Recuerdos de la guerra revolucionaria cubana

By Ernesto Che Guevara

Book Overview

Within a year after the triumphal entry into Havana at the beginning of 1959, Che Guevara began to set down the history of the guerrilla war. Fearful that the events would "dissolve into the past" and that an important part of the history of America would be lost, he urged other leaders of the Revolution to do the same, asking only "that the narrator be strictly truthful." His history of the war appeared episodically during the next few years in various Cuban periodicals such as Verde Olivo and Bohemia. In 1963, the Havana publishing house Ediciones Uni n collected nineteen episodes under the title Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria. This volume, originally published in 1968, contains diagrams of several battles, photographs, and maps of the guerrilla itinerary in the Sierra Maestra. The introduction by Fidel Castro consists of the text of his speech in memory of Guevara at the Plaza de la Revoluci n in 1967. "He wrote with the virtuosity of a master of our language," said Castro. "His narratives of the war are incomparable. The depth of his thinking is impressive. He never wrote about anything with less than extraordinary seriousness, with less than extraordinary profundity-and we have no doubt that some of his writings will pass on to posterity as classic documents of revolutionary thought."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B001DJIAAY
• ISBN13: 9780853452270
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Monthly Review Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Real Deal

If you wondered what revolution looks and feels like, of what the daily life-or-death struggle consists, this book will show you. This isn't a Hollywood fantasy, nor is it airy theorizing. Sure, there's some analysis, especially as regards the various personalities and their respective groupings, as they all advanced their respective agendas. Overall, though, this book consists in descriptions of what the rebels and revolutionaries did in the Cuban revolution. Part of the real value of this book comes through the expression of Guevara's temperament and personality. It is easy to see how he could lead a body of men (and a few women) in an enterprise of great danger such as this was--for he had the capacity to make cold decisions about executing traitors or people who endangered the morale of the other soldiers in the rebel army...while at the same time performing many acts of real tenderness, such as providing rudimentary dental service for peasants. His remarks in this book show that he had awareness of his own limitations, and he sometimes expressed this in a humorous way. It's a good sign when a man who holds life-or-death decisions over you can laugh at himself. Revolution is not a video game nor any other kind of game; this book shows the real item, not some poeticized fantasy. It was only the desperation of the Cuban people--especially the great majority, the impoverished subsistence farmers who constituted the peasantry--that made possible the guerrilla struggle and its later fruition as the rebel army. This appears to me to be honest history, and is correspondingly valuable. I read the 2006 edition of this book, and it includes some supplementary essays and documents by Che, as well as a number of photographs taken in the Sierra Mastre mountains during their time of struggle.

Firsthand account of how revolutions and their leaders are made

"Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956-58" is Ernesto Guevara’s own account of the final 2 years of the revolutionary war that led to the first socialist revolution of the Americas. Ernesto "Che" Guevara, born in Argentina in 1928, became a central leader of the Cuban revolution of 1959. Many people in the United States today know only a romanticized version of this outstanding communist leader through such things as the recent film, "The Motorcycle Diaries." "Episodes" is an unexaggerated, honest account of how the last years of the Cuban revolutionary war were conducted. This marvelous book tells the real story of how the young, adventurous Ernesto Guevara – whose compassion for and interest in the peoples of Latin America shows even in "The Motorcycle Diaries" – became Che Guevara, the committed, Marxist leader. Full of warmth, eloquence, and, at times, poetic sensibilities, Che’s diaries show us how the Cuban communist leadership was forged in battle; how the revolutionary combatants cemented bonds with peasants in the countryside and with workers in the cities; and how a popular revolutionary government was built on these foundations. This book is a must-read for any revolutionary minded fighter today.

Che should have been an author!

Che's unique and splendid writting style manifests itself in this excellent book, detailing the myriad battles and episodes of the Cuban Revolution. A must for all!!!

First hand account of the Cuban Revolution

First, a great book! Second, the author is none other than Che Guevara. Third, humorously and eloquently written, Che explains a revolutionary's fight for a better life in Cuba leading up to the victory in 1959! A must read for any Che or Cuba fan!

The Revolution through Che's eyes

This first hand account of the Cuban Revolution through the eyes of Che give the reader the feeling and emotion that Che felt as he wrote these words. We can see and feel the emotion from his words and can see how complex he was. At times he was cruel and hard driving, at others, compassionate and unsure. Good reading for anyone interested in Che