Compañero : the life and death of Che Guevara

by The Time He Was Killed In The Jungles Of Bolivia, Where His Body Was Displayed Like A Deposed Christ, Ernesto "che" Guevara Had Become A Synonym For Revolution Everywhere From Cuba To The Barricades Of Paris. This Extraordinary Biography Peels Aside The Veil Of The Guevara Legend To Reveal The Charismatic, Restless Man Behind It. drawing On Archival Materials From Three Continents And On Interviews With Guevara's Family And Associates, Castaneda Follows Che From His Childhood In The Argentine Middle Class Through The Years Of Pilgrimage That Turned Him Into A Committed Revolutionary. He Examines Guevara's Complex Relationship With Fidel Castro, And Analyzes The Flaws Of Character That Compelled Him To Leave Cuba And Expend His Energies, And Ultimately His Life, In Quixotic Adventures In The Congo And Bolivia. A Masterpiece Of Scholarship, companero Is The Definitive Portrait Of A Figure Who Continues To Fascinate And Inspire The World Over. publishers Weekly the Second Substantial Biography Of The Nearly Mythic Che This Year (jon Lee Anderson's Che Guevara Was Reviewed In Pw On March 10), Castaeda's Is Neither As Involving Nor As Reliable As Its Predecessor. Handicapped By A Halting Translation (his Entrancement With The Project Of Revolution Was Tempered By The Lucidity He Had Already Displayed On Several Occasions...), It Reads In Places Like A Treatise (this Analysis Will Consequently Focus On The Campaign's Successive Tribulations...). Although Castaeda Is Informative On Latin American Political Radicalism, And Fits Guevara, Whom He Views As Decent, Noble And Even Christ-like, Into Its Complexities, He Sees Che As Motivated By Restlessness And An Obsession To Export Revolution Beyond Cuba. Castaeda, Who Teaches History At New York University, Also Targets Guevara's Lifelong Struggle With Asthma As A Motivating Factor, Goading Him Toward Quickly Achieved Goals, Yet Disabling Him During His Futile Guerrilla Campaign In Bolivia. His Account Of How And Why Guevara Grew Away From Castro After Their Success In Cuba And Why He Dabbled In Distant Radical Movements In Africa And South America Follows A Path Well Trod By Earlier Biographers. This Book Is Dated, Too, By Such Recent Events As The Return Of Guevara's Mutilated Body For Burial In Cuba In July. Further, A Biography That Characterizes Che As Fluent To Some Extent (in French) And Describes The Squalid Circumstances Of His Execution In The Bolivian Outback In 1967 As A Death Worth Reliving Is Likely To Be Read With Some Exasperation. Illustrations Not Seen By Pw. (oct.)

Cuando llegó el momento en que fue muerto en las selvas de Bolivia, donde su cuerpo fue exhibido como un Cristo destronado, Ernesto "Che  Guevara se había convertido en sinónimo de revolución en todas partes desde Cuba hasta los terrenos universitarios de los Estados Unidos. Esta biografía extraordinaria por uno de los más prominentes analistas políticos de Latinoamérica revela la leyenda del Che Guevara para mostrar el carismático e inquieto hombre detrás de ella.

Tomando de los archivos de tres continentes y de entrevistas con la familia y asociados de Guevara, Jorge Castañeda sigue al Che desde su niñez en la clase media argentina hasta los años de peregrinaje que lo hicieron un revolucionario dedicado. Castañeda examina las complejas relaciones entre Guevara y Fidel Castro, quien lo hizo su mano derecha aún cuando el Che se convirtió en la conciencia política de Fidel. Y Castañeda analiza las fallas de carácter que forzaron al Che a irse de Cuba y dar sus energias y, finalmente, su vida a aventuras quijotescas en el Congo y Bolivia. Una obra maestra de erudición y simpatía literaria, Compañero es el retrato definitivo de una figura que continua fascinando e inspirando a gentes del mundo entero.

Library Journal

As Castaeda's masterfully written biography concludes, "The death of Che Guevara gave significance to his life and life to his myth." Thirty years later, despite Che's failed economic policies and disastrous military adventures, the myth endures as a worldwide pop-cultural phenomenon. Of the several biographies on Che published this year, this work by Castaeda (political science, New York Univ.) offers the most illuminating and substantive interpretation of the reasons behind the slain revolutionary's persistent appeal. Castaeda accurately places his most lasting legacy in the cultural rather than the political realm, showing that in his idiosyncratic mixture of selfless idealism, willful arrogance, and uncompromising rejection of status-quo politics, Che personified the spirit of the popular youth movements of the Sixties. No less relevant today despite the hindsight of history, his legacy is well served by this lucid and eloquent examination of the mythic congruence of a man and his turbulent times.Maria S. Macias

Castro's Cuba is isolated; the guerrillas who once spread havoc through Uruguay and Argentina are dead, dispersed, or running for office as moderates. And in 1990, Nicaragua's Sandinistas were rejected at the polls by their own constituents. Are these symptoms of the fall of the Latin American left? Or are they merely temporary lulls in an ongoing revolution that may yet transform our hemisphere?

This perceptive and richly eventful study by one of Mexico's most distinguished political scientists tells the story behind the failed movements of the past thirty years while suggesting that the left has a continuing relevance in a continent that suffers from destitution and social inequality. Combining insider's accounts of intrigue and armed struggle with a clear-sighted analysis of the mechanisms of day-to-day power, Utopia Unarmed is an indispensable work of scholarship, reportage, and political prognosis.

