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Hilda Gadea's 1972 account of life with her husband is updated for another generation of readers 
Ernesto (Che) Guevara's transformation from adventurer to revolutionary is chronicled by his first wife in
the intimate portrait, "My Life With Che," picking up where his book, "The Motorcycle Diaries," left off. This revised and updated version of Hilda Gadea's 1972 book tells of the pair meeting in December 1953
when she was a Peruvian political exile living in Guatemala and he was wrapping up his motorcycle travels
across Latin America. Although later smitten by the dark-eyed Argentine, initially Gadea was not impressed. "He seemed
superficial, egotistical and conceited," she recalled. But the pair's friendship deepened as they discussed
books on philosophy, politics and poetry. The events in Guatemala, and the people Guevara met there, changed him from wandering romantic into
committed rebel, Gadea writes. Gadea introduced Guevara to other exiles, including four Cubans who'd participated with Fidel and Raul
Castro in an unsuccessful 1953 armed attack that launched the Cuban revolution. "In theory he was already a partisan, but it was not until Guatemala that he adopted the role," Gadea
writes of Guevara. "It was there that he came to know other exiles and to learn about men who either
had died or been taken prisoner as a result of real struggles." The prose is often dull and politically militant, and those unfamiliar with Cuba's political history may lose
interest quickly. But several touching sections demonstrate Gadea's insecurities and infatuation with Guevara, detailing
their lovers' quarrels and her jealousies as their relationship grows -- first in Guatemala and later when
both seek political exile in Mexico. At one point, for a moment Gadea plans to break with Guevara after finding a photographic negative of
a bathing suit-clad girl in a book he lent her. When Guevara leaves her alone one New Year's Eve, she
basks in the flirtations of a fellow Peruvian with whom she dances at a party and considers -- again, just
briefly -- going out with him. Raul Castro, now Cuba's president, was present when they married in Mexico in September 1955. The
couple met him and older brother Fidel while they were training their rebel army in Mexico, after they'd
been released from a Cuban prison. Guevara signed up for training and returned with the rebels to Cuba
in December 1956 to launch their uprising. Soon he was a rebel commander, and later a top leader in
the revolutionary government. Gadea stayed behind with their small child, Hildita, but traveled immediately to Cuba upon learning of
the rebels' victory on Jan. 1, 1959. Guevara greeted her with the unexpected news that he had met
another woman and wanted a divorce. The divorce was final on May 22, 1959, and Guevara remarried days later to the woman Gadea does not
bother to name -- Aleida March, mother to Guevara's four other children. Despite the divorce, Gadea stayed in Cuba and Hildita saw her father frequently before he launched
efforts to spread revolution abroad. Gadea remained loyal to Guevara as a revolutionary leader and lionized him after he was killed in
October 1967 trying to foment an uprising in Bolivia. She died in Havana in 1974. "You are no longer here in body, Ernesto Che Guevara," Gadea wrote several days after the death of
the wanderer who captured her heart in Central America. "But your example is, so is your work, and
the principles for which you fell."  Be first to comment this article |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 9 | Print | E-mail
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