Ernesto Che Guevara

Ernesto Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928. He was born of a well off family with aristocratic roots. The family of Che Guevara was however filled with socialistic ideals (Healy, 68). His father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch was a civil engineer and was of Irish origin. The mother, of Spanish decent was called Celia de La Serna. In his early days, Che Guevara developed serious asthma which almost paralyzed him. This disease did not clear and he basically stayed with it all his life. If someone stood near Che Guevara when he was upset about something that did not go the way he expected or wanted, a wheezing sound could be heard emanating from his heart (Healy 72).

However, asthma did not deter Guevara from leading an active life as a normal child would. He deeply involved himself in various athletic activities mostly rugby. Guevara’s father greatly contributed to Guevara’s development in athletics. However, beyond the athletics, the father did not mostly associate with Guevara, choosing to stay aloof and distant. It was Guevara’s mother that was mostly close to the boy especially during his youthful days.

During these days, Guevara’s mother had very dominating influence on him. According to Ziff, the relationship between Guevara and his mother was stronger compared to the mother’s relationship with any of the other children’s’, he argues that this could be as a result of Guevara’s asthmatic condition prompting the mother to be close, caring and protective towards him (44). While Guevara spent time indoors owing to his asthmatic condition, his mother would read to him as well as teach him French. Guevara adopted his mother’s liberal attitudes easily. During this time, he read widely and became increasingly interested in what he read about the Spanish war refugees. Of interest to Guevara was what he read about long series of political crises in Argentina, culminating in the “Left Fascist” dictatorship of Juan per-n. Guevara’s parents were strongly opposed to Juan per-n. Che did not take part in anti Per-nist activities which his parents were involved in.

Guevara joined a medical school probably as a result of desire to cure his asthma. By that time his mother had developed a malignant cancer and according to Niess, this could have influenced Guevara’s decision to join medical school in search of her mother’s cure (119). During his college life, Che read Engels, Marx, Mussolini, Stalin and several others. But he did not join any radical student’s organization. He developed great interest in leprosy and shortly before his graduation; he began touring South America searching for medical centers which were devoted to the treatment of leprosy. In San Pablo leprosarium he witnessed the inhumanity of treatment of lepers and this convinced him that he would never have wanted to become a middle class practitioner. After his graduation he went to tour South America and it is in Ecuador that he met Ricardo Rojo. This man convinced Che Guevara of an actual social revolution then taking shape in Guatemala. This was the tuning point for Guevara to become a revolutionist.

Ernesto Che Guevara was an Argentinean who had a mixture of Irish and Spanish origin. He lived with asthma from his early age but was physically active having interests in rugby. He became a medic by profession with special interest in leprosy. He began playing his revolutionary role when he started going on tours of S. America and met revolutionists such as Ricaldo Jojo. He was later to meet Fidel and Raul Castrol who completely changed his life from a medic to a soldier.