Ernesto "Che" Guevara - "Che Vive!!" (Che lives!!)

A posting on the colourful and tragic life of Ernesto Che Guevara, the Argentine famous guerrilla revolutionary .... Che was born - officially documented that is - on 14 June 1928 but her mother, Celia Guevara de la Serna had confided secretly that her famous son was actually born on 14 May 1928 in the city of Rosario. As if destined to grow up as a freedom fighter, Che was born amid the fracas caused by a strike staged by the Rosario's dockworkers in May 1928. He was born on the same day as a twenty eight year old stevedorE named Ramon Romero died in the Grenaderos a Caballo Hospital about twenty kilometers north of Rosario. Romero also known as "Diente de Oro (Gold Teeth) was shot in the head during the strike on 13 May 1928. Che entered the Medical Faculty of Buenos Aires University in 1947 and graduated as a medical doctor but ended up as a guerrilla fighter together with Fidel Castro in freeing Cuba from the US puppet dictator of General Fulgencio Batista. After the victory parade from Santa Clara towards Havana in January 1959, Che became "restless" and was involved in several guerrilla war in Congo where he tried to imitate the Cuban liberation but failed miserably. He then was engaged in the same cause in Bolivia where he was killed. Che was thirty nine years old when he was executed on 9 October 1967 by a sergeant named Mario Teran. It was narrated by Felix Rodriguez, a CIA operative who captured Che that when asked by him if Che had any messages for his family, Che said " tell Fidel that he will soon see a triumphant revolution in America.... And tell my wife to remarry and to try to be happy". On hearing this, Rodriguez stepped forward and embraced Che. He wrote "It was a tremendously emotional moment for me. I no longer hated him. His moment of truth had come, and he was conducting himself like a man. He was facing his death with courage and grace." Rodriguez then left the room and asked Mario Teran " not to shoot Che on the face, but from the neck down" for Che's wounds had to appear as though had been inflicted in battle. Rodriguez noted further that " I walked up the hill and began making notes. When I heard the shots I checked my watch. It was 1:10 P.M." It was narrated that Che's last words before he was shot were " I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." Months before he was executed, Che wrote a letter, only to be read after his death, to his five children: " If one day you must read this letter, it will be because I am no longer among you. You will almost not remember me and the little ones will remember nothing at all. Your father has been a man who acted according to his beliefs and certainly has been faithful to his convictions. Grow up as good revolutionaries. Study hard to be able to dominate the techniques that permit the domination of nature. Remember that the Revolution is what is important and that each of us, on our own, is worthless. Above all, try always to be able to feel deeply any injustice committed against any person in any part of the world. It is the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary. Until always, little children. I still hope to see you again. A really big kiss and a hug from Papa." Che vive!!! .....