Loving Che


Book Description

As a young Cuban woman reconstructs the life of her mother, she learns the woman engaged in a youthful affair with the dashing, charismatic rebel Ch Guvara in 1960s Havana and bore his child. "Loving Ch" is a brilliant, erotic fantasy that glimpses into the private life of a mythic public figure.




Loving Che


Book Description

In this “evocative first novel,” an elderly woman looks back on the world of revolutionary Cuba as she recalls her intimate, secret love affair with Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Publishers Weekly). A young Cuban woman has been searching in vain for details of her birth mother. All she knows of her past is that her grandfather fled the turbulent Havana of the 1960s for Miami with her in tow, and that pinned to her sweater—possibly by her mother—were a few treasured lines of a Pablo Neruda poem. These facts remain her only tenuous links to her history, until a mysterious parcel arrives in the mail. Inside the soft, worn box are layers of writings and photographs. Fitting these pieces together with insights she gleans from several trips back to Havana, the daughter reconstructs a life of her mother, her youthful affair with the dashing, charismatic Che Guevara and the child she bore by the enigmatic rebel. Loving Che is a brilliant recapturing of revolutionary Cuba, the changing social mores, the hopes and disappointments, the excitement and terror of the times. It is also an erotic fantasy, a glimpse into the private life of a mythic public figure, and an exquisitely crafted meditation on memory, history, and storytelling. Finally, Loving Che is a triumphant unveiling of how the stories we tell about others ultimately become the story of ourselves. “A moving novel from a writer to watch.” —Publishers Weekly “Inventive and hypnotic . . . [An] artful and restless examination of the exile soul.” —Los Angeles Times “[Menendez] captures Cuba’s potential, its desperation and decay, and also its dark humor.” —The New York Times “The writing is consistently beautiful. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal




The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty


Book Description

Nearly four decades after his death, the legend of Che Guevara has grown worldwide. In this new book, Alvaro Vargas Llosa separates the myth from the reality of Che's legacy, and shows that Che's ideals were a re-hash of notions about centralized power that have long been the major source of suffering and misery in the underdeveloped world. With testimonies from witnesses of Che's actions, Alberto Vargas Llosa's detailed account of the "real Che" sets the record straight by exposing the delusion at the heart of the Che phenomenon. Vargas Llosa shows that Che's legacy--making the law subservient to the most powerful, crushing any and all dissent, and concentrating wealth under the guise of "social equality"--is not the solution to poverty and injustice but is the core of the problem. Besides exposing the dark truths of Che's ideology and actions, The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty elaborates on attempts by both the left and right to suppress liberty and examines the manifestation of Latin American spirit throughout the ages, from early indigenous trade to today's enterprising communities overcoming government impediments. In so doing, the book points to the real revolution among the poor--the liberation of individuals from the constraints of state power in all spheres, public and private. Whether you love or hate Che, The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty will not leave you untouched and will provide a powerful, new perspective on how to overcome the challenges facing the Third World.




The Radicality of Love


Book Description

What would happen if we could stroll through the revolutionary history of the 20th century and, without any fear of the possible responses, ask the main protagonists - from Lenin to Che Guevara, from Alexandra Kollontai to Ulrike Meinhof - seemingly naïve questions about love? Although all important political and social changes of the 20th century included heated debates on the role of love, it seems that in the 21st century of new technologies of the self (Grindr, Tinder, online dating, etc.) we are faced with a hyperinflation of sex, not love. By going back to the sexual revolution of the October Revolution and its subsequent repression, to Che's dilemma between love and revolutionary commitment and to the period of '68 (from communes to terrorism) and its commodification in late capitalism, the Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat gives a possible answer to the question of why it is that the most radical revolutionaries like Lenin or Che were scared of the radicality of love. What is so radical about a seemingly conservative notion of love and why is it anything but conservative? This short book is a modest contribution to the current upheavals around the world - from Tahrir to Taksim, from Occupy Wall Street to Hong Kong, from Athens to Sarajevo - in which the question of love is curiously, surprisingly, absent.




Che Guevara


Book Description

Although Che Guevara was murdered almost sixty years ago, the famous red-and-black image of him is still widely seen around the world: at leftist political demonstrations and, ironically - given his strong opposition to capitalism - on many commercial products. However, he was a controversial figure during his lifetime - and remains so today. On both the political left and the political right, attitudes to him vary widely: while some see him as a romantic, highly-principled and legendary fighter for the world’s poor and exploited masses, others depict him either as an unrealistic and thus irrelevant adventurer, or even as a ruthless and cold-blooded butcher. Consequently, biographies about him over the decades have ranged from the overly sympathetic, to the extremely hostile. As well as covering aspects of his family life and his loves - and his early, sometimes less-than-revolutionary, attitudes - this biography, as expected, deals with those areas for which Che is best known. These include his adventurous explorations, as a young man on a motorbike, of Latin and Central America; his leadership and bravery during Cuba’s Revolutionary War; his practical and theoretical contributions to the conduct of guerrilla warfare; and his emergence as an international revolutionary legend who inspired radical young people in the 1960s, and who continues to inspire rebellious people around the world today. However, this biography also explores other aspects of Che’s life which are not so well-known. From an early age, he developed a keen love of reading, covering an eclectic mix of adventure stories, poetry, history and philosophy - and, from his teens, he began a lifetime habit of making notes on what he read. He also became a strong chess player, able enough to draw with one of the world’s leading grandmasters. Even during guerrilla campaigns, he managed to maintain those loves. Since his murder, he has emerged as an original contributor to Marxist economics and philosophy. It was his wide-ranging studies that led him to become an outspoken opponent of the ‘orthodox’ communism followed in the Soviet Union - and of its Cold War foreign policy of ‘peaceful coexistence’. His tolerance of, and willingness to work with, those having different views saw him accused of Maoism - and even Trotskyism. More accurately, Che has bequeathed the unique strand of revolutionary socialism known as ‘Guevarism’.




