Che

Riding a motorbike, riding against the wind, cruising on a motorbike through the boundless plains of the mountains, gives one indescribable feelings. You understand the true meaning of freedom by experiencing it. Riding from where the sun rises to where it sets intoxicates you with freedom. In a historical context, the lives of people who broke their chains to be free always have a different, noteworthy meaning. That is why history is written with the breath of people who broke their chains and never accepted slavery!

Two great figures who rebelled against slavery stand out in history: the first is Spartacus, the other is Che. I want to tell you about the life, revolutionary spirit, and passion for freedom of Che, who, like me, was a motorcycle enthusiast.

Che's name meant “friend” in the vernacular. Everyone called him by this nickname; hardly anyone addressed him by his actual name. Until the age of 23, he travelled through the mountains on his old motorbike, learning about the problems of his people, while also studying medicine at university. But he never found the time to practise his profession, nor did he ever aspire to become a doctor and earn money. He chose instead to launch a historic rebellion against the enslavement of his people under imperialism, dedicating his life to this cause. Indeed, sometimes a revolution begins with the whip marks on a slave, and sometimes, like Che, it grows in the conscience of a doctor and spreads throughout the world.

What Spartacus was to Rome, Che was to the world. One fought in the arena, the other in the mountains of the continent. Both rose up against the enslavement of humanity.

Che's real name was Ernesto. The heart of a continent always called him ‘Che.’ ‘Che’ was that continent's most sincere form of address: Hey, my friend. He left medical school and set off on the roads of Latin America. What he saw along the way was not an anatomy lesson, but an atlas of justice.

In Peru, he encountered leprosy patients; in Bolivia, miners; in Guatemala, hopes shot down by the CIA. Once you see poverty, you can never remain silent. And he did not remain silent.

He always found an army and the agents of the imperialist order standing against him. ‘Revolution is the expression of a deep love for others,’ he said. When words proved insufficient, he set out for the mountains, this time for his people's freedom, just as he had done before on his motorbike. His close friend Fidel Castro was by his side; together they took to the mountains. On one side were tropical rains, on the other Batista's army. But in history, no army is stronger than the faith of the people.

When he descended from the mountains to Havana, the calendar showed 1959. A dictator had fled, a people had been reborn. In the streets of Cuba, not only victory but the first breath of equality was circulating. Che became a minister in the newly established revolutionary government, but he was not a bureaucrat. Although he was Argentine, he had risked his life for Cuba.

He did not take a salary, he lived in a factory, not a palace. He ate from the same plate as the workers, he sweated alongside them. One day, he said, ‘If every factory is silent, the revolution is silent.’ Then he took up arms again. Because, according to Che, the revolution was the entire map of humanity. He went to the Congo to break the chains of colonialism.

Then he went to Bolivia to ignite the spark of a continent. But the system's bullets caught up with him. And he was executed.

His last words were clear:

‘Shoot me, don't be afraid. You will only kill a man, but not his ideas!’ That day, history divided people into two groups: those who fired the bullets and those whose ideas could not be killed.

Even today, children in the poor villages of Latin America look at Che's photo and feel hopeful and motivated. Because he was the continuation of Spartacus. He did not just break the chains; he turned the broken chains into the flag of the revolution.

The lyrics of Nathalie Cardone’s song ‘Hasta Siempre’ (Forever) summed him up.

“We learned to love you

from the depths of history

with the sun of your courage

you conquered death

Comandante Che Guevara.”