Thesis on "Che Guevara"

Thesis 11 pages (3453 words) Sources: 8 Style: Chicago

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, more popularly known simply as Che Guevara was born on June 14, 1928. He is perhaps the most controversial Argentine Marxist Rebel and Revolutionary in the books of history. His controversial stance does not diminish his popularity as an individual thinker, a politician, physician, military strategist and guerilla chief. He passed away on October 9, 1967, not before leaving a significant change in the cultural trends within Argentina, Cuba and even the United States amongst other territories

Guevara's early school life was a very dynamic one. Even though, he suffered from regular Asthma attacks, but never let those stop him from being a very active youngster. He was always involved in sports like soccer, golf and rugby. His aggressive nature and style also earned him the nickname of "de la Serna." Guevara studied medicine and upon his medical travels across Latin America proved to him that what the country needed was a drastic reform at all the economic and industrial levels. He believed that the trends of free enterprise and imperialism were resulting in huge social gaps and were allowing the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. These incidents instigated in him a drive to initiate change which was why he got involved in the movement in Guatemala and visited the United Nations sessions to promote the belief that he though was necessary for the kind of change that would initiate a more balanced economical division across the world. These incidents will be discussed in detail later in the paper

Body

It is as common knowledge that culture is an influential and strong force. Cultural forces lead the relationship of an individual with the society and vice verse. Many researchers assert that culture operates as a cerebral and emotional standard, which has the power to impede and oppose other cultural values, which are in direct conflict with their cultural values. Furthermore, cultural standards/values can single out certain individuals from the rest of the group. This can include but is not limited to colleagues, family members, religious associates and other members of the society. In the same way, culture also has the power to unite people and make them a cohesive force. Trust is considered to be the key in the later; i.e. trust can allow mutual understanding amongst people and unites them on a single platform. Che Guevara's exposure to the cultural and social structures was one of the driving forces for his revolutionary approach towards bringing about a just change

One such impact that his family had on Guevara was the exposure that they gave him to the world of good literature and poetry. Guevara's interest in poetry and books was sparked from a very young age and he was influenced by the poetic stances of the likes of Pablo Neruda, John Keats, Antonio Machado, Federico Garcia Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, Cesar Vallejo, and Walt Whitman. His favorite authors included Andre Gide, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, Emilio Salgari and Jules Verne as well as Friedrich Engels, Jawaharlal Nehru, Albert Camus, H.G. Wells, and Jean-Paul Sartre; as well as Anatole France, and Robert Frost. What is important to note here is that all of these poets and writers were ahead of their time in the way that they saw the world and were also very revolutionary in their stance of what the social structure needed to be and how the current structure was worth serious criticism. With such thoughts in the back of his mind, Guevara's medical visits across Latin America strengthened his resolution for a change and drove him towards using his aggressive nature in turning the tides of the time irrespective of the controversies and criticisms that he had to face along the way

This is where we see one of the most important traits if Che Guevara i.e. incubation. Researchers identify incubation as a process of contemplating an idea. They assert that incubation is, "ideas churn around below the threshold of consciousness." Researchers assert that incubation leads to discovery of various new relationships that had previously gone unnoticed and further recognize incubation as an inherent attribute of any and every leader, revolutionary or otherwise. They give a multi-dimensional definition of incubation i.e. simmering of opportunities that had been recognized over time. They recognize two important features of incubation:

Intuitive

Non-intentional

We can clearly see incubation throughout Guevara's life as an integral part of all the actions he took and all the people he associated with in order to attain the idea he had. His non-intentional incubations include the aforementioned influences he has in his life through the poetry and books he read as well as the medical visits he made. The intuitive incubations include Guevara's associations with Jacobo Arbenz Guzman - President of Guatemala, Hilda Gadea Acosta - Peruvian economist, Fidel Castro -- revolutionary leader who was planning to defeat the autocracy of Fulgencio Batista, APRA - American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, amongst others

At this stage we can also consider insight as an inherent characteristic for Guevara. Insight occurs when there is a conscious recognition of a need for profitable or just opportunity by an individual. Insight can also be defined as an emotional and mental experience when the opportunity is recognized or simply as a "point of vision." Analyzing Guevara's pattern of activities, we can define insight as a discovery that ruptures the present means-ends perception and an idea that is driven under the influence of social networks. What's also interesting to note here is that the insight the Guevara had for the necessity of the economic and political reform was portrayed by him with a high level of logic and confidence. Relative traits that can be recognized as part of Guevara's insight here are:

Creativity

Innovation

Creativity and innovation can be placed as the essence of all of Guevara's movements under the definition that most researchers believe that strong creative skills and innovative thinking lead to effective problem solving. Barron and Harrington (1981) in an un-related study present a six dimensional model of creativity which supports the overall characteristics of Guevara's activities:

Imagination;

Spontaneity;

Self-confidence;

Resourcefulness;

Enthusiasm; and Independence

Innovation can be very visibly seen in the military strategies that and guerilla warfare techniques that Che Guevara used when developing the revolution that freed Cuba and Guatemala from the dictatorship of governments.

Even though Guevara's medical visits set the tone for what he needed to do, it was his visits to Guatemala and Cuba that really set him on his way.

It was on December 10, 1953 that Che Guevara sent an aggressively-styled message to his Aunt Beatriz in San Jose, Costa Rica before he left for Guatemala. He addressed the free enterprise owners as "octopuses" who were draining entire communities for personal gain and how horrible this feat was. He explains in this message that the reason for his harsh tone was because he needed to wake up the conservatives within his family and the society to wake up before it was too late. His message ended with an even stronger tone of wiping the capitalists out from the social structure and finishing their monopoly even if that was the last thing that he did

Guevara then settled in Guatemala and trained himself under the leadership of President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman to "perfect himself and accomplish whatever may be necessary in order to become a true revolutionary." The association that Guevara made with President Arbenz was because he was leading a democratic-structured government to end the latifundia structure within the region through the introduction of land reforms in order to shut down the system of enforced labor employment and land donations to fulfill the military purposes

Here, in an effort to associate him with the Arbenz government, Guevara sought the help of a Peruvian economist by the name of Hilda Gadea Acosta who was also a member of the left-aligned political group: Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance). She made Guevara aware or the workings of the APRA and used her connections with the Arbenz government to introduced Guevara to the important personnel within the structure. It was here that Guevara's regular use of the slang "Che" gave him the same nickname and used his alliance with the Arbenz government to not only help improve the conditions in Guatemala and eradicate the latifundia structure but also used the same connection to lead necessary revolutions in Cuba and help the exiles escape from the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba in 1953

In this stage, one of the important personal traits of Guevara that needs to be highlighted in his hunger for appropriate preparation. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) in an un-related research presented a four dimensional model of preparation that is also applicable here. These four dimensions are as follows:

Preceding experience

Acquired knowledge

Heightened interest in the specified area

Increased effort based on self-interest

Guevara knew that the revolution he wanted to bring was not going to be easy or a… READ MORE

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