Andrea Pasqualetto Corriere della Sera
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At the last table at Panera Rosa, a trendy place in Palermo Soho (Argentina), sits a mustachioed man with a bohemian air. He is the brother of a legend: Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, for everyone Che, revolutionary myth of half the world. We're in an elegant neighborhood of Buenos Aires that's not exactly Juan Martín Guevara's world, but that's fine with him: "This place is perfect!" He says this place, all pink pastels and pop music, where no one knows him, is perfect. The waitress arrives: "Sir?" "Tea and two croissants, please." A tea and two croissants for Che's brother, whom one imagines with a cigar between his teeth and a glass of rum in his hand at the counter of an old grocery store.
The last of Ernesto's brothers is a little disconcerting, the only one alive after the death of his sister Celia in 2023. Today he is 83 years old and behind him a story closely linked to that of his brother, with whom he shared ideas and struggle, paying for it with eight years in prison when he was leader of the Revolutionary Workers Party. At that time Juan Martín was a union member, but his has been a life of a thousand jobs: truck driver, editor, bookseller, cigar and Cuban rum dealer. He is the only one of the Guevaras who did not go to university, by his own choice: "I wanted to be a proletarian and I became a truck driver." Che's brother is talkative and cheerful; He speaks and takes a bite of the crescent, he speaks and bursts out laughing, filling the room with his loud voice. Then he stops and looks at you: “Talk to me, talk to me.” Mr. Guevara, there would be a thousand questions. How much time do we have? "You talk to me."
What does it mean to be Che's brother?
It means being the brother of a man who did extraordinary things. Not from a myth; I hate myths.
In what sense?
Ernesto did not come from nowhere or from a kind of gallery of superior men. He came from a family with different souls, from an environment with virtues and defects.
What was the Guevara family like?
A little crazy. My parents came from rich and important families and together they formed an eccentric and penniless couple. My father was a hummingbird, a little here, a little there, ha, ha, you understand? He liked women; tango, unpredictable, fanciful, opportunistic, free. A snake charmer. My mother was a cultured, intellectual, feminist, rebellious, rigorous woman. We children are the result of that mixture. In that house there was also a fundamental rule: you had to have a sense of humor. Irony and joy reigned.
You, much younger than Ernesto, how did you see him?
For me he was a ray of sunshine. He was the older brother who did incredible things, who left, traveled, and had adventures. He played rugby, running like hell despite his asthma, he climbed mountains, he went at full speed on a motorcycle; He was brave, funny, crazy. I remember that once he started walking, balancing on the edge of a railing; one false step and he would have fallen from an unforgiving height. He was capable of childish antics and enormous seriousness; a devourer of books, like my mother, anyway. And he was also a great chess player and a great mate drinker, very demanding with mate. But his great qualities as a boy were, above all, self-irony and loyalty.
What memory do you have of your brother's famous trip with his friend Alberto, recounted in Motorcycle Diaries?
It wasn't the first time he went on a trip. He began very early to hate civilization; He said that the city's crowds moved to the rhythm of noise, which was the opposite of peace. At first he rode a bicycle, then the trips became longer and he took up the motorcycle. That time with Alberto they even wanted to get to the United States, but, as we know, La Poderosa stayed in Chile. To me they were doing something fantastic; For my father, idiotic. He was very angry because he wanted Ernesto to finish Medicine. When he and Alberto separated in Venezuela and my brother returned home, it was a party for everyone. As he promised my father, he graduated quickly, became a doctor, but then he left again and never returned. For a few years we communicated only by letter. Every time one came home it was an event. We would meet and the ritual of reading would begin, which had taken a long time due to its illegible handwriting. They were tender and profound letters; He wrote about the miserable conditions of the miners in Bolivia, of the indigenous people in Peru, of US imperialism in Costa Rica. And he ended up in Cuba making the revolution with Fidel Castro.
And you?
I went to meet him in Cuba after the 1959 victory of Fidel and Ernesto's guerrillas over the Batista dictatorship. I found him surrounded and acclaimed by thousands of people. There he was no longer Ernesto, he was Commander Che for everyone. But for me he was still my brother, and when we managed to be together without all those people, we even beat each other while playing. Once I hit him on the arm that was hurting, he seemed to give up, I let my guard down and he pocketed a pineapple. "Traitor!" I said. "You should never trust the enemy," he responded. There was all my father's mischief.
What was Cuba like in those days?
Awesome. Havana was celebrating, full of armed people, guerrillas with backpacks, people coming down from the Sierra. We stopped at the Hilton hotel, which later became the Habana Libre. I met Fidel, but I couldn't talk to him much; I was 16 years old and I saw him as a gigantic figure, he commanded my respect. My brother, who already had a great culture, did talk a lot with him.
There are those who consider Che a murderer because of the shootings after the victory
He was not the one who ordered them. Ernesto was in command of La Cabaña (the Havana fortress where the trials and executions of Batista's men took place), he did not serve as a judge. There were those who were acquitted, those who were sentenced to prison and those who were sentenced to death.
