A Boy Named Ernesto Guevara

It was 1928, and Argentina was preparing for new elections. The government of Marcelo T. de Alvear had exhausted itself. The conservative wing of the Radical Civic Union tried to retain power by nominating Leopoldo Melo, while supporters of Yrigoyen, known as personalists, nominated the caudillo himself for president for the second time.

Yrigoyen's victory was crushing—he received 62% of the vote. The middle classes, supported by the majority of workers, achieved a major popular victory. And while these events were taking place, on June 14, 1928, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in the city of Rosario.

Don Ernesto and Celia had married a year earlier. It is said that they did this to escape some family disagreements. Therefore, they moved to Caraguatay, in the province of Misiones, where Guevara had a mate plantation. Their house, built of good local wood, was erected by Don Ernesto with his own hands. It was located just a few meters from the Salamanca stream, which flows into the Parana River—one of the largest freshwater waterways in South America.

In this lost corner of the Misiones jungle, the width of the Parana reaches 600 meters. The Caraguatay colony is in the municipality of Monte Carlo; its name comes from the Guarani language and means "water of the wild pineapple." It is located in the central-western part of the province, 10 kilometers from Monte Carlo. Another nearby city is Eldorado, approximately 30 kilometers to the north.

Writer John Lee Anderson described this period of Che's life in his book "Che Guevara. Only Revolution Matters": "When Ernesto met Celia, almost all his money was invested in the San Isidro shipyard—a yacht building enterprise owned by one of his wealthy relatives. He worked there as a manager but soon lost interest. One of his friends enthused him with a new project: one could get rich growing yerba mate—a local tonic drink that millions of Argentines drink almost religiously. Land in the mate-producing province of Misiones was cheap. It was located eighteen hundred kilometers north of Buenos Aires up the Parana River, on the northern border of Argentina with Paraguay and Brazil. Initially colonized in the 16th century by Jesuit missionaries and the Guarani Indians they converted to Christianity, and joined to Argentina fifty years prior, Misiones was only just beginning to be developed for agricultural land. Real estate speculators, wealthy adventurers, and poor European immigrants flocked to the province. Guevara Lynch went there to scout the situation and caught 'mate fever.' His money was invested in the shipyard, but he hoped Celia's inheritance would allow him to buy enough land for a mate plantation and then get rich on the profitable 'green gold'."

In those years, this area was virgin jungle; it required considerable labor to wrest land from the forest and begin cultivating it. A plot of 20 hectares was located near the Parana River. From the house, standing on a height, there was a view of Caraguatay Island and a beautiful river beach in the bend of the river. Among the most common fish here were dorado, surubi, and manguruyu. The animal world was represented by parrots, giant armadillos, red howler monkeys, pampas deer, tapirs, giant otters, anteaters, and yacare caimans; some of these species are endangered today.

In this remote corner of the Misiones jungle, Celia became pregnant. When the time for delivery approached, they returned to Buenos Aires. Both wanted the birth to take place under proper medical supervision and surrounded by family. They traveled on one of the ships plying the Parana River. However, labor began prematurely, and they had to disembark at the port of Rosario; little Ernesto was born in one of this city's clinics. After Celia recovered, they moved to Buenos Aires, where they spent some time, and then returned to Misiones.

Around this time in Buenos Aires, they hired Carmen Arias—an immigrant from Galicia—who would remain connected with this family for many years and care for the couple's first children almost like a mother. It was Carmen who gave little Ernesto the nickname "Tete" when he took his first steps in the Misiones jungle.

In his book "My Son Che," Don Ernesto Guevara recounted: "These were difficult but very happy years. Living as a whole family in the middle of the Misiones jungle, with all the associated difficulties and inconveniences, was not easy for any person, let alone us, accustomed to the conditions of a big city. From our house, built on a high elevation in the bend of the Parana, we saw two long stretches of the river and could notice ships and barges long before they floated under our house. It was in these places that Che took his first steps. Due to the huge number of insects, we dressed him in very light overalls, protecting him from the bites of mbarigui, jejenes, uras, and mosquitoes—carriers of dangerous malaria."

