New Che Guevara journal unveiled in Cuba

CBC News

June 15, 2011

People in Havana queue for a copy of Diary of a Combatant, 
Ernesto Che Guevara's account of his experiences during 
the Cuban guerrilla campaign that swept Fidel Castro to power in 1959.
(Javier Galeano/Associated Press)

Diary of a Combatant, revolutionary icon Ernesto Che Guevara's journal of the time leading up to Fidel Castro's rise to power, debuted in Havana on Tuesday.

Aleida March, Guevara's widow, and the couple's two daughters were among the dignitaries who attended the book's official launch in Havana, which marked what would have been his 83rd birthday.

Covering the period from Dec. 1956 through late 1958, the journal was edited by the Che Guevara Studies Center (which is directed by March) and published by Australia's Ocean Press/Ocean Sur.

The book recounts the Argentine-born Guevara's experiences, from his arrival in Cuba aboard the yacht Granma alongside Fidel and Raul Castro through their three-year guerrilla campaign in the country's Sierra Maestra mountain range. Fidel Castro swept into power in early 1959.

 

Ernesto Che Guevara's widow, Aleida March (left) and one of his daughters, Aleida Guevara (right), attend the launch of Diary of a Combatant in Havana on Tuesday. (Miguel Guzman/Prensa Latina/Associated Press)

 
The goal of the new publication was "to acknowledge his thoughts, life and work," March told reporters on Tuesday.

Diary of a Combatant was compiled from handwritten notebooks, but publication was delayed because some were missing, according to researchers who worked on the project.

Guevara's writings have included a manual on guerilla warfare published in 1960, his account of the Sierra Maestra campaign (1963's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War) and The Motorcycle Diaries, a chronicle of the Latin American road trip the former medical student embarked upon at the age of 23. The latter inspired a 2004 film of the same name.

The journal chronicling Guevara's ill-fated Bolivian campaign caused a sensation when it emerged in 1968 — the year after he was captured by the Bolivian military and executed.

Guevara's remains were eventually recovered and transferred to Cuba, where they are buried in a war memorial east of Havana.