Che Guevara
1928–1967 2 entries
Biography
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was an Argentine-born revolutionary, doctor and writer, one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution. Born in Rosario in 1928, he studied medicine in Buenos Aires, and the long journeys he made across Latin America as a young man, the best known by motorcycle in 1952, brought him face to face with poverty and injustice. In Mexico in 1955 he met Fidel Castro and joined the small band of rebels who landed in Cuba the following year.
After the victory of the revolution in 1959 he held high offices in the new Cuban government, among them president of the national bank and minister of industry. In 1965 he left Cuba to spread revolution abroad, first in the Congo and then in Bolivia, where he was captured by the Bolivian army and executed in October 1967. A photograph of him taken by Alberto Korda in 1960 became one of the most reproduced images in the world, and he remains a symbol of rebellion, admired by many and criticised by others.
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