The famous Cuban revolutionary fighter Che Guevara left many photographs in his lifetime, the most widely spread of which was the torch-like and determined "Valiant Guerrilla": it was a classic black-and-white photograph of Che Guevara wearing a beret decorated with five-pointed stars, with a grim face and determined eyes looking into the distance.
This spiritual power, full of ideal brilliance and not afraid of sacrifice, has traveled through time and space and still has a unique influence to this day. The life of the well-known communist revolutionary, Che Guevara, was legendary, yet his death and treatment after his death were heartbreaking.
It was not until 30 years after his death that the remains of Che Guevara were able to return to Cuba and be buried in Santa Clara.
The extinguishing of the flames of the revolution: the death of Che Guevara
And to learn about Che Guevara's life, you can't miss his diary and the last photographs. The last 2 days of his life: from capture to execution, through these last remaining photographs we can get a glimpse of the warrior's heroic posture at the time of his death.
Through his surviving diaries, we can get to know a real and three-dimensional Che Guevara. Long before writing the Bolivian Diary, Che Guevara had already written the Diary of a Motorcycle, the Diary of a Soldier, and the famous Memoirs of the Revolutionary War in Cuba.
Che Guevara's diary is full of personal style, simple and straightforward, recording daily life, and he maintained the habit of keeping a diary before his sacrifice. Document his activities in Bolivia between November 1966 and October 1967: sometimes in a few simple sentences, with no special circumstances, and sometimes on two or three pages long, detailing the course of the engagement with government forces.
Eventually the diary was fortunately preserved and published in 1968 as the Bolivian Diary, an important material for the study of Che Guevara's last moments today. Surprisingly, however, Che Guevara's last diary was not as emotional or emotional as everyone might think.
He recorded it this way:
October 7, 1967: Today is the eleventh anniversary of the establishment of the guerrilla armed forces, a relaxed morning, as if enjoying the idyllic life, there is no trouble.
At first glance, it seems as if the guerrilla movement has only just begun, that everything is promising, that the future is bright, and that there is not a hint of "discouragement, pessimism, and failure."
No one would have imagined that this would be the last page of the diary, which echoed the first paragraph of the diary: a new historical period begins today.
We arrived at the farm in the evening, and the journey was quite smooth - (November 7, 1966)
This abrupt diary does not tell us in its entirety what happened to Che Guevara in his last two days. Instead, in the second edition of July 2005, the preface, written by Camilo Guevara March, a descendant of Che Guevara, describes the process that followed in the form of a simulated Che Guevara diary. Combined with "Che Che Guevara – The Life, Destruction and Resurrection of an Idol", written by journalist Reynaldo Ustali Arce, we can roughly sort out the context of the last two days.
On the afternoon of October 8, 1967, Che Guevara was wounded and captured.
These few words do not show Che Guevara's situation at the time: his guerrilla group was ambushed and almost completely destroyed; Che Guevara himself was shot in the right leg, and even the barrel of his gun was broken.
However, if it were not for this dilemma, it would be difficult for the government army to catch this iron-boned man. In the process of escorting him, they took a picture. Che Guevara, who has lived in the jungle for a year, is no longer like the Cuban era, and in the photo, instead of the iconic five-pointed star beret, he has messy hair and a beard, and his clothes are not so glamorous.
Che Guevara's expression was very serious, his brow furrowed, slightly hunched over, and he was followed by at least two government soldiers. Later they sent Che Guevara to the detention center and continued to tie his hands tightly, Che Guevara did not look directly into the camera, but in the photo, one can feel Che Guevara's tiredness.
Originally in the jungle, the living conditions were very difficult, coupled with his own asthma, and he suffered a serious gunshot wound, even the Iron Man would be extremely tired. When Che Guevara was captured, the Bolivian authorities immediately thought about what to do with the world's famous "dangerous man":
If he is left with a way to live, this may be because of a greater rebound effect; if the killer is killed, it seems that there is not so much to worry about. In addition, the Western world also regards Che Guevara as a flood beast, and his death can make many people breathe a sigh of relief on the surface. So without doing anything, the Bolivian authorities issued a secret order to solve Che Guevara as soon as possible, leaving no living mouth, and the two books above use the idea that Che Guevara was shot.
At this point they left behind the last photograph of Che Guevara's life.
It was a close-up of Che Guevara's face: he looked up into the distance with a bit of pride, his eyes no longer tired, but firm, calm, without a trace of fear or panic, at which point he might have anticipated the impending arrival of death. On October 9, 1967, the day after Che Guevara was captured, as gunfire rang out, the bullets took Che Guevara's life and extinguished the flames of revolution in him.
What is even more sad is that in order to be able to verify the body and make it public, they did not use the traditional quick-fix method - shooting at the brain. Instead, he shot at other parts of his body, and che Guevara was shot at least 4 times. In Che Guevara – The Life, Destruction and Resurrection of an Idol, it is described as follows:
How long is the gap between the 4 shots in the cut? Although it is difficult to calculate precisely, it will not exceed 1 minute, so the cut dies in a waking state. And when the brain is not shot, the duration of life is proportional to the amount of blood lost due to death due to blood loss. Since the last shot hit the heart, causing blood to flow into the brain, the cut was fatal within no more than 4 minutes at most.
A fatal shot pierced his heart and lungs, and a few seconds later, a stream of blood hung from the corner of his mouth, followed by a continuous puff of gas from his lungs and a mixture of blood combined. Che died like this.
In fact, after Che Guevara was executed, they did not rush to bury Che Guevara's body, but transported his body to a laundry room for filming and display...
