I realized that I could be one of those guys who lives in the guest house, comes in after breakfast and says, "Anyone for tennis?"
As I'm reading the biography of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, by Jon Lee Anderson, I realize that young Ernesto had the same choice.
He was handsome, aristocratic, fun-loving, a potential playboy.
But injustice in the world moved him too much. On a trip through Chile, he went to visit a huge copper mine, and he saw poor, indigenous people being exploited by rich American capitalists.
He was outraged, and that sense of outrage eventually changed his life. Why did he care? Many other people saw the same thing and didn't lift a finger. Why him? Why did he care so much?
Years later, when he was 39 and had become famous as a revolutionary, and the Bolivian army and the American CIA were about to kill him, he said, "Come on, coward, pull the trigger. You are only killing a man."
What brought him to that point?
I'm reading the book to find out if he was a good guy or bad guy. To settle an old argument between two friends.
The jury is still out. It's still early in the story. At this point, young Ernesto has not met Fidel Castro yet. Castro has just gotten out of jail for leading a student revolt. Others were killed by the Batista government. Castro was one of the lucky few.
In the book, history is moving forward. Their paths are about to cross.
-- Roger
© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle
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