Mausoleo Che Guevara
Encyclopedia
Santa Clara, Cuba
Santa Clara is the capital city of the Cuban province of Villa Clara. It is located in the most central region of the province and almost in the most central region of the country.- History :Santa Clara was founded by 175 people on July 15th, 1689...
. It houses the remains of executed Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and twenty-nine of his fellow combatants killed in 1967 during Guevara's attempt to spur an armed uprising in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
. The full area which contains a bronze 22 foot statue of Che is referred to as the Ernesto Guevara Sculptural Complex.
Guevara was laid to rest with full military honors on 17 October 1997 after his exhumed remains were discovered in Bolivia and returned to Cuba. At the site, there is a museum dedicated to Guevara's life and an eternal flame lit by Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
in Che's memory.
Santa Clara was chosen as the location in remembrance of Guevara's troops taking the city on December 31, 1958, during the Battle of Santa Clara
Battle of Santa Clara
The Battle of Santa Clara was a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuban city of Santa Clara by revolutionaries under the command of Che Guevara...
. The result of this final battle of the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
was Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
fleeing into exile.
Nearby, in another part of the city, a Fulgencio Batista military supply train derailed by Guevara during the battle also remains in its original location.
Return of remains
On October 17, 1997, Guevara's remains, and those of six comrades who died with him in Bolivia, arrived in a motorcade from HavanaHavana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
in small wooden caskets aboard trailers towed by green jeeps. As the remains were unloaded before a crowd of several hundred thousand people, a choir of schoolchildren sang Carlos Puebla
Carlos Puebla
Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...
's elegy
Elegy
In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...
to Guevara, "Hasta Siempre
Hasta Siempre
"Hasta Siempre, Comandante, or simply "Hasta Siempre", is a 1965 Spanish song by Cuban composer Carlos Puebla. The song's lyrics are a reply to revolutionary Che Guevara's farewell letter when he left Cuba, in order to foster revolution in the Congo and later Bolivia, where he would be captured and...
" (Until Forever) and then Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
declared the following:
His speech was followed by a coordinated 21 cannon-shot salute in both Santa Clara and Havana, while air raid sirens were set off across the length of the island.
In addition to those of Che Guevara the remains of six other guerrillas who lost their lives in the
1966-1967 Bolivian Insurgency were also entombed in the mausoleum on October 17, 1997:
- Carlos Coello (Tuma)- Cuban, killed in action at Rio Piraí on June 26, 1967.
- Alberto Fernandez Montes de Oca (Pacho)- Cuban, killed in action at Quebrada del Yuro on October 8, 1967.
- Orlando Pantoja Tamayo (Olo)- Cuban, killed in action at Quebrada del Yuro on October 8, 1967.
- René Martínez Tamayo (Arturo)- Cuban, killed in action at Quebrada del Yuro on October 8, 1967.
- Juan Pablo Navarro-Lévano Chang (El Chino)- Peruvian, captured and executed in La HigueraLa HigueraLa Higuera is a small village in Bolivia located in the Province of Vallegrande, in the Department of Santa Cruz. It is situated in the La Higuera Canton belonging to the Pucará municipality.-Geography:...
on October 9, 1967. - Simeon Cuba SarabiaSimeon Cuba SarabiaSimeón Cuba Sarabia , also known as Willy, was a member of the Ñancahuazú guerrilla column led by Che Guevara in Bolivia. Born in the Cochabamba region of Bolivia, he became a leader among tin miners in Huanuni and served as the secretary of organization and secretary of militias of the local mine...
(Willy)- Bolivian, captured and executed in La HigueraLa HigueraLa Higuera is a small village in Bolivia located in the Province of Vallegrande, in the Department of Santa Cruz. It is situated in the La Higuera Canton belonging to the Pucará municipality.-Geography:...
on October 9, 1967.
Monument
Work on the complex began in 1982, and it was inaugurated upon completion on December 28, 1988 with Raúl CastroRaúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008; he previously exercised presidential powers in an acting capacity from 2006 to 2008...
in attendance. The project was conceived by architects Jorge Cao Campos, Blanca Hernández and José Ramón Linares; along with sculptors and José de Lázaro Bencomo and José Delarra (its prime creator). Additionally 500,000 Santa Clara residents contributed more than 400,000 hours of volunteer work in the construction of the sculptural complex, who worked in unison with skilled artisans of the Eliseo Díaz Machado Foundry in Guanabacoa.
Many different aspects of Che's life are represented throughout the complex. For example, his time in Guatemala and at the United Nations is sculpted, while Che's farewell letter to Fidel is inscribed in full. The adjacent decorative wall depicts Che in the Sierra Maestra consulting with Fidel, beside Camilo Cienfuegos
Camilo Cienfuegos
Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana. Raised in an anarchist family that had left Spain before the Spanish Civil War, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro.-Political...
, and in the mountains on horseback. Another section shows Che as Minister of Industry performing his usual voluntary work. Lastly literacy tutors, children in schools, and young pioneers are depicted issuing the daily salute that all Cuban children recite each morning "We will be like Che."
