Che Guevara: Human dignity adamantly alive (+Photos)

by  Yisel Martínez

Granma | August 16, 2017

Che participating in a meeting of exemplary workers at the Habana Libre Hotel. Foto: Centro de Estudios Che Guevara

PRESERVING, safeguarding, and showing the world the life of Ernesto Guevara and his thought, teaching it to younger generations, and helping them understand why they should be like Che, are a few of the roles taken on by the Che Guevara Studies Center.

The Personal Archive was created in 1983, but the Center did not begin to function until the end of the 1990s, once the task of organizing, transcribing, and cataloguing all the material was concluded.

An intimate portrait of a giant

by Pedro de la Hoz

Granma | August 03, 2017

Photo: Marcelino Vázquez

“He is not on the platform, but he is very close to us, sharing the necessary values to face the challenges of now and tomorrow,” stated Minister of Culture Abel Prieto on inaugurating the photographic exhibition Fidel: An Intimate Portrait in Havana’s Casa del Alba Cultural this August 1st.

On the upper floor of the institution, Alex Castro presented just over a dozen images captured through his lens, which depict significant moments of meetings over the last decade between the leader of the Cuban Revolution and political and cultural personalities.

Anniversary of Che’s first military action as Comandante commemorated

by Dilbert Reyes Rodríguez

Granma | August 02, 2017

Photo: Alexander Gaínza

BUEYCITO, Granma.– Yesterday, August 1, several generations of Cubans commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Rebel Army attack on the dictatorship’s garrison in Bueycito, the first military action led by Ernesto Che Guevara after being promoted to the rank of Comandante by Fidel

The assault, also recognized as the first to take place in the lowlands, on a military enclave that guarded an important entry point to the Sierra Maestra, was recalled with dance, music, and recitations, presented in front of the recently remodeled museum at the site.

Poets who dedicated verses to Che (+Photos)

by  Mireya Castañeda

Granma | July 25, 2017

Foto: Archive

Following the death of Ernesto Che Guevara, 50 years ago, distinguished Cuban, Latin American, and European poets dedicated tender and beautiful lines to him.

The list of outstanding voices of the Spanish language who wrote extraordinary poems to Che includes, among many Cubans: Nicolás Guillén (“Che Comandante”), Eliseo Diego (“Donde nunca jamás se lo imaginan”), Mirta Aguirre (“Canción antigua al Che Guevara”), José Lezama Lima (“Ernesto Guevara, comandante nuestro”), Miguel Barnet (“Che”), Fina García Marruz (“En la muerte de Ernesto Che Guevara”), Ángel Augier (“Che vivo”), Samuel Feijóo (“Che”), Félix Pita Rodríguez (“Cantata del guerrillero heroico”), and Cintio Vitier (“Ante el retrato de Guevara yacente”).

Nicaragua celebrates Sandinista Revolution

by Sergio Alejandro Gómez

Granma | July 20, 2017

Photo: Cortesía del autor

Managua, Nicaragua.– The entire city is celebrating. People from all over the country arrive with red and black flags, filling Plaza de la Fe.
Many Nicaraguans decided to stay through the early morning of this July 19, to welcome in the 38th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, which defeated one of the bloodiest dictatorships on the continent.
Festivities invade homes in the neighborhoods surrounding the square. It was the poorest people and workers who were the first to start building on the rubble of the 1972 earthquake. Music fills the air, telling stories of guerilla fighters, war-torn love, and Revolution.

Nothing would stand in the way of finding Che’s remains (+Photos)

by Ángel Freddy Pérez Cabrera

Granma | July 14, 2017

Foto: Archive

“…not if they burn you / not if they bury you underground, / if they hide you / in cemeteries, forests, wastelands, / are they going to stop us from finding you/ Che Comandante, / friend. / You are everywhere, / alive, like they never wanted”

Nicolás Guillén

When on July 12, 1997, the remains of the heroic guerilla arrived in Cuba, and those of four of his comrades, a veritable feat had been accomplished by Cuban science, according to Dr. Jorge González Pérez, who had the responsibility of leading the team that searched for, found, and identified the remains of the guerillas who fought in Bolivia.

To continue believing in a utopia of the new man (+Photos)

Gerardo Alfonso talks about one of his emblematic songs

by Yenia Silva Correa

Granma | July 06, 2017

The Heroic Guerrilla continues to be a revolutionary model. The iconic photo was taken at the funeral of the victims of the La Coubre explosion. Foto: Korda, Alberto

To say that one’s work and example transcend death is not a hollow phrase. Many years after Che’s assassination in Bolivia, following poems and books written to extol his memory, in the 1990s a song appeared that touched hearts, inspired by the legendary revolutionary hero. Twenty years have passed since its release, yet “Son los sueños todavía” (They Are Still The Dreams), by Cuban singer-songwriter Gerardo Alfonso, continues to move those who “beyond titles and names” are convinced that “the pain has not killed the utopia,” as the song goes.

José Carlos Mariátegui: 87 Years Later

by Marc Becker

MR Online| June 14, 2017

Mariátegui’s funeral was one of the largest processions of workers ever seen in the streets of Lima, Peru, but in the U.S. his death was hardly noticed.

In 1930, Waldo Frank wrote in the leftist U.S. weekly the Nation that the April 16 death of Jose Carlos Mariátegui had plunged “the intelligentsia of all of Hispano-America into sorrow; and nothing could be more eloquent of the cultural separation between the two halves of the new world than the fact that to most of us these words convey no meaning.”

Che

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents.org | June 14, 2017

Che is unvanquished. Proletarian revolutionaries and revolutions don’t get vanquished as they move from one phase to another through class struggle. So, the torch of liberation that Che Guevara carries never gets eliminated; the flame of freedom that Che ignites never gets extinguished; the dream of equality that Che livens never gets wiped out.

Fidel Castro’s memorial speech of Che Guevara

Fidel Castro’s speech on October 18, 1967

I first met Che one day in July or August 1955. And in one night — as he recalls in his account — he became one of the future Granma expeditionaries, although at that time the expedition possessed neither ship, nor arms, nor troops. That was how, together with Raúl, Che became one of the first two on the Granma list. 

Twelve years have passed since then; they have been 12 years filled with struggle and historical significance. During this time death has cut down many brave and invaluable lives. But at the same time, throughout those years of our revolution, extraordinary persons have arisen, forged from among the people of the revolution, and between them, bonds of affection and friendship have emerged that surpass all possible description.