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Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (1928–1967) -

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born on June 14, 1928, in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina. He's pictured here as a child around 1934.

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Family life -

A teenage Ernesto (left) with his parents, Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna y Llosa, and siblings, Celia, Roberto, Juan Martín, and Ana María.

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Growing up -

Ernestito (as he was then called) grew up in a family with leftist leanings, and early on developed an "affinity for the poor." His father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, who was of Spanish descent as well as Irish by means of his patrilineal ancestor Patrick Lynch, was a staunch supporter of the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War.

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Interests and influences -

As a young man, Guevara excelled at sports, and in particular rugby. He played chess, was an avid reader, and was passionate about poetry. He's pictured here in 1951, aged 23.

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Wanderlust -

It was while studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires that Guevara took time out in 1950 to travel through the rural provinces of northern Argentina on a bicycle, on which he installed a small engine. The following year he embarked on a nine-month, 8,000 km (5,000 mi) continental motorcycle trek through parts of South America with his friend, Alberto Granado. The trip is chronicled in Guevara's book 'The Motorcycle Diaries,' first published in 1995. He's pictured with Granado on the Amazon River aboard their "Mambo-Tango" wooden raft.

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'The Motorcycle Diaries' (2004) -

Directed by Walter Salles, this biopic about the motorcycle journey and written memoir of the 23-year-old Guevara stars Gael García Bernal as the future revolutionary and Rodrigo de la Serna as his companion, Alberto Granado. The film was widely acclaimed and won a slew of awards.

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Marriage -

In 1953, Guevara set out again to explore more of Central and South America. In Guatemala City, he met Hilda Gadea, who became his first wife. It was through Gadea that he became more active politically, and offered to support the country's Árbenz government in its struggle against a CIA-backed operation to remove the Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz. Ultimately, Árbenz was overthrown. Che Guevara, as he was now known by, headed for Mexico City where he married Hilda in 1955. The couple are pictured at Chichén Itzá on their honeymoon trip in Yucatán.

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Mexico and meeting Fidel Castro -

In Mexico, Cuban exile Ñico López introduced Guevara to Raúl Castro, who subsequently introduced him to his older brother Fidel, who was plotting to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Guevara decided to assist Castro in the liberation of Cuba and joined his revolutionary organization, the 26th of July Movement. Pictured is Guevara with Raúl.

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Castro and Guevara -

Castro and his revolutionaries arrived in Cuba in November 1956. They hid themselves deep in the Sierra Mountains. Castro quickly promoted Guevara to commander of a second army column.

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The Battle of Las Mercedes -

In July 1958, Guevara played a crucial role in the Battle of Las Mercedes by using his column to halt a force of 1,500 men called up by Batista's General Cantillo in a plan to encircle and destroy Castro's forces. During this time, Guevara honed his hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.

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Las Villas -

By the closing days of 1958, Guevara and his men had taken control of what was then Las Villas province, with only the regional capital, Santa Clara, still held by forces loyal to Batista. Guevara's successes during this time were later described by US Marine Corp analysts as "brilliant tactical victories."

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The attack on Santa Clara -

Rested and regrouped, Guevara led the attack on Santa Clara. Despite being outgunned and outnumbered, his guerrilla force took the city on New Years' Eve. The battle became the final decisive military victory of the revolution. Guevara is pictured on January 1, 1959, the day after his famous victory.

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Victory! -

Fidel Castro (center), next to members of his leftist guerrilla organization the 26th of July Movement, including Camilo Cienfuegos (standing, top) and Che Guevara (with beret), entering Havana on January 8, 1959, after defeating Batista, who had fled the country on January 2.

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Aleida March -

Since 1958, Guevera had been living with Aleida March (pictured), a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July Movement. After Che divorced Hilda, the couple married on June 2, 1959.

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Happy couple -

Che and Aleida on their wedding day. The couple would have four children together: Camilo, Celia, Aleida, and Ernesto. Guevara already had a daughter from his previous marriage to Hilda.

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An iconic figure -

The previous year, Guevara had attended a state funeral for those killed in a bomb blast in Havana Harbor, a suspected act of terrorism. He's seen here with wife Aleida surrounded by news cameramen, including a photographer named Alberto Korda.

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Guerrillero Heroico -

On that day, March 5, 1960, Korda took what was to become one of the most iconic photographs in history, the famous Guerrillero Heroico ("Heroic Guerrilla Fighter") image. The portrait helped solidify the charismatic and controversial leader as a cultural icon, especially given his subsequent actions and eventual execution.

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The imaging process -

Pictured: Korda's film roll from March 5, 1960, when he took his famous Guerrillero Heroico photo of Che Guevara. Korda took two portraits, snapped towards the end of the roll. Philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir are also pictured on the contact sheet, along with Fidel Castro.

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"The most complete human being of our time" -

Guevara meeting with French existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir at his office in Havana, March 1960. Sartre later wrote that Che was "the most complete human being of our time."

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New role, new man -

Under the Castro regime, Guevara held several different posts, including commander of the La Cabaña Fortress, and minister for the economy, where he introduced agrarian land reform while also stressing the need for national improvement in literacy, especially in rural areas. He's pictured during a speech at the Inter-American Economic and Social Conference in 1961.

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Promoting the new Cuba -

Already well traveled, Guevara was sent by Castro late 1959 on a world tour, ostensibly to promote the new Cuba and cement trade relations. He's seen here speaking with President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt in Cairo.

