Che Guevara was a physician and Marxist writer who became involved in the social revolution of Guatemala. Guevara could be said to be a cultural icon to a generation that is incapable of understanding the socialist mission he embarked on that eventually caused his martyrdom in death.

Guevara was born in Argentina in 1928 to an upper-class family. He was plagued by chronic asthma, but excelled at sports, was well educated, and through a combination of leftist teachings from his family heritage and his own personality, became a radical thinker at a young age. He could often be found reading, and enjoyed a wide range of writers such as Jack London, Sigmund Freud, and Jules Verne. He also had a passion for the game of chess, which he learned from his father, and for reading.

In 1948 Guevara began studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, where he earned his diploma in 1953. During his studies, he traveled extensively and in 1951 embarked on a journey to South America with Alberto Granado, a biochemist that was Guevara’s good friend. Traveling by motorcycle, it was this trip that Guevara wrote about in The Motorcycle Diaries, a journal that was translated into English and served as the basis for the 2004 same-named motion picture.

Disturbed by the inequalities and oppression in world society, Guevara developed strong political stances and eventually joined Fidel Castro, who would lead the 1956 Cuban Revolution, in Mexico. Guevara joined the movement that intended to overthrow the Batista dictatorship as a medic, but eventually put down his physician’s bag to take up arms in the revolution. He became a respected amongst the group as both a leader and fighter and was eventually made Comandante. Guevara was described as both fearless and ruthless, and was responsible for a number of executions of men found guilty of being traitors, spies, and deserters, though reportedly executed many men without trial.

Guevara was granted Cuban citizenship in 1959 for his service, but later renounced his citizenship and all ties with the Cuban government, including his position as president of the Cuban National Bank and Minister of Industry. He had in a way vanished from society, but had actually pursued revolutionary causes in other nations. In 1967, Guevara openly criticized the Soviet Union and accused the Northern Hemisphere of exploiting the Southern in his "Message to the Tricontinental." Guevara further openly supported the Vietnamese Revolution. In October of 1967, he was captured and killed in Bolivia with the aid of the American government.

It was his highly publicized and debated execution that lead to his symbolic legend. He was revered for having given up a comfortable, upper-class life to travel into poverty and disease to fight for a belief. In the U.S., Target was forced to remove Guevara's image from a CD case after much public opposition comparing him to Osama bin Laden and Adolph Hitler. Guevara’s body lay buried in Bolivia for thirty years until 1997 when Guevara’s remains were exhumed. His remains now rest in a mausoleum in the Plaza Comandante Ernesto Guevara in Santa Clara, Cuba.

YUDDY