Archival Dissonance in the U.S. Cuban Post-Exile Novel


Book Description

Archival Dissonance in the U.S. Cuban Post-Exile Novel documents a body of emergent US Cuban literature published in Spanish and English beyond the scope and historicity of exile. Focusing on the work of Roberto G. Fernández, Ana Menéndez, and Antonio Benítez Rojo, the book proposes that, rather than reinforce US Cuban exile ethnic identity developed between 1960 and the 1980s, or demonstrate a tendency toward cultural assimilation (“Americanization”) over three generations of writers, the discussed historical novels incorporate Caribbean and Latin American archival sources and interpretive frameworks in order to develop a critical and investigative approach to the politics of Cuban exile historiography. Published before the recent apertura between the US and Cuban governments, these post-exile novels anticipate themes of displacement, migration, and social marginalization as common, rather than exceptional, features of modern (and historical) life, as well as such other current (and historical) topics as gender construction and performance, figurations of race, the commoditization of culture, and urban poverty. The post-exile historical novel points to a future for US Cuban narrative and historiography, in part by investigating and featuring dissonances hidden or unacknowledged in previous Cuban exile historical fiction. The literature studied in this book further reinforces a view of two-way migration between Cuba and the United States as a normal phenomenon predating 1959, and, at the same time, as a likely shape of things to come.




I Embrace You with All My Revolutionary Fervor


Book Description

The first-ever edition of Che Guevara's letters, the vast majority never-before published in English in any form. Ernesto Che Guevara was a voyager—and thus a letter writer—for his entire adult life. The letters collected in I Embrace You with All My Revolutionary Fervor: Letters 1947-1967 range from letters home during his Motorcycle Diaries trip, to the long letter to Fidel after the success of the Cuban revolution in early 1959 (from which the book's title comes), from the most personal to the intensely political, revealing someone who not only thought deeply about everything he encountered, but for whom the process of social transformation was a constant companion from his youth until shortly before his death. His letters give us Che the son, the friend, the lover, the guerrilla fighter, the political leader, the philosopher, the poet. Che in these letters is often playful, funny, sometimes sarcastic, and deeply affectionate. His life was short, and these twenty years, from when he was 19 until days before his death, show it was also incredibly rich and full. As his daughter Aleida Guevara, also a doctor like her father, writes, "When you write a speech, you pay attention to the language, the punctuation and so on. But in a letter to a friend or a member of your family, you don't worry about those things. It is you speaking, in your authentic voice. That's what I like about these letters; they show who Che really was and how he thought. This is the true political testimony of my father."




My Life With Che


Book Description

He stayed to talk that day for some time. Eventually Lucila left the room. Then we turned to more personal matters, the disagreement completely forgotten. I confessed that I had been deeply moved by what he had written in the book' Che Guevara's first wife, Hilda Gadea, was with him during a tumultuous period in his life, the period which turned him from an intellectual theorist to a dedicated revolutionist. After 5 years of marriage and the birth of their daughter, Hildita, Hilda Gadea paints an intimate and extraordinary portrait of this legendary figure; one who is a romantic wanderer, a philosopher and doting suitor and father. Ernesto Guevara and Hilda Gadea met in Guatemala as members of the political-exile community. Later they were forced to flee Mexico, where their friendship grew stronger and where, stimulated by the intelligence and knowledge of Hilda, Che's vista's broadened and his convictions hardened. Hilda's account of their life together in Mexico is filled with joy but at times is terribly strained. They found it difficult to make a living and Che suffered from severe asthmatic attacks. Nevertheless the excitement of involvement with the Castros and other Cuban refugees infuses every page. Gradually the character of this great leader is revealed by the woman who knew him best, providing a vital key to acomprehension of Che's legendary qualities.




Cuban-American Literature and Art


Book Description

This groundbreaking collection offers an understanding of why Cuban-American literature and visual art have emerged in the United States and how they are so essentially linked to both Cuban and American cultures. The contributors explore crucial issues pertinent not only to Cuban-American cultural production but also to other immigrant groups—hybrid identities, biculturation, bilingualism, immigration, adaptation, and exile. The complex ways in which Cuban Americans have been able to keep a living memory of Cuba while developing and thriving in America are both intriguing and instructive. These essays, written from a variety of perspectives, range from useful overviews of fictional and visual works of art to close readings of individual texts.




Che, My Brother


Book Description

On 9 October 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara, Marxist guerrilla leader and hero of the Cuban Revolution, was captured and executed by Bolivian forces. When the Guevara family learned from the front pages that Che was dead, they decided to say nothing. Fifty years on, his younger brother, Juan Martin, breaks the silence to narrate his intimate memories and share with us his views of the character behind one of history's most iconic figures. Juan Martin brings Che back to life, as a caring and protective older brother. Alongside the many practical jokes and escapades they undertook together, Juan Martin also relates the two extraordinary months he spent with the Comandante in 1959, in Havana, at the epicentre of the Cuban Revolution. He remembers Che as an idealist and adventurer and also as a committed intellectual. And he tells us of their parents - eccentric, cultivated, bohemian - and of their brothers and sisters, all of whom played a part in his political awakening. This unique autobiographical account sheds new light on a figure who continues to be revered as a symbol of revolutionary action and who remains a source of inspiration for many who believe that the struggle for a better world is not in vain.