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Toasting the Revolution -

In 1960, Guevara and Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the then-Soviet Union, signed the first commercial trade agreement between Cuba and Russia. Later in 1960 when asked about Cuba's ideology at the First Latin American Congress, Guevara replied, "If I were asked whether our revolution is Communist, I would define it as Marxist." His Marxist sympathies troubled Castro and other members of the 26th of July Movement.

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Bay of Pigs -

On April 17, 1961, 1,400 US-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion. Despite being absent from the location, Guevara is credited with helping to repel the incursion as he was at the time director of instruction for Cuba's armed forces.

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Cuban missile crisis -

Guevara is considered the architect of the Soviet-Cuban relationship, and played a significant role in bringing to Cuba the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.

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Betrayed -

Khrushchev's eventual volte-face angered Guevara, who felt betrayed and believed the United States and the Soviet Union were using Cuba as a pawn in their own global strategies. Pictured is a US Navy P-2H Neptune flying over a Soviet cargo ship with crated missiles on deck en route to Cuba.

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Speaking at the United Nations -

As a "revolutionary statesman of world stature," Che Guevara was invited to address the United Nations in December 1964. He accused the UN of not confronting South Africa's "brutal" policy of apartheid, and criticized what he saw as "Yankee monopoly capitalism." After New York, Guevara visited several countries–including Ireland, where he celebrated his Irish heritage and Saint Patrick's Day in Limerick.

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Guevara vanishes -

By the mid-1960s, Che Guevara had fallen out of favor with Fidel and Raúl Castro. His criticism of the US and of the Soviet Union (the primary financial backer of Cuba) as exploiters of the Southern Hemisphere was barely tolerated and in March 1965, Guevara abruptly dropped out of public life and then vanished altogether.

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The Congo -

Guevara turned up in Africa, to offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the ongoing conflict in the Congo. There he led the Cuban operation in support of the Marxist Simba movement against the Congolese government. After the failure of that uprising, Guevara spent several months in Tanzania where he wrote about his experience in the Congo, published as 'Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria: Congo' or 'Writings on Revolutionary War: Congo.'

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Bolivia -

On November 3, 1966, Guevara secretly arrived in La Paz, Bolivia, choosing the country to start a communist revolution throughout Latin America. Traveling to the rural south east region, his small band of guerrillas achieved some early success fighting against Bolivian army regulars. Pictured is Guevara in rural Bolivia with locals.

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Informants -

Despite the friendliness of many villagers, Guevara was unable to attract inhabitants of the local area to join his militia during the 11 months he attempted recruitment. In a premonition perhaps of what was to come, Guevara wrote in his diary that "the peasants do not give us any help, and they are turning into informers."

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Capture and interrogation -

On October 7, 1967, an informant gave up the guerrilla's position. Headed by Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile turned CIA Special Activities Division operative, Bolivian Special Forces captured Che Guevara. He was taken to the village of La Higuera and interrogated. Pictured is Guevara and his comrades in arms about a week before his death. In captivity he said little, only asking if he could smoke something.

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Execution -

On October 9, 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara was executed in La Higuera on the orders of Bolivian President René Barrientos. Guevara's body was flown to Vallegrande where it was infamously displayed on a concrete slab in the laundry room of the Nuestra Señora de Malta (pictured).

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Grave site -

Guevara's body and that of several other guerrillas were taken by Bolivian army officers and buried in an undisclosed location. In 1995, it was revealed by a retired Bolivian general that the bodies had been concealed in a grave (pictured) near a Vallegrande airstrip. The remains were finally unearthed in 1997.

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Retrieval of remains -

On October 17, 1997, Guevara's remains, with those of his fellow combatants, were laid to rest with military honors in a specially built mausoleum in the Cuban city of Santa Clara. Fidel Castro led the tributes. 

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Che Guevara Mausoleum -

The Che Guevara Mausoleum houses the remains of the revolutionary and twenty-nine of his fellow comrades killed during the armed uprising in Bolivia. There is a also museum dedicated to Guevara's life, and an eternal flame lit by Fidel Castro in his memory.

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The armored train national monument -

In another part of Santa Clara, a Batista military supply train derailed by Guevara during the battle remains in its original location as a monument to the events of December 1958. The armored train national monument (tren blindado) serves as a museum, with wagons displaying historic period artifacts.

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Revolution Square -

Havana's landmark Plaza de la Revolución is noted for the matching steel memorials on the facade of the offices of the Ministries of the Interior and Communications. One features Che Guevara, the other Camilo Cienfuegos.

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Che Guevara Museum, Argentina -

The small house in Alta Gracia where Che Guevara spent part of his childhood is now a museum. Pictured is his bedroom. 

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Che Guevara in popular culture -

A stamp released by Ireland's post office in 2017 marking the 50th anniversary of Che Guevara's death featured the stylized image of the revolutionary designed by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick in 1968.

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Famous face -

An Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America poster advertising the 1969 Tricontinental Conference using Korda's photograph and Jim Fitzpatrick's design.

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'Che' (2008) -

Che Guevara has been portrayed by several actors on screen. This two-part biographical film directed by Steven Soderbergh stars Benicio del Toro as the revolutionary, and was met with favorable reviews.  

See also: Fidel Castro: the life of the Cuban leader

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