The climate in this area was stiflingly hot and very humid; one had to constantly deal with a multitude of insects and some wild animals, although the main danger remained infection with malaria—a disease that raged in these places in those years. Carmen Arias was his nanny and cared for him in this natural, jungle-covered, and unsafe environment. Carmen's son, Alfredo Gabela, told us about his mother's memories of those years: "Mom always remembered the time spent in Misiones. She was very impressed by the red earth and the colorful landscape of those places. She told us that little Ernesto (or 'Tete,' as she called him) loved drinking mate from a very early age. Even in childhood, my godfather Ernesto Guevara began to turn into a true passionate lover of mate."

The province of Misiones, so remote from the capital and lost in the jungle, was in those times in the hands of a very small number of landowners. They gradually appropriated the former lands of the Tupi-Guarani peoples for growing mate and needed cheap, effectively semi-slave labor. Rural workers were called mensúes—"mensu." This word comes from the Guarani language and means "monthly," since this was how their labor payment system was structured.

Mensúes were usually hired by contractors at points located near river ports, and then transported to plantations, where they were placed in unfit barracks. Using mechanisms of artificially plunging workers into debt—monopoly sale of food products and usurious loans—companies turned mensúes into perpetual debtors so as not to pay them wages. Thus, mensúes were forced to continue working until they paid off their debts. Attempts to leave the plantations were punished by whipping or death.

It was precisely in the atmosphere of such exploitation of workers that little Ernesto spent the first years of his life. Don Ernesto, a sensitive man who held socialist views, hated this backwardness and injustice. More than once he tried to help his workers, striving to make working conditions on his farm different from those that existed everywhere around. However, life on the farm consisted not only of work; the family devoted considerable time to walks and enjoying nature.

"One of his favorite entertainments was rides with me on horseback, when he sat in front of me in the saddle. We walked in the vicinity of the house or went deep into the forest. He did not miss a single detail of what was happening around. An abundance of butterflies of the most diverse colors, birds that flew up and hid among the foliage, small streams crossing the paths, forest rats hurrying to hide, or some lizard lightning-fast crossing before the horse... all this gradually imprinted itself on the consciousness of the one who was subsequently destined to become a deep knower of the jungle's secrets," Don Ernesto Guevara recounted. The family also had a boat on which they made long journeys; the longest was the path from Buenos Aires to their home in Misiones. Ernesto was still very small, but already enjoyed his father's adventures.The Guevara family used their stay in Misiones to visit the Iguazu Falls. For this, they went to Posadas, the capital of the province, where they stayed at the Hotel Savoy, located at: Colon Street, 479, corner of Sarmiento Street.

This was the first such establishment built in the city to accommodate rich mate producers and tourists heading to the falls.

"At the end of 1929," Don Guevara wrote in his book, "we made a journey from Caraguatay to the Iguazu River falls. These famous waterfalls are located approximately two hundred kilometers upstream from Caraguatay. To get there, we boarded the 'Ituzaingo'—an old passenger-cargo vessel that once a week followed from Posadas, the capital of the Territory, to Puerto Aguirre on the border with Brazil. We stayed at the old Hotel Adam (Savoy), where tourists from Buenos Aires came."

In those times, the city was only beginning to form around the port on the Parana. Most houses had no more than one or two stories, and the population consisted of various migration flows: indigenous peoples, Paraguayans, and representatives of various groups of European immigrants. The Guarani language mixed with Spanish, giving the speech of the entire province a special melodiousness.

Don Ernesto's acquaintance with Guarani culture influenced the whole family. Thus, during the Chaco War (1932–1935), which Paraguay and Bolivia fought for control over the Northern Chaco, the Guevara family spoke out in solidarity with the Paraguayan side. This became a harbinger of another struggle that the Guevaras subsequently supported—solidarity with the Spanish Republic during the Civil War. By the end of 1929, Celia was pregnant again, and they went to Buenos Aires for their first daughter to be born there. The inconveniences and dangers of life on these still almost untouched lands finally convinced them to return.

The couple, along with little Ernesto and Carmen Arias, traveled by river to the nearest port to board the old vessel "Ibera." Upon arrival in Buenos Aires, they settled in neighborhoods traditionally populated by representatives of the upper classes: first in Palermo (at the intersection of Santa Fe and Guise streets), then in the San Isidro district (Alem Street), and finally in the Recoleta neighborhood (at the intersection of Peña and Bustamante streets). In Buenos Aires, new events awaited Ernesto and his family, which would continue to shape the future Che.