Che, an Extraordinarily Human Man

The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love, said Che

Author: Ángel Freddy Pérez Cabrera | freddy@granma.cu

June 14, 2023 14:06:35

Photo: Archivo de Granma

Some friends, and especially many enemies, usually describe Commander Ernesto Che Guevara as an adventurous, rough and harsh man, with whom it was difficult to maintain a cordial relationship. However, the rectitude of his character and fidelity to his principles should not be confused with his noble and good soul.

Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, one of the people who was closest to him, and who best managed to capture the greatness of the hero of the Battle of Santa Clara, put in words the feelings of the millions of people in the world who appreciated the true virtues of the leader of Column 8 Ciro Redondo: "In addition, he added another quality, which was not a quality of the intellect, which is not a quality of the will, which is not a quality derived from experience, from the struggle; it’s a quality of the heart, because he was an extraordinarily human, extraordinarily sensitive man! "

In this regard, Guevara himself, in a transcendental article published in the weekly Marcha, shortly before leaving for Congo, said, "Let me tell you, at the risk of sounding ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary without this quality."

His short life of barely 39 years, the diaries, letters and numerous documents he left for posterity support the idea that Guevara, far from being a surly person, was an exceptional being in all areas.

Thus, for example, when he suffered a strong sentimental blow such as the loss in 1947of his paternal grandmother, whom he cared for on her deathbed for 17 days, he abandoned the idea of studying engineering in the city of Córdoba and enrolled in the School of Medicine in Buenos Aires.

That feeling is the same one that drives him to give humane and dignified treatment to the sick in the leper hospitals of Lima and San Paulo, the latter in the Peruvian jungle, during the tour he made with his friend Alberto Granado through South America, when he was still a student.

In a letter to his parents, he would appreciate that experience: "The fact is that a farewell like the one given to us by the patients of the Lima Leprosarium is one of those that invite us to go on [...] All the affection depends on us going without overalls or gloves, shaking their hands like any other neighbor's son and sitting among them to chat about anything or play soccer with them."

This philosophy of life was also the one that led him, at the age of 24, when he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, instead of practicing his profession in a clinic in Buenos Aires, alongside one of the best allergists of his native country, to undertake a second trip through Latin America, which ended in Guatemala, a country where he already knew that a nationalist process headed by Colonel Jacobo Arbenz was beginning.

His behavior, apparently strange, caused uncertainty among those close to him, for whom that act was simply inexplicable; just like the cry with which he said goodbye to all of them from the window of the moving train: "Here goes a soldier of America!" It was July 1953, and the young doctor was on his way to meet history.

He would later travel to Mexico, where he had his first conversation with Raul, Fidel and other future members of the Granma yacht expedition, which resulted in his immediate addition to the Cuban revolutionary movement.

About that important meeting, he later wrote: "I chatted with Fidel for a whole night and, at dawn, I was already the doctor of his expedition. In reality, after the experience I had lived through my treks throughout Latin America, and after the Guatemala coup, it didn't take much to incite me to join any revolution against a tyrant, but Fidel impressed me as an extraordinary man."

As a guerrilla man, both in Cuba and in Bolivia, Che's humanism manifested in innumerable occasions, as it happened during the combat of Alegria de Pio, in which he faced the dilemma of his dedication to Medicine or to the fulfillment of his duty as a soldier.

In the Sierra Maestra mountain chain, besides confirming himself as a guerrilla fighter, he also cured the sick and wounded of the troops or of the enemy , worked as a dentist and doctor of the peasantry, among which abounded, according to him, "prematurely aged women, without teeth, children with huge bellies, parasitism, rickets and avitaminosis," among other diseases.

He also showed a deep sense of humanity in the combats, as it happened during the combat against the forces of the bloodthirsty Sanchez Mosquera in the area of Mar Verde. There, faithful to this principle that reflects his comradeship, he did not hesitate to risk his life to rescue the wounded body of Joel Iglesias, before the astonished looks of three enemy soldiers who, surprised by his audacity, refrain from shooting at him.

With his subordinates, personal relationships took on a special nuance. He could be very hard and uncompromising in the face of indiscipline, but at the same time very companionable. A journalist who visited his troops described him in the following way: "The whole camp surrounded his step with a kind of sure affection that did not need demonstrations: there were no orders, no comings and goings, no military protocol, the guerrilla of La Mesa transpired a more intimate discipline derived from the men in their chiefs. Fidel, Che and the others lived in the same places, they ate the same food, and at the time of the fight they shot from the same line as them,"

He would also show signs of his extraordinary sensitivity in Bolivia.

During his last combat in Quebrada del Yuro, Bolivia, on October 8, 1967, Che kept fighting all the time, so that the sick and unable to fight, of his small guerrilla group, could elude the encirclement.

When reading his campaign diary, it can be noticed in his writings the deep pain caused by the death of his comrades in arms, as it happened when Eliseo Reyes and Carlos Coello fell in the Bolivian jungle, just to mention a few cases. But, in addition, in its pages it can be noted that Che's solidarity with his brothers in struggle knew no limits.

It was his eagerness to alleviate the difficult situation of the combatant Octavio de la Concepción y de la Pedraja, sick with lumbago, that impelled him not to deviate from the easiest road, which he had been traveling for several days, so that the latter could ride a mule, even with full awareness of the danger that this entailed, due to the great possibilities of falling into an ambush, as it happened.

The respect he always felt for the life of a human being was proverbial, and this was clearly shown in the humanitarian treatment he gave not only to the prisoners, but even to the enemies. On June 26, 1967, he began his diary entries by specifying "Black day for me". He was grieving over the death of Carlos Coello.

On that day, coincidentally, two spies were apprehended and, once warned, were released. There was no execution or mistreatment or an offense that denoted revenge for the fallen comrade.

Moreover, when due to a misinterpretation of his order, which consisted of taking away everything that was useful, both detainees were released in their underwear, Che's reaction was one of indignation.

He was also a person who, in the course of his life, felt a deep love for nature and animals. As a child, he would not hesitate to reproach his grandmother for cooking the pigeons she raised, or he was seen risking his life to save a sparrow trapped in the eaves of the house.

As a father, he was an example of a loving man, dedicated to his children every free minute he had. When he took his leave to fulfill his internationalist missions, he asked them to grow as good revolutionaries, to study hard, and reminded them that the Revolution is the most important thing, that they should be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone anywhere in the world.

He was also the husband who, along with the countless tasks of the preparations for the new liberating enterprise, still had time to record, for his beloved Aleida March, with his own voice, Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.

That is why Fidel did not hesitate to say, in his farewell to the Guerrilla of America, that "if a paradigm is needed, if a model is needed, if an example to imitate is needed to reach such lofty goals, men like Che are indispensable."

(Translated by ESTI)