutionary movement, Guevara left Cuba in April 1965, initially to lead a Cuban-organized guerrilla mission to support the revolutionary struggle in the Congo, Africa. He returned to Cuba secretly in December 1965 to prepare another Cuban-organized guerrilla force for Bolivia. Arriving in Bolivia in November 1966, Guevara’s plan was to challenge that country’s military dictatorship and eventually to instigate a revolutionary movement that would extend throughout the continent of Latin America. The journal he kept during the Bolivian campaign became known as The Bolivian Diary. Che was wounded and captured by US-trained and run Bolivian counterinsurgency troops on October 8, 1967. The following day he was executed and his body hidden.

  Che Guevara’s remains were finally discovered in 1997 and returned to Cuba. A memorial was built at Santa Clara in central Cuba, where he had won a major military battle during the revolutionary war.

  Chronology of Ernesto Che Guevara

  June 14, 1928 Ernesto Guevara is born in Rosario, Argentina, of parents Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna; he will be the eldest of five children.

  January–July 1952 Ernesto Guevara travels around Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado.

  March 10, 1952 General Fulgencio Batista carries out a coup d’état in Cuba.

  July 6, 1953 After graduating as a doctor in March, Ernesto Guevara sets off again to travel through Latin America. He visits Bolivia, observing the aftermath of the 1952 revolution in that country.

  July 26, 1953 Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful armed attack on the Moncada army garrison in Santiago de Cuba, launching the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the Batista regime.

  December 1953 Ernesto Guevara meets a group of Cuban survivors of the Moncada attack in San José, Costa Rica.

  December 24, 1953 Ernesto Guevara arrives in Guatemala, then under the popularly elected government of Jacobo Árbenz.

  January–June 1954 While in Guatemala, he studies Marxism and becomes involved in political activities, meeting exiled Cuban revolutionaries.

  August 1954 Mercenary troops backed by the CIA enter Guatemala City and begin massacring Árbenz supporters.

  September 21, 1954 Ernesto Guevara arrives in Mexico City after fleeing Guatemala. He gets a job at the Central Hospital.

  July 1955 Ernesto Guevara meets Fidel Castro soon after the latter arrives in exile in Mexico City after his release from prison in Cuba. He immediately agrees to join the planned guerrilla expedition to Cuba. The Cubans nickname him “Che,” an Argentine term of greeting.

  June 24, 1956 Che is arrested as part of a roundup by Mexican police of exiled Cuban revolutionaries.

  November 25, 1956 Eighty-two combatants, including Che Guevara as troop doctor, set sail for Cuba from Tuxpan, Mexico, aboard the small cabin cruiser Granma.

  December 2, 1956 The Granma reaches Cuba at Las Coloradas beach in Oriente province, but the rebels are surprised by Batista’s troops at Alegría de Pío and dispersed.

  December 21, 1956 Che’s group (led by Juan Almeida) reunites with Fidel Castro and his group, and they move deeper into the Sierra Maestra mountains.

  February 17, 1957 New York Times journalist Herbert Matthews interviews Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra. The same day, the first meeting is held between the urban underground and the guerrillas of the July 26 Movement since the start of the revolutionary war.

  March 13, 1957 A group of students from the Revolutionary Directorate attack the Presidential Palace and seize a major Havana radio station. Student leader José Antonio Echeverría is killed in this attack.

  May 27–28, 1957 The battle of El Uvero takes place, in which Che Guevara stands out among the combatants.

  July 12, 1957 The rebels issue the Manifesto of the Sierra Maestra calling for a broad political front against General Batista and support for the Rebel Army.

  July 21, 1957 Che Guevara is selected to lead the newly established second column (Column Four) of the Rebel Army and is promoted to the rank of commander.

  August 31, 1958 Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos lead invasion columns west from the Sierra Maestra toward central Cuba, opening new battle fronts in Las Villas province.

  November 15, 1958 Fidel leaves the Sierra Maestra to direct the Rebel Army’s final offensive in Santiago de Cuba. By the end of the month, Batista’s elite troops are defeated at the battle of Guisa.

  December 28, 1958 Che Guevara’s Column Eight initiates the battle of Santa Clara and succeeds in taking control of the city within a few days.

  January 1, 1959 Batista flees Cuba. Fidel enters Santiago de Cuba as the military regime collapses. Santa Clara falls to the Rebel Army.

  January 2, 1959 Fidel Castro calls for a general strike and the country is paralyzed. The Rebel Army columns led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos reach Havana.

  January 8, 1959 Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.

  February 9, 1959 Che Guevara is decla
red a Cuban citizen.

  June 12–September 8, 1959 Che Guevara travels through Europe, Africa, and Asia; he signs various commercial, technical, and cultural agreements on behalf of the revolutionary government.

  October 7, 1959 Che Guevara is designated head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA).

  November 25, 1959 Che Guevara is appointed president of the National Bank of Cuba.

  March 17, 1960 President Eisenhower approves a CIA plan to overthrow the revolutionary government and to train a Cuban exile army to invade Cuba.

  October 21, 1960 Che Guevara leaves on an extended visit to the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, China and North Korea.

  January 3, 1961 Washington breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.

  February 23, 1961 The revolutionary government establishes the Ministry of Industry, headed by Che Guevara.

  April 16, 1961 At a mass rally Fidel Castro proclaims the socialist character of the Cuban revolution.

  April 17–19, 1961 One thousand five hundred Cuban-born mercenaries, organized and backed by the United States, invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs but are defeated within 72 hours. Che Guevara is sent to command troops in Pinar del Río province.

  August 8, 1961 Che Guevara condemns US President Kennedy’s “Alliance for Progress” in a fiery speech to the Organization of American States (OAS) Economic and Social Conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, as head of Cuba’s delegation. Cuba is subsequently expelled from the OAS.

  February 3, 1962 President Kennedy orders a total trade embargo against Cuba.

  August 27–September 7, 1962 Che Guevara makes his second visit to the Soviet Union.

  October 1962 An international crisis breaks out after US spy planes discover Soviet missile installations in Cuba. Cuba responds by mobilizing its population for defense. Che Guevara is assigned to lead forces in Pinar del Río province in preparation for an imminent US invasion.

  July 3–17, 1963 Che Guevara visits Algeria, recently independent under the government of Ahmed Ben Bella.

  March 1964 Che Guevara meets with Tamara Bunke (“Tania”) to discuss her mission to move to Bolivia in anticipation of a future guerrilla expedition.

  March 25, 1964 Che Guevara addresses the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland.