Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara: Selected Writings
“It is better to die standing than to live on your knees.”
The execution of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in 1967 created a global phenomenon: a revolutionary hero who achieved legendary status. ‘Che’ is not dead, ‘Che’ is alive in all of us. But, although the commercialisation of ‘Che’ Guevara is both constructive, yet somewhat contradictory, the most important facet of ‘Che’ Guevara that must be kept alive is the power of his writings. The t-shirt is a good first step, but if you want to know the real ‘Che’ Guevara then his writings are essential reading and they must be kept alive and in circulation, now more than ever. ‘Che’s’ Revolution did not fail, it is still in progress: it is our Revolution and our time will come.
The following texts are available at the Marxists Internet Archive:
Books:
1952: The Motorcycle Diaries [partial transcription]
1963: Our America and Theirs [partial transcription]
1963: Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War [partial transcription]
1967: The Che Reader [partial transcription]
1967: The Bolivian Diary [partial transcription]
Documents:
April 18, 1959: Abstract of: A New Old Interview
August 19, 1960: On Revolutionary Medicine
October 8, 1960: Notes for the Study of the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution
March 28, 1961: Mobilising the Masses for the Invasion
April 9, 1961: Cuba: Exceptional Case or Vanguard in the Struggle Against Colonialism?
August 8, 1961: On Growth and Imperialism
September, 1962: The Cadres: Backbone of the Revolution
August 1963: Guerrilla war, a method [not to be confused with his famous book]
March 25, 1964: On Development
December 11, 1964: Colonialism is Doomed
February, 1965: Second Economic Seminar of the Organization of Afro-Asian Solidarity
March, 1965: Man and Socialism in Cuba
April 1, 1965: Farewell letter from Che to Fidel Castro
April 16, 1967: Message to the Tricontinental
63 Comments
ernesto
ernesto guevara era un revolucionario patriota gracias por publicar su biografia
Thank you for putting this links page together. A great resource. Power To The People.
Israel:
Gracias por sus palabras buenas, companero! Che vivirá por siempre mientras lo recordamos siempre.
Viva Che!!!
Malcolm:
Not a problem, my friend. Let me know if you find any more of Che’s texts and I’ll update the list.
Sou muito fã de Ernesto, curto suas aventuras pois sou revolucioário.
Assinado seu admirador.
Great site with useful link.
Che was a lousy leader, a cold-blooded killer, and a wannabe.
A lousy leader?… Fidel Castro could not have won the revolution without Che. A cold blooded killer?… Do some reaserch, Ernesto Guevara A.K.A El Che would punish his solders if they were to take advatage of the Cuban people. In fact 2 of his solders were put to death for raping a teenage girl. A wannabe?… Common, a wannabe what? He WAS a revolutionary. Constantly in the line of fire for a Cuban goverment forein of his native Argentina citizenship. I meen no disrespect, nor am I Cuban. I am of Mexican decent, and personaly I admire what Ernesto ‘Che Guevara did for a forein goverment.
Thanks.
Che led numerous successful assaults without formal military training – he was a great leader.
Che authorized the execution of defectors and traitors during the revolution and the execution of Batista’s cadre, the mafia and numerous crimials – Che was an arbiter, even executioner, though definitely not a ‘cold-blodded killer’.
As for a wannabe – a wannabe what? Che’s iconic because he’s unique and because he carved his own path.
Case closed.
for some reason i think che guevara i the sexiest man ive ever seen…mmm
lol. You haven’t seen me yet.
I THINK IT IS PRETTY KU WAT U PUT THERE
The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won. Che presided over the Cuban Revolution’s first firing squads. He founded Cuba’s “labor camp” system—the system that was eventually employed to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims. To get himself killed, and to get a lot of other people killed, was central to Che’s imagination. In the famous essay in which he issued his ringing call for “two, three, many Vietnams,” he also spoke about martyrdom and managed to compose a number of chilling phrases: “Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become …”— and so on. He was killed in Bolivia in 1967, leading a guerrilla movement that had failed to enlist a single Bolivian peasant. And yet he succeeded in inspiring tens of thousands of middle class Latin-Americans to exit the universities and organize guerrilla insurgencies of their own. And these insurgencies likewise accomplished nothing, except to bring about the death of hundreds of thousands, and to set back the cause of Latin-American democracy—a tragedy on the hugest scale.
