Che Guevara’s daughter recalls her revolutionary father

Aleida Guevara talks about having to share her ‘Papi’ with the world – and her dislike of the commercialisation of his image

• 
• • Libby Brooks
  • The Guardian, Wednesday 22 July 2009

A two-year-old in the arms of Fidel Castro, and her father, Che, holding a cigar. Photograph: IMAGNO/Austrian Archives/Getty Images

Aleida Guevara was four and a half when her father left Cuba. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, iconic Argentine guerrilla leader, Marxist theorist and second-in-command of the Cuban revolution, departed the island for Africa in 1965 after falling out of political favour with Fidel Castro. She saw him only once again, before his execution by the CIA-backed Bolivian government two years later.

Castro granted the visit on condition that it was clandestine. Guevara, concerned that the children’s chatter about “Papi’s” re-appearance might endanger his family, arrived back in Havana heavily disguised. He was introduced at supper as a friend of their father.

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Tags: Aleida Guevara, Barack Obama and Cuba, Che Guevara, Cuba, Fidel Castro