Ernesto Che Guevara dela Serna Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ernesto Che Guevara dela Serna - Essay Example At such an early age, he was said to have a dynamic and radical outlook. As a child, he already suffered crippling episodes of asthma that afflicted him throughout his life. Despite this sickness, Guevara was an accomplished athlete who excelled in rugby and became renowned for his aggressive playing style (Anderson). Apart from this, Guevara also stood out in chess and took part in local tournaments at the age of 12. Furthermore, he was a voracious reader with interest ranging from Jack London's and Jules Verne's adventure classics to Sigmund Freud's essays about sexuality and Bertrand Russell's treatises on social philosophy. In addition, Guevara was passionate about poetry and photography (James). During his college years, Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to pursue further studies in the medicine in 1948. It was during this time that he was enlightened regarding the poor economic and social conditions in Latin American nations. As a student, Guevara frequently traveled around the region with his friend Alberto Granado. Aboard a 1939 Norton motorcycle, dubbed as La Poderasa II, the two set off intending to spend a few weeks of volunteer work at San Pablo leper colony in Peru. This journey was chronicled in The Motorcycle Diaries, which was translated and adapted into a film. ("Wikipedia") In light of Guevara's analysis relative to the poverty and oppression of the masses, he arrived at a conclusion that the answer to the prevailing socio-economic inequities in Latin America was revolution. With this, he also asserted that his ideology required a continent-wide strategy such that the separate nations would be viewed as one entity. From this he derived the concept of Ibero-America, which means united and borderless Latin American region linked by a common mestizo culture (Anderson). This became a central concept in Guevara's revolutionary undertakings. To start off, in his homeland, Guevara participated in riots against the Argentine dictator Juan Peron ("The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia"). Headstart in Guatemala - The Communist Youth After his graduation from medical school in 1953, Guevara traversed Latin American nations including Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. He ended up in Guatemala where he was enticed to join the leftist regime of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman ("The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia"). President Arbenz ran a populist government that attempted to cause a social revolution through myriad reforms, specifically land reform ("Revolutionary Youth"). Guevara became involved in the Arbenz administration through Peruvian socialist Hilda Gadea, who introduced him to top ranked government officials (Anderson). It should be noted that it was around this time that Guevara acquired the nickname Che, a term he frequently used which is the Argentine equivalent of pal or mate. In 1954, the coup attempt led by Carlos Castillo Armas and funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had commenced and continuously gained ground. On the other hand, the Arbenz government was supported by the Communist Czechoslovakia that shipped thousands of tons of weapons to Guatemala (Holland). As a supporter of Arbenz, Guevara joined an armed militia under the tutelage of the