Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

240 reframing latin america
Vargas in Brazil (1930–1945; 1950–1954), Raúl Haya de la Torre in Peru
(1978–1979), and Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala (1950–1954), and the various
leaders of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1940) promised to change government
to defend the lives and interests of poor people. Indeed, many of these
populists made impressive gains. But on balance, major problems remained.
By the 1960s, poverty was still a continental blight, and the populists, some
of whom turned toward fascism, had failed to stave off the machinations of
oppressive military dictatorships, which began sweeping into power. It was
during the critical transition phase of the 1950s that Che Guevara gained
his political consciousness and eventually embraced socialism.
Guevara was born to a prosperous, middle-class family in Argentina in
1928. He suffered from extreme asthma during childhood (and throughout
his life). Asthma, it is said, sparked his interest in becoming a doctor. He
entered the University of Buenos Aires in 1948 to study medicine. In the
midst of his studies, Che embarked on two major trips that exposed him to
Latin America’s widespread poverty. The fi rst came in 1950 when he rode
alone on a moped for four thousand miles throughout northern Argentina.
The second and now more famous trip was in 1951 and 1952 when, in the
company of a biochemist friend, Guevara traveled throughout South America,
fi rst on motorcycle, then by hitchhiking and on foot. After returning
to Buenos Aires to complete his studies, Guevara left Argentina again, this
time for Bolivia and Guatemala. There he witnessed the mobilization following
the Bolivian Revolution in 1952, and the U.S.-supported overthrow
of the reformist Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954.
From Guatemala, Che went to Mexico where he met Fidel Castro. Castro
had been recently released from a Cuban prison where he was held for
revolutionary activities. He and Che became fast friends, sharing general
visions of an alternative future for Latin America. Castro invited Che to
join his guerrilla band that landed on the coast of Cuba aboard the Granma
in 1956. Of the eighty-one guerrillas who boarded the boat, only twelve survived
the Cuban military’s attacks and made it to the Sierra Maestra; Che
and Castro were among those twelve. Che then fought alongside Castro for
three years and became a revolutionary commander.
Che held various high-ranking posts in the new Cuban government, most
notably minister of industry. At that time he was still a relatively unknown
fi gure in international circles, but his reputation grew rapidly as he began
to travel as a diplomatic representative of the Cuban government. He promoted
guerrilla warfare and advocated a new, idealized form of socialism.
In 1965 Che resigned his post in the Cuban government and returned to the
life of an international revolutionary. He went to central Africa but failed to