"Che" Guevara: Profile of a Revolutionary

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1928. The eldest of five children in a family of Spanish, Basque, and Irish descent, Ernesto is said to have developed an "affinity for the poor” very early in life.  Growing up in a family with what were considered politically leftist beliefs, Ernesto was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy.  His father, a staunch supporter of Republicans from the Spanish Civil War, often invited veterans of the conflict to stay at the Guevara home.  Surrounded by academia and the fine arts, Ernesto was a tournament chess player by the age of 12 and developed a passion for poetry (especially Keats, Machado, Lorca, and Walt Whitman), and could recite Rudyard Kipling from memory.  Inspired by the more than 3,000 books in the Guevara home, he became a lifelong ravenous reader (as well as writer) well-versed in Karl Marx, William Faulkner, André Gide, and Jules Verne, as well as the works of Nehru, Kafka, Camus, Lenin, Sartre, H.G. Wells, and Robert Frost.  Read more . . .