Ernesto Che Guevara
Marxist revolutionary and author
Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and author who became a major figure in the Cuban Revolution. He also wrote a famous memoir of his youthful motorcycle journey.
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Born 1928 in Rosario, Argentina Died 1967
About Ernesto Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1928. As a medical student he traveled across South America, and the poverty, hunger and disease he saw there shaped his politics. In Mexico City he met Fidel and Raúl Castro, joined their movement, and sailed to Cuba to help overthrow the dictator Fulgencio Batista. After the revolution he held several roles in the new government, including minister of industries and president of the National Bank, and he traveled abroad as a diplomat. He left Cuba in 1965 to try to spark revolution in Congo-Kinshasa and then in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed in 1967. Guevara was also a prolific writer and diarist. His books include Guerrilla Warfare, a manual drawn from his experience in Cuba, and the best-selling memoir of his motorcycle journey, The Motorcycle Diaries.