by Sarah Salas

Created on: February 21, 2009

Che Guevara is most famous for his revolutionary efforts in Cuba and Bolivia; but before he stood with Castro, he lived in Guatemala. Much of his later successes (and failures) have their roots in Guatemala.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara arrived in Guatemala in 1953, following his graduation from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (the University of Buenos Aires). Guevara had obtained a degree in medicine and hoped to find work as a medical doctor. Foreigners, however, found it extremely difficult to work as doctors at that time in Guatemala.

Unable to find work as a doctor, Guevara took odd jobs as he could find them. As a worker, Guevara saw the extent of the US influence in Latin America. He was especially disgusted with the United fruit Company, and its virtual monopoly on the fruit trade. Like many others of the time he felt it unjust that Americans grew richer off the resources and labor of the Central Americans.

He met his first wife, Hilda Gadea, a Peruvian economist, while in Guatemala. The couple would have one child together and would later divorce; but in the meantime, Gadea would introduce him to important political activists. It was during this time Guevara honed his political ideology, incorporating the Marxist and socialist theories with those of his new acquaintances.

Che has said in 1960 in a speech to the Cuban Militia that during his travels, he

"came into close contact with poverty, hunger and disease; with the inability to treat a child because of lack of money; with the stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment, to the point that a father can accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident, as occurs often in the downtrodden classes of our American homeland. And I began to realize at that time that there were things that were almost as important to me as becoming famous for making a significant contribution to medical science: I wanted to help those people."

This was the aim of his revolutionary ideas, and he sharpened his skills and policies, which would later become the basis of the Cuban revolution and government, during his time in Guatemala.

The government in Guatemala was at the time run by Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. Guevara was an active supporter of the Arbenz Guzman government, actively aiding it when possible. Unfortunately, Arbenz Guzman's policies had a decidedly populist lean, which made him unpopular with the US companies doing business there. His policies of land reforms led to intervention by the CIA, resulting in the end of the Arbenz Guzman government.

With the fall of the Arbenz Guzman government, Guevara's position in Guatemala became even more precarious (it was during this time he first arrived on the CIA's radar). He took shelter in the Argentinean consulate, and eventually left Guatemala for Mexico, and eventually Cuba, in 1954.

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