http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/an-intimate-glimpse-into-che-guevaras-private-life/401136
An Intimate Glimpse Into Che Guevara's Private Life Report | October 13, 2010 A woman, top, touches a larger-than life portrait of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara in Germany last week. Che Guevara's son, Camilo Guevara, above, right, speaks with documentary film maker Tristan Bauer. (AFP Photo) A new documentary is casting fresh light on Argentine-born guerrilla Che Guevara, with an intimate look at the revolutionary's life through newly-discovered images and writings. "It was very moving to hear Che Guevara's voice reciting poems by Cesar Vallejo in a farewell message to my mother before he left for the Congo," Che's son Camilo said shortly before the documentary was screened in Frankfurt, Germany. "I was three years old. I don't remember anything from that farewell," added Camilo, now 48, and whose eyes and beard resemble his father, even though he also wears his hair in a pony tail. He had arrived from Havana for the screening of "Che, un hombre nuevo" (Che, A New Man) in which his father's voice can be heard reciting sad verses from Peruvian writer Vallejo and Chile's Pablo Neruda in 1965. It was two years before Guevara's death. Camilo, the third of Che's five children, was accompanying the Argentine film director Tristan Bauer for the Frankfurt screening, after it opened in theaters in Cuba. Che Guevara is recognized as a national hero in Havana for the role he played in a key 1958 battle in Santa Clara at the height of the Cuban revolution. "There were lots of things that we hadn't even suspected," said Bauer. "That some documents could be kept secretly in Bolivia, that a film on his private life could have been kept by his wife or that in 1965, in the middle of the Cold War, he wrote that the Soviet Union would head toward capitalism if it kept on its current path." A major patron of Argentina's public television, Bauer spent 12 years investigating Che's life in Latin America, where he obtained documents declassified by Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2008. They had been kept under seal as "state secrets" in the Central Bank's coffers for 23 years. Notebooks, a journal and notes filled the Che folder. In a planner and a red spiral notebook, Che commented on his companions in arms and the guerrillas he led in southeastern Bolivia before the army caught him in a dramatic 1967 capture. He was summarily executed a day later, on October 9 when he was just 39. In another surprising find, Bauer's researchers came upon a handwritten copy of the last letter Che wrote to Cuba's Communist leader Fidel Castro as he left Cuba. The letter, which Castro read in public in 1965, concluded with "Hasta la victoria, siempre" (Until victory, forever). Yet the original letter revealed that the now famous phrase was in fact incomplete, with the original saying instead: "Until victory, forever/always the homeland or death," Bauer explained. The film also includes footage shot during Che's childhood in Alta Gracia, a mountainous region of north-central Argentina where his family moved seeking fresh mountain air for "Ernestito," who suffered from asthma. In other images shot in 1961, Che is seen meeting with his parents for the last time in Uruguay's beachside resort town of Punta del Este. "This film comes at a critical time in Latin American history," said Bauer, noting Che's lasting impact on the region. His portrait still hangs in the Bolivian and Argentinan presidential palaces, while Ecuador's President Rafael Correa often repeats the truncated phrase "Hasta la victoria, siempre." "If we, who are so familiar with these documents, can be so impressed, imagine what effect it will have on people seeing this for the first time," said Camilo. Agence France-Presse [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
