Sorry if this is a weird or personal ask or anything, I'm just a bit curious when and how you got into communism. This is just a question I like asking other young comrades since I feel like it tells me so much about their specific priorities, views, upbringings, etc
Again, I'm really sorry if this ask is random or uncomfortable or anything else, feel free to ignore this, I totally get it, I just really like getting to know people on here 😭
Also also would also love to know any "nicher" facts about Cuba/Cuban revolutionaries that you may know... You seem so well-read on Cuba and the Cuban revolution but I have to admit it's one of my weaker spots (though I've been trying more to educate myself on the topic), so I'd love to learn pretty much anything that you have, if you're interested in sharing!! :)
hi thank you for the ask! i got into communism just this year as a freshman, and ill admit learning about the cuban revolution was probably the final push in around february. im still learning about communist theory and theres a lot i do not know, hence why im stockpiling on books🥹
i did have predispositions for it because beforehand i was reading a lot of books on gender, race, just social issues in general, and most of the time they made critiques on capitalism on the side. but i never fully endorsed it until i was so moved by che’s example as a well-read selfless man of theory and action, a bravery i lowkey lacked, that i was inspired to read the manifesto, engel’s principles, basics of marxism etc and thats when i understood marxist analysis was the key approach to the material world.
for nicher facts i mean i guess i can share some:
aleida march (che’s wife) would braid rogelio acevedo’s (a teenage member of his crew) long hair regularly. che was head over heels for her and would write her poems and send her postcards on his diplomatic missions to poke and tease at her jealousy
11 yo fidel tried jumping a kid who was significantly older than him and then subsequently his own priest during his time in school. i think also after getting barred from college for his revolutionary organizing activities he proceeded to go to the beach, sit down and cry.
che guevara met 20 yo alberto granado (his counterpart in the motorcycle diaries) as a 14 yo because he was his rugby coach and the older brother of his friend, and during his practices he would sit down and read incessantly. at home, he would reportedly go to the bathroom and spend hours reading, averaging one book per day.
camilo cienfuegos got shot in the leg in his younger years when he was protesting batista, he also almost accidentally shot che aswell during the sierra maestra campaign in cuba, mistaking him to be apart of batista’s army.
che would earn the nickname of “fuser” from alberto because of the fact during rugby matches he would run headlong into his opponents screeching, “look out! here comes el furibundo serna!” (furibundo meaning furious) while alberto would earn the nickname of “mial” (short for mi alberto) from che. during their travels, they would also be called as big che and little che.
this is probably a funny thing to notice but che and albertos friendship parallel malcolm x’s and his best friend ‘shorty’. one is a radicalized icon, the other is their decade older counterpart whos significantly smaller. alberto got nicknamed by his peers as petiso (shorty) aswell.
more abt nicknames: che was so unhygienic in school the kids would call him “el chancho” (pig) and when he get an ugly buzzcut his epithet switched to “el pelao” (baldy)
section 2 (not so fun facts)
after che guevara’s death, his close friend haydee santamaria when hearing of the news, was “inconsolable”, she started freaking out saying:
“What a machista! What an outrageous machista! He promised he would take me with him to make revolution in the rest of America. He promised but he went without me.”
mario teran, the man who executed che guevara would subsequently suffer immense psychological distress and said he was so dizzy from che’s intense gaze during the execution he couldnt shoot; causing che to coax him by his infamous lines, “Calm down and aim well, you are only going to shoot a man.” teran, afterwords, would call it “the worst moment of his life.”
monika ertl, the daughter of a nazi refugee would eventually join the remnants of che’s ELN units in bolivia and avenge him by shooting colonel quintanilla (the man who cut off che’s hands), wrestle his wife after the shooting, escape, just to get tracked down and shot on the streets by the cia 3 years afterwards
che, despite being known as a ‘harsh and disciplined austere revolutionary’ also had a sentimental side. he had an intense attachment to animals, and before he wore his notorious beret, che wore a cap belonging to a former dead comrade of which he lost and consequently became horribly upset for the rest of the day.
