When a young and beautiful girl suddenly appears in a partisan camp lost in the mountains, everyone dreams of making a closer acquaintance with her. And the pick-up attempts begin immediately. You can take them with the gentleman's class, you can be cheeky, or ... like a last punch. So like Che Guevara!
Aleida March was a young member of the Movement on July 26. A revolutionary organization in Cuba, founded in 1953 by, among others, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. The girl became so deeply involved in the conspiracy against the brutal rule of Fuglencio Batista that she had to flee the city, where the authorities began to pursue her. The only relatively safe way out for her was to get to the partisan camp, hidden in the Escambray Mountains.
A drop of estrogen in a sea of testosterone
For the first time, Aleida went to the camp as a courier, bringing financial assistance to the detachment. The money was taped directly to her body for fear of being stolen. She did not admit to carrying them, even to her traveling companions. On the spot, she reported to Ernesto Che Guevara about her cargo and ... asked him for help in removing the package. The chief, however, did not find time or willingness to do so. Instead of personally supporting a woman in need, he did his job to his subordinates.
Aleida and the other Che guerrillas. Cabaiguán, campaign in Las Villas, 1958 (photo provided by SQN publishing house, from the book "My Che") ..
Soon volunteers found themselves happily peeling off the tape, carefully (or perhaps sensually) hidden under the clothes of the beautiful revolutionary. It was just the beginning. Throughout Aleida's first stay in the camp, the partisans kept harassing her.
On a daily basis, a whole lot of struggling, testosterone-boiling men were in the camp with only a few women. No wonder the appearance of a new pretty face nearby immediately ignited their imaginations. Meanwhile, Aleida, who had been active in the city's resistance for two years, wanted to be seen as a fighter - not a pick-up target . She decided to train herself to be a real soldier. She went to the commandant Ernesto Guevara with this idea. However, he did not agree with the dreams of the young idealist. He stated that she should become a nurse. As befits a woman.
Che Guevara clearly had a hard time accepting that this pretty girl, instead of working as a nurse or secretary, wants to fight with a gun in hand in the front line (the graduation photo provided by SQN is from the book "My Che"). When she protested, he presented her with several other options, which boiled down to not wandering around the camp, but doing something useful. None of them provided for a fight with a weapon in hand. The woman still stubbornly refused.
Stubborn woman!
Finally, when companñeros went into battle, she was even given a gun in her hand, but ... Che sent Aleida to the town of El Pedrero, which led her to a passion for shoemakers. After a few days, a proud revolutionist and partisan leader appeared there. Miss March, missed by the whole battle, sat grumpy down the street when Che's Jeep pulled up next to her. Ernesto asked as if nothing had happened if she wanted to practice shooting with him. Years later, Aleida recalled in her book (A. March, "My Che. Very intimate"):
To me, he was just a much older man who could protect me from the advances of others companñeros . […] After accepting Che's invitation spontaneously, I didn't have time to think about whether it might be more personal.
She admired him and respected him. She had no time to think about anything else, as the fighting was still going on. Partisans conquered more towns. But when they entered the city of Cabaiguán and set up a temporary headquarters, a real romantic suddenly woke up in Che Guevara . He walked from behind to Aleida talking to several people and… publicly recited a poem for her. The woman had never heard this piece before and suspected he had written it himself (which he had). Aleida recalled that moment as follows:
He wanted to get my attention this way. I suspect that he wanted me to see him not as a commander and superior, but as a man. The more time we spent together, the more it sparked between us.
And how do you let him out of my sight here?
Aleida, well versed in Cabaiguán and having friends here, decided to take the opportunity to take a shower. She went to a friend for this. When she got back to headquarters, Che was there with a bad face and a broken arm.
Without much thought, she insulted the commander for not waiting for her and, not knowing the city, attacked the barracks.
It turned out that during the assault it jumped over a high fence and broke there. When she poured out her irritation, she felt sorry for the commander and ... gave him her black gauze scarf for a sling.