An eloquent Latin American political scientist offers an incisive, brilliantly informed look at the legacies of Castro, Allende, the Sandinistas, and others--and explainsraordinary. . . . Attempts to do nothing less than restore direction to the Latin American left."--Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Cuando llego el momento en que fue muerto en las selvas de Bolivia, donde su cuerpo fue exhibido como un Cristo destronado, Ernesto "Che Guevara se habia convertido en sinonimo de revolucion en todas partes desde Cuba hasta los terrenos universitarios de los Estados Unidos. Esta biografia extraordinaria por uno de los mas prominentes analistas politicos de Latinoamerica revela la leyenda del Che Guevara para mostrar el carismatico e inquieto hombre detras de ella.Tomando de los archivos de tres continentes y de entrevistas con la familia y asociados de Guevara, Jorge Castaneda sigue al Che desde su ninez en la clase media argentina hasta los anos de peregrinaje que lo hicieron un revolucionario dedicado. Castaneda examina las complejas relaciones entre Guevara y Fidel Castro, quien lo hizo su mano derecha aun cuando el Che se convirtio en la conciencia politica de Fidel. Y Castaneda analiza las fallas de caracter que forzaron al Che a irse de Cuba y dar sus energias y, finalmente, su vida a aventuras quijotescas en el Congo y Bolivia. Una obra maestra de erudicion y simpatia literaria, Companero es el retrato definitivo de una figura que continua fascinando e inspirando a gentes del mundo entero.From the Trade Paperback edition. Cuando llegO el momento en que fue muerto en las selvas de Bolivia, donde su cuerpo fue exhibido como un Cristo destronado, Ernesto "Che Guevara se habIa convertido en sinOnimo de revoluciOn en todas partes desde Cuba hasta los terrenos universitarios de los Estados Unidos. Esta biografIa extraordinaria por uno de los mAs prominentes analistas polIticos de LatinoamErica revela la leyenda del Che Guevara para mostrar el carismAtico e inquieto hombre detrAs de ella. Tomando de los archivos de tres continentes y de entrevistas con la familia y asociados de Guevara, Jorge CastaNeda sigue al Che desde su niNez en la clase media argentina hasta los aNos de peregrinaje que lo hicieron un revolucionario dedicado. CastaNeda examina las complejas relaciones entre Guevara y Fidel Castro, quien lo hizo su mano derecha aUn cuando el Che se convirtiO en la conciencia polItica de Fidel. Y CastaNeda analiza las fallas de carActer que forzaron al Che a irse de Cuba y dar sus energias y, finalmente, su vida a aventuras quijotescas en el Congo y Bolivia. Una obra maestra de erudiciOn y simpatIa literaria, CompaNero es el retrato definitivo de una figura que continua fascinando e inspirando a gentes del mundo entero. From the Trade Paperback edition Thirty years ago, in the wilds of southeastern Bolivia, the life of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna came to a sudden, inglorious end - and an unquenchable myth was born. To this day, the mere mention of "Che" summons up a mental picture of the bearded revolutionary leader who was deeply and directly involved in the upheavals in Latin America and Africa during the 1950s and '60s. From his inclusion of such unique material as Che's teenage love letters to his detailed review of archives in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, Castaneda provides the most balanced and thorough account of Che's personal and political endeavors - neither a whitewash nor an excoriation, but biography at its best. He places each stage of Che's career in its social, cultural, and political context, and he tackles thorny questions that are crucial to understanding the entire Socialist venture: Did the Soviets help or betray Che in the Congo and Bolivia? Did Fidel Castro wish him well or hope for his demise? And, perhaps most compelling of all, how did a blue-blooded, asthmatic doctor from Argentina transcend ideology and politics to become the icon known as Che? By the time he was killed in the jungles of Bolivia, where his body was displayed like a deposed Christ, Ernesto "Che" Guevara had become a synonym for revolution everywhere from Cuba to the barricades of Paris. This extraordinary biography peels aside the veil of the Guevara legend to reveal the charismatic, restless man behind it. Drawing on archival materials from three continents and on interviews with Guevara's family and associates, Castaneda follows Che from his childhood in the Argentine middle class through the years of pilgrimage that turned him into a committed revolutionary. He examines Guevara's complex relationship with Fidel Castro, and analyzes the flaws of character that compelled him to leave Cuba and expend his energies, and ultimately his life, in quixotic adventures in the Congo and Bolivia. A masterpiece of scholarship, Companero is the definitive portrait of a figure who continues to fascinate and inspire the world over. Cuando llegó el momento en que fue muerto en las selvas de Bolivia, donde su cuerpo fue exhibido como un Cristo destronado, Ernesto ''Che Guevara se había convertido en sinónimo de revolución en todas partes desde Cuba hasta los terrenos universitarios de los Estados Unidos. Esta biografía extraordinaria por uno de los más prominentes analistas políticos de Latinoamérica revela la leyenda del Che Guevara para mostrar el carismático e inquieto hombre detrás de ella. Tomando de los archivos de tres continentes y de entrevistas con la familia y asociados de Guevara, Jorge Castañeda sigue al Che desde su niñez en la clase media argentina hasta los años de peregrinaje que lo hicieron un revolucionario dedicado. Castañeda examina las complejas relaciones entre Guevara y Fidel Castro, quien lo hizo su mano derecha aún cuando el Che se convirtió en la conciencia política de Fidel. Y... Biography of Che Guevara, drawing from Soviet archives, personal letters, and other sources to discuss the early life, revolutionary activities, and execution of the Latin American revolutionary leader Tells the story behind Latin America's failed leftist movements of the past thirty years and examines the position of the left in Latin American politics today Biografie van de Argentijnse arts (1928-1967) die als revolutionair actief was in Cuba en Bolivia