The Story of Che Guevara

By Lucia Alvarez de Toledo

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One might initially question the need for another biography of Che Guevara, whose doomed and beautiful face adorns posters, t shirts, wallpaper and all manner of other consumer goods which would have horrified the great man himself, who was not only a socialist but also of modest demeanour. Alvarez de Toledo, however, writes as a fellow Argentine and as a fellow Latin American, about a man whose political convictions developed directly out of the experience of being Latin American, travelling around that continent and perceiving the need for co-operation between its nations in order to become economically and ideologically independent of Europe and the USA. Through personal knowledge and extensive interviews with Che’s friends and family, she constructs a rounded picture of the real man behind the famous symbol.

The book is written in plain, readable language. It is full of anecdote and often very funny. It focuses substantially on Che’s early life, tracing the roots of his revolutionary politics not just to the injustices he witnessed on his travels and work as a doctor but also to his lifelong struggle with severe asthma, which both made him an outsider and gave him a sense of solidarity with the disadvantaged.

Recommended.