He was murdered at the age of 39 in Bolivia, where he wanted to export the revolution. What idea have you had about his death?
I think his big mistake was trusting the Bolivian Communist Party. The leaders probably did not believe that Cuba was going to send an armed group to start the revolutionary struggle in Bolivia. When they faced reality, they denied him support, and that cost Ernesto his life. Fidel said that he had made a mistake by exposing himself in the first person, but I say that it was Fidel who taught him by example. Until victory, always, of course; The meaning is not "we are going to die for victory", but "we are even willing to die, always trying to avoid it." Furthermore, I have my own conviction about the masterminds.
Which?
The order to the lieutenant who killed him came from the Bolivian army, but there was also a CIA agent at the scene, Félix Rodríguez, and I have no doubt that the United States was behind it.
It is not a proven truth
Please.
What is the most beautiful memory you have with Ernesto?
The long talks in Uruguay when I was about eighteen years old and already active politically. We talked about Cuba, the world, the future. He gave me a manual of political economy from the Soviet Union. He told me: "I don't agree with anything, but you have to read it for general knowledge." I opened it and closed it; It was a tremendous brick.
Che's main quality?
Righteousness, integrity, a sense of fairness and bulletproof social justice. Ernesto went so far as to deny the slightest privilege to anyone, without distinction, including family members. I remember countless anecdotes in that sense.
Can you tell us any?
When it was time to go to Cuba after the revolution, we, the family, took advantage of a flight organized for Cubans who had had to go into exile. He became furious: "That plane was for the exiles, not for my family." My father, who did not share such rigidity, as soon as he arrived in Cuba he began to make contacts, to look for opportunities. Ernesto was blunt: "Being my father does not authorize you to have privileges." He was like that even with himself: he wanted, for example, to earn the same salary as the soldiers, not that of a commander. I'll tell you another one that for me defines it very well: once a woman with the last name Guevara asked him if by chance they were related. He replied: "If you are capable of being indignant at the injustices of the world, we are companions, which is much more important than being relatives."
Back to you: why did you choose to be a truck driver?
My friends were street kids, children of humble people. My father, on the other hand, took me with his friends, who were powerful people. This is how I learned about both the world below and the world above, and I chose the world below. I wanted to work; I left college against the opinion of Ernesto and my father, and took a job as a truck driver.
And the other jobs?
Then I bought my own truck to deliver food. But I also worked in a bookstore and, thanks to my contacts with Cuba, I began to distribute books from the island and founded my own publishing and distribution company. In the end I got into the distribution of Cuban cigars and rum in Argentina.
Che dreamed of the "new man", supportive, for an egalitarian society. stayed in a dream
Yes, in a dream. I don't know if it is possible to reach a world where the exploitation of human beings does not exist, but I know that we must continue fighting for that.
Is another revolution needed?
It would be necessary, but to do it you need new ideas, an organization that promotes them and favorable circumstances that I do not see today. But this society is going to reach, sooner or later, a breaking point that could light the fuse. Meanwhile, the system will always try to divide and distract the rebels.
What do you think of communism?
History showed that communism failed. It is evident that this is not the solution. But neither is capitalism, which generates constant imbalances and crises. I am with Epicurus and with the need for human beings to master material pleasures, prioritizing those that give serenity to the soul. When the balance between the material and the spiritual is broken, the problem appears. And capitalism always ends up breaking that balance because it aims at accumulation without looking too much at what happens to others.
Without Fidel Castro, would Che have existed?
No, Ernesto probably would have been something else. But Che was born with Fidel and, for some reason, the character is still valid. Everywhere in the world I see his face: t-shirts, pins, tattoos. His image is merchandise, notice the paradox. He, who hated commercialization, is used to sell products, for advertising campaigns, to profit. It is proof that capitalism always transforms everything into profit, money, money.
Trump and Cuba?
For Trump, Cuba is only an ideological and historical nuisance, since it is not an attractive territory in terms of energy resources. It only has beaches and palm trees. And, historically, the memory of the painful political defeat of the Bay of Pigs weighs heavily, when the attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro failed.
How do you see the rise of Javier Milei in Argentina?
Milei is the product of a void. On the one hand, he knew how to develop his proposal and present himself at the right time. On the other hand, those who opposed him continued repeating the same old things without offering anything new. People thought: I already know the others, let's see what this one does.
What does Juan Martín Guevara do today?
To be a lonely retiree. My four children live abroad, three in Spain and one in Cuba; I live in a rented apartment and try to make ends meet.
Handcuffs? Couples?
Divorced, I think.
It's time to leave: "I have to take the bus," he says. He puts his hand in his pocket, counts the bills, and insists on paying: "Silver, silver." He smiles, gives a hug and leaves, getting lost in the noise of Buenos Aires.