The structural complex rests on a rolling hilltop overlooking the city of Santa Clara, and contains a large tiled plaza. At the end of the plaza are two large billboards with quotes by Fidel Castro declaring "Che - it was a star that put you here and made you of this people", and "We want everyone to be like Che." Carved in stone underneath the statue is the well known declaration by Guevara that "One thing I learned in the Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
of Arbenz was that if I would be a revolutionary doctor, or just a revolutionary, first there must be a revolution."
Symbolism
A number of elements of the memorial contain a symbolic meaning. For instance, the monument is orientated 190 degrees pointing Che's figure directly towards South AmericaSouth America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, reflecting his focus and outlook for one united Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. Additionally, the 22 foot bronze statue of Che has him carrying his gun rather than aiming, symbolizing that he is "continuing onward". The sling which Guevara wore during the battle, the result of an earlier broken arm, is also etched into the statue but he's not wearing the sling to symbolize "a part of his personality, a man rebelling even against himself." At the base of the memorial is Guevara's motto, "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" (Until the Everlasting Victory Always).
Visitor totals
From October 1997 to October 2009 over 3 million people visited the memorial site from over 100 countries.In 2008, more than 247,700 Cubans and foreigners visited the sculptural complex.
Additional interments at the site
Between 1997 and 2000 ongoing efforts by forensic anthropologists operating in southeast Bolivia yielded the recovery of 23 additional sets of remains belonging to other guerrillas who had perished during the Bolivian Insurgency (1966-1967). All of these were subsequently transferred to Cuba where they too were interred in the Che Guevara Mausoleum. The first of these burials took place on December 29, 1998, the 40th anniversary of Guevara's victory in the Battle of Santa ClaraBattle of Santa Clara
The Battle of Santa Clara was a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuban city of Santa Clara by revolutionaries under the command of Che Guevara...
, and consisted of 10 separate sets of remains:
- Haydée Tamara Bunke BiderHaydée Tamara Bunke BiderHaydée Tamara Bunke Bider , better known as Tania or Tania the Guerrilla, was an Argentine-born East German communist revolutionary and spy who played a prominent role in the Cuban government after the Cuban Revolution and in various Latin American revolutionary movements...
(Tania)- Argentine-East German, killed in action at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967. - Manuel Hernández Osorio (Miguel)- Cuban, killed in action at Quebrada de Batan on September 26, 1967.
- Mario Gutierrez Ardaya (Julio)- Bolivian, killed in action at Quebrada de Batan on September 26, 1967.
- Roberto Peredo Leigue (Coco)- Bolivian, killed in action at Quebrada de Batan on September 26, 1967.
- Aniceto Reinaga Cordillo (Aniceto)- Bolivian, killed in action at Quebrada del Yuro on October 8, 1967.
- Francisco Huanca Flores (Pablito)- Bolivian, killed in action at Los Cajones on October 12, 1967.
- Garvan Edilverto Lucio Hidalgo (Eustace)- Peruvian, killed in action at Los Cajones on October 12, 1967.
- Jaime Arana Campero (Chapaco)- Bolivian, killed in action at Los Cajones on October 12, 1967.
- Octavio de la Concepcion Pedraja (Moro)- Cuban, killed in action at Los Cajones on October 12, 1967.
- Julio César Méndez Korné (Nato)- Bolivian, shot by fellow guerrillas after being gravely wounded in Mataral on November 15, 1967.
A second series of burials was carried out on October 8, 1999 in which the remains of 7 more guerillas recovered in Bolivia were placed in the mausoleum:
- Apolinar Aguirre Quispe (Polo)-Bolivian, killed in action at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967.
- Freddy Maimura Hurtado (Ernesto)- Bolivian, captured and executed at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967.
- Gustavo Manchin Hoed de Beche (Alejandro)- Cuban, killed in action at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967.
- Israel Reyes Sayas (Braulio)- Cuban, killed in action at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967.
- Juan Vitalio Acuña Nuñez (Joaquin)- Cuban, killed in action at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967.
- Moises Guevara Rodriguez (Moses)- Bolivian, killed in action at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967.
- Walter Arencibia Ayala (Abel)- Bolivian, killed in action at Vado del Yeso on August 31, 1967.
A final round of 6 interments took place exactly one year later on October 8, 2000 bringing the total number of guerrillas entombed at the site to 30:
- Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez (Rolando)- Cuban, killed in action at El Meson on April 25, 1967.
- Antonio Sanchez Diaz (Marcos)- Cuban, killed in action at Peña Colorada on June 2, 1967.
- Serapio Aquino Tudela (Serafin)- Bolivian, killed in action at Iquira on July 9, 1967.
- Condori Casildo Varga (Victor)- Bolivian, killed in action at Rio Rosita on July 30, 1967.
- Jose Maria Martinez Tamayo (Papi)- Cuban, killed in action at Rio Rosita on July 30, 1967.
- Restituto José Cabrera Flores (El Negro)-Peruvian, captured and executed in Rio Palmarito on September 4, 1967.
External links
- Monument Pays Tribute to Che Guevara by John Moore, Toronto Star, December 6 2008
- Ecuador President Correa Visits Che Guevara's Mausoleum in Cuba Latin American Herald Tribune, January 12 2009