‘Remember Che Guevara not just through T-shirts but his world-changing ideology’

HYDERABAD

Che Guevara should be remembered not just through T-shirts or posters but as a person whose ideology changed the world, said Aleida Guevara, daughter of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara while speaking at a civic reception held here on Sunday.

Aleida asked people at the event to treat her as a Cuban woman rather than the daughter of a revolutionary. A a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956–59), he rose to become a guerrilla leader in South America. He was executed by the Bolivian army in 1967, and has since been regarded as a martyr by generations of leftists worldwide.

Che Guevara, in his time, worked for 16 hours a day and was engaged in volunteering activities during weekends, she said, adding “These activities were a concept of increasing social consciousness among people and to work for the people without expecting anything in return. Volunteering increases the understanding of a person towards society. Cuba is a country which has shown the world that it can run without capitalism. We Cubans never feel that we are above or below anybody.”

Speaking about former Cuban president Fidel Castro, she said that if a country has to be free, then the people should be educated. “Education will help a person in a way where nobody can manipulate them, and that is where Fidel Castro comes into the picture. He stressed on the need of education for the people of Cuba,” she pointed out.

Discussing the pandemic years, Ms.Guevara added that Cuba produced as many as five vaccines to fight COVID-19 and the majority of the country’s population has already been vaccinated. She explained that the country is also working towards manufacturing a vaccine to fight lung cancer, prostate cancer and uterus cancer.