I completely disagree, as my writings on this site demonstrate. Therefore, I can’t possibly respond (yet again) to the same old allegations.
However, I respect your argument because at least you’ve actually articulated an informed opinion.
hasta siempre comandante che guevara,
That’s more like it.
Keep up the good work, fantastic resource of links and an important point in your writing, also its great to see some healthy debate up above, respectful engagement is always good, rage on,
Thanks for your support, Paul. Don’t have as much free time these days though! Let me know if you find any useful links, and keep up the good work yourself.
the devrimci
es mi heroe preferido de la revolucion y quisiera llegar a ser como el para librar al mundo entero de la corrupcion aunque sea con la guerra
He is one of greatest freedom fighter and also he is Role of youth like me, those are in intersted in individual freedom..
ernesto che guevara is my hero, is the best revolutionary of the world and i want be as him…. i love him and i dont tired to say it..!!!!!
Hi friends..
Now only I knew about our Che Guevara. I accept him as my hero…. i like to be like Che…. Wishes to all Che fans
dear che i ll be like you because you are the one in the world i want to be like you one day
je suis un jeune algerien agee de28 ans et qui aime beaucoups
le commandant che guevara comme je respecte tous les revolutionaires dans le monde
soy faanatico de el che
your the …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..<3
I am very interresting on your stories and would like to thank you for supporting our country to have our independant. You know sometime people are ofthen forget to appriciate the goodness of the people we meat along the way especially those who did someting good. once again gracias hero God will bless you.
Gracias, companero! It’s because of words such as yours that I do this.
Thank you.
Q VIVA CHAVEZ Y LE REVOLUCION!!!!!!!!
enviame fotos de los marxistas
VIVA LA REVOLUCION!!!
“come we go burn down Babylon one more time”…
Jah bless men like Che Guevara!
visca la revolució!!!
y viva el che… hasta la victoria siempre!!!
i think now we must fight stronger than ever… everything must change before it’s to late
hı l name dogan l am from turkısh l love you che guevara
you’re my master che
Look at all the companeros who come for Che! Thanks guys – keep the spirit alive. VIVA LA REVOLUCION!!!!!!!!!!
poderan marchitarnos una hoja pero jams sacarnos una flor hasta la victoria siempre comandante che guevara………..
LA UNICA LUCHA QUE SE PIERDE ES LA QUE SE ABANDONA………………….
I fuck che!!!!
he is kominist!!!
he belong to red army!!!!!!!!!!!
I cut his cock
che i sikiyim kominist !!!
che senn sikini kescem piç!!!!!!!!!(hala che gibi olmaya çalışanlar var onlara bu)
Okay – each to their own…
i m always surprised when some peopple says that Che is a murderer and he killed innocents! is an innocent a person that approved Batista s regime?? besides, of course he killed, he was doing a revolution, not asking for permission. i think that those who critics Che don t understand very much what was happening in Cuba, and don t understand very much about the history of Latin America.
LAU:
Beautiful – thanks for making that clear. I’m so tired of saying the same thing. It’s as though some people expected them to serve Batista and his mob with tea!
i respect all ur oppinions but have we 4gotten that batista was a dictatore ? he killed cuban people and he did not care 4 the poor . cheguevara killed criminals and killed all the men of batista. i know he killed people without trial or investigation but can u imagin havin trials while leading a revolution on the dectator system ?? its impossoble !! anyone who would like 2 argue with me send me messages on : guevara_Styler@hotmail.com
Thanks Mohammed. I think the majority of us agree that there was no other way to deal with Batista amd his cadre. Only the brainwashed and the dim argue otherwise. There is also a major wing of the CIA that specialises in anti-Cuban propaganda such as therealcuba.com, so I suspect many of the detractors are on the federal payroll. Successful socialist enterprises will always be a threat to the stalwarts of capitalism.