Revolutionaries and onlookers: Che Guevara in the laundry
A documentary takes us back to the laundry room where Che Guevara's body was parked. After the death of Che Guevara, his body was transported to the town of Valle Grande in southeastern Bolivia, the laundry room of a hospital, and was displayed. Suddenly, the village was filled with reporters and military and political dignitaries, as well as many ordinary local people, who wanted to see this legendary figure, even if it was a cold body.
Such a bloody and tragic scene has become quite funny and strange because there are more people watching.
The laundry room was surrounded by soldiers, who were really armed and well-dressed, guarding the inside and outside of the laundry door, not knowing whether they were going to guard against onlookers outside or from "coming back to life" from Che Guevara. The dignitaries, wearing military hats and suits, waited to see the unable che Guevara.
Che Guevara's body has been sorted out, the blood has been wiped, and simple embalming measures have been taken, but there are still mottled blood stains, which contrast with the pale skin. At that time, they sent two nuns to tidy up Che Guevara's remains, and when the nuns were tidying up, they even felt that Che Guevara had some similarities with the crucified Jesus.
They carried Che Guevara on a stretcher to a rectangular laundry table, and used a wooden board to prop up Che Guevara's head with a black cloth cushioned on his back. The soldiers then untied the ropes that bound the corpse, unbuttoned his shirt, and revealed Che Guevara's upper body to show the wounds.
Che Guevara's head was gently turned to the side, his eyes had lost their former radiance, but they had not closed, and they were slightly open, as if they were still observing the world that he had deeply attached to. His mouth was also slightly open, as if he still had a lot to say to the world, as if he wanted to say: for his own ideals, die without regrets.
By this time, Che Guevara was already very thin, which was very different from the strong body of the Cuban period. With his loose hair and untrimmed beard, the whole image is not as delicate as in other photos, but more in line with his status as a guerrilla.
As soon as the camera pans, there are the bodies of two revolutionary fighters on the ground, both exposed on their chests, showing the wounds, but they have more scarlet blood on their bodies. Each of them was wearing a shawl and a beard, and indeed in that harsh environment, who cares if they look glamorous or not.
When everything was ready, the officers walked in one after another, pointing at Che Guevara's corpse, and turning their heads and ears, many of them were the murderers of Che Guevara.
The outside of the laundry room was blocked by iron bars, and there was a soldier guarding it, and the people were holding on to the railing, and they also looked at this corpse that had once exuded infinite energy but was already stiff. At this time, a reporter held up a camera to take pictures of Che Guevara's pale body, and these photos became an important record of this history.
When the dignitaries left, the soldiers with guns continued to stay inside the laundry, and the people began to slowly line up to go into the laundry room. Each of them slowed down, didn't speak, and quietly, made a circle around the cramped laundry room.
Some people pinched their noses with their hands, some people covered them with handkerchiefs, and even a fat man with sunglasses smoking a cigarette and crossed his waist; some women wore black veils and carried little girls by their side, silently walking while looking at the remains. It is now difficult to speculate about the psychological activities of these masses, but the expression on everyone's face is complicated, after all, such a legendary figure is now lying quietly in the laundry room of this small village, and no one will think that his end will be like this...
Over time, the lens changed from black and white to color.
In front of the color camera, it was still the humble laundry room, surrounded by weeds, a combination of red tiles and pale blue walls, and the doorway was separated by a pillar, which looked far away, like a pair of empty eyes, staring ahead. Walking into the interior of the laundry room, the three-sided mottled walls are engraved with the words written by countless people spontaneously to Che Guevara, as well as five-pointed stars of different shapes.
Although it is extremely simple, it is completely inferior to those exquisitely carved inscriptions, but it is more powerful to feel the shock of people's hearts. You have never forgotten this legend of dedication to an ideal society. The dignitaries who watched Che Guevara's body disappeared into the long river of history, but even after thousands of years, this simple room collapsed, the story of Che Guevara will still be passed on in people's minds.
Recovery of the remains: a state funeral that is 30 years late
Since then, the remains of Che Guevara have been quietly buried on the bolivian soil for 30 years. Finally, in the 1990s, when the political situation in South America stabilized slightly, the search for the remains of Che Guevara and his comrades finally took a turn for the better.
The search began at the end of 1995 and finally the founding of the remains of Che Guevara and other comrades-in-arms in mid-1997, a major event hanging in the hearts of the Cuban people, finally came to fruition.
The Cuban government decided to honor the hero with a highest-rule burial ceremony.
On the morning of October 17, 1997, in the city of Santa Clara, where the fire of Che Guevara began to burn, solemn military music sounded. The remains of Che Guevara and several other martyrs, covered with the Cuban flag and surrounded by white flowers, were slowly transported by hearse to the vicinity of the cemetery.
The people of Santa Clara spontaneously came out to see off Che Guevara, and where the hearse passed, they were full of people and sprinkled with flowers, and the people did not forget Che Guevara, but deeply missed him. Arriving at The Che Guevara Square, the brown-red coffin containing che Che Guevara's remains was carried to the mausoleum by two officers, slowly sent into a square tomb on the wall, and sealed the opening with stone slabs.
Other martyrs perform the same ritual. These people's heroes have finally received eternal rest. Speaking at the funeral, Che Guevara's close comrade-in-arms, Castro, praised Che Guevara's selfless dedication to the Cuban Revolution and praised Che Guevara as a model for revolutionaries and communists.
At the end of the funeral, Castro himself lit the lamp in front of Guevara's spirit.
The spirit of this hero of the Cuban people will illuminate the ideological world of the Cuban people, just like this long lamp. After the burial of Che Guevara, the Cuban government did not stop searching for the remains of other guerrillas, and later more martyrs were recovered, including the remains of the most mysterious female guerrilla, Tania.
Of course, there are also people who can only sleep in the dense jungle forever, and people with a sense of justice will remember them.