Shortly before the Battle of Santa Clara (the last clash of the revolution in Cuba), Aleida took the job of Guevara's assistant. Though this excluded her from direct struggle, in return she enjoyed the company of an admired revolutionary leader to a much greater extent. She was with him everywhere, on tours, in subsequent cities, in hospitals among wounded soldiers. One day, amidst the romantic scenery, however, something unexpected happened at sunset.
Aleida and Che were returning to base when he started telling her about his life and followed ... the most stereotypical path he could. A thirty-year-old man, long away from his family, began to complain to his twenty-year-old companion.
He said he got married a long time ago, even before he came to this country. He wailed:his wife Hilda did not understand him, he has not loved her for a long time and has not seen her. He is so lonely. He probably hoped that this method, proven by generations of seducers, would easily break Aleida's heart.
Meanwhile, she - instead of leaning over the poor revolutionary and hugging him to her heart - took his wife's side!
I love you and you are (almost) sleeping!
The partisans finally reached Santa Clara. Together with a group of companñeros, among which was Aleida, Che Guevara came across an armored car. Machina, standing in an unprotected alley, could massacre the unit at any moment. The chief looked death in the eye and suddenly understood something. He realized that Miss March, a fighter for the Cuban Revolution, was very important to him. He decided to take things really seriously. But it turned out so far:completely inept.
Aleida and Che shortly after the guerrillas entered Santa Clara in 1958 (photo provided by SQN publishing house, from the book "My Che").
After capturing Santa Clara, the partisans set off for Havana. Che and his assistant Aleida rode together. When they were alone in the car for a while, Guevara turned to her and laid the coffee on the bench. He said that in Santa Clara he realized that he loved her and was afraid for her. Meanwhile, Aleida, half asleep, unconscious from exhaustion, was barely listening to him.
At that moment, fiery feelings were absolutely the last thing she wanted to think about. Anyway, she wasn't quite sure what he said, and, not wanting to blink, she said nothing. After an awkward moment of silence, they were no longer alone.
In Havana, Che and Aleida already acted like a couple in love. Miss March had apparently washed, slept, ate something and was inclined to think again of less mundane matters. She and Che went for walks (and the bodyguards followed them), rode for rides, showed affection in small gestures.
Ernesto Che Guevara, though handsome, was an absolutely hopeless seducer. It is surprising that he succeeded! (Che on the streets of Havana).
Sometimes while driving, Che would ask me to straighten his shirt collar or straighten his hair (he claimed his arm was still sore) - these were his clever ways of showing our feelings publicly before we even got married (Cited A. March, "My Che. Very intimate").
Everything was done politely, like between preschoolers. There was even no talk of holding a hand, not to mention sneaky kisses.
World's worst proposal
The most disarming thing of the whole effort, after all, seems to be the way the proud Ernesto Che Guevara proposed to Aleida. If a suitor had tried to win my hand by the Che method, he wouldn't have gotten far. And I would rather not miss the truth when I judge that in most modern women it would be similar (possibly additionally with crossing a broom on the road).
As Che's personal assistant, Aleida March read his correspondence. In early 1959, he asked her to read her before sending a letter he wrote to his wife wishing to end his marriage.
He explained in it that they had to officially divorce because he was going to marry a Cuban woman he had met during a fight. His handwriting was rather fuzzy, so I asked who the woman he wanted to marry was. He looked at me surprised and said it was about me. Up to this point, we had not even once discussed marriage. Che's answer surprised me.
There is nothing like taking care of the appropriate setting! Where are the wine and candles? Dinner for two? Okay, it was revolution time so it was hard to expect a full service.
Somehow, Che managed to get the girl and ring it. By what miracle? Considering his Don Juan skills, it's hard to say. Aleida and Che's wedding (photo provided by SQN, from the book "My Che").
If he really wanted to tell the girl that he was going to marry her, for God's sake he could do it somehow better. It is surprising that Aleida did not throw him away. He must have been more fortunate than wise when it comes to winning a beloved woman.
Sources:
- Aleida March, My Che. Very intimate , SQN Publishing House, Krakow 2014.