TO ALL tha haters,Che was and still will be the biggest and most popular revolutionist..he is tha man and for your nfo ,,,HE LIVES HIS DREAMS THAN THE DAYS HE WAS ALIVE.THEY KILLED BUT HE IS VERY ALIVE ….
che nin yaşamıcok zor
BUENO HOLA CHE TE QUERIA DECIR QUE SOS EL NUMERO UNO Y TODOS LOS ESPIL ESTAMOS CON VOS Y AUNQUE YA NO ESTES CON NOSOTROS VOS SIEMPRE VAS A EXISTIR BUENO CHE SOS EL MEJO TE RE RE RE SUPER AMO TE ADORO Y NUNCATE VOY A OLVIDAR
Hey U Fuckin Relic……..whats the wrong to be communist…….he fights again the terror not againts the poor……….so not Che you should be fucked……in ur ash…u fuckin asshole……..fucking Relic..better mind ur language before u say something abut the che.
che is my hero everyday we live is a struggle and the work che created and revolted gave the world a wake up call. every1 has there own opinion but we can all be narrow minded at time the world is a free place only if u make it free and let it be im no communist but i hate the government and all that relates to the government they are pigs we need to finish che and john lennons work and fight for our rights if u dont fight then ur a coward i spit on u ur not worth the time but if u r getting goosebumps and chills up ur spine evertime u think of revolution freedom and peace then fight for ur right cos i want to change the world we live in lets do it together if u want to evolt with me and fight the pigs that are taking wat u earn and takeing wat u own i will do my best to serve u as loyal as i can and i will beat those pigs and win our war our time is now pls contact me on dance4life188@hotmail.com orcontact me on facebook search for john stevenson and jus look for the signs of peace
hey there,
i am jeevan from NEPAL.our country recently overthrough the murderer king gyanendra who was a murderer of his own brother late king birendra.so with the help of “maoist” our country is now a republic country.i really respect maoist chairman who is now a prime minister of nepal.so now our country is a communist ,i am very much proud of it.so in this condition we the people of nepal really need a hero like CHE who is the hero of revolution ,good communist and vert good human being.he fight against capitalism.being a red is not a bad thing.red are real hero of poor people,they just want to maintain that every people should be equal.so CHE after achieving revolusion in cuba ,he does not think that now his task is over but he again go to bolivia to achieve another revolution there.fighting for just a poor people ,he is a real hero.We must remember that CIA of north america killed a CHE.the government of america is bad.he is the terroist of the world not a osama bin laden.north america sucks.he just want to rule the world .thats made me very sad so now we need more and more CHE.so that we can end the character of ruling the world by america.i red salute CHE.long live CHE .CHE is a real hero of revolution.
la vida de este gran hombre en una partida de gran triunfo y una gran ensañanza a hombres y mujeres hasta ciempre el gran CHE
I love tche the commandant ,really,who was the leader .Special thanks to this man .
Viva la Izquierda en el Mundo …estamos dominando..
long live che. you are a real hero.we need more people like u to drag capitalism out of this world.
long live che.we need some more people like u to drag capitalism out of this world.
homem igual tu sempre servira de espelho para quem quer mudar a pobreza e desigualdade deste mundo
Viva la vitoria
Obrigado meu amigo. Nunca devemos parar de lutar contra as desigualdades no mundo.
Hasta siempre, companero.
“Che” my mentor, the greatest inspiration of my life. Wish there could be more sources of his landmarks. His Ultimate struggle gives me the courage to stand up for the people and fight all sorts of imperialism and exploitation of people’s freedom & power.
kone
CHE WE LIVE 4 U
WE are the renegades. WE are the people.
Che was an ordinary person like you and me. He got angry and did something about it because he wasn’t afraid of financial insecurity or of someone not liking him or even of dying.
Throw off the fear. This is our world.
WE are the renegades. WE are the people.
da
iam a great fan of che guevara i like his ideas and the way he sacrifised his life to cummunisim is appreciative.
Grande líder não se cala a voz de um mito como Ernesto Che Guevara nem o tempo foi capaz de calar muito menos um sistema capitalista e viva para sempre che Asta lá victória siempre!
hey anybody know that when che was in chile with granado travelling across latin america,there in firefighter che rescue the kitten or it was granado who rescue the little kitten??? big confused
One Trackback/Pingback
[...] a demandé de tourner le dos à l’objectif, tandis que la mère a le regard que plus tard, le Che aura dans sa photo mythique: un regard d’humanité [...]