Excerpt from the book's introduction

On a February evening in 1969, we were sitting in Alberto Granados’ spacious living room in Miramar, a suburb of Havana. The Company included Don Ernesto Guevara Lynch, Alberto and myself. Alberto’s Venezuelan wife, Julia, joined in from time to time. We talked about Che’s childhood and adolescence. A tropical downpour released floods of water over the villa. Lightning flashed through the Venetian blinds and thunder roared like a nearby cannonade. lt made one feel cozy to be under shelter in such nasty weather—pity the fellow who was caught in the mountains or the manga as the Cubans call their fields covered with prickly underbrush. The tropics are often called melancholy but they are menacing as well. Life there is difficult and often dangerous. Gaming a living in the tropics takes courage, stamina, iron will, resourcefulness and, of course, luck. At the time of the meeting, Che’s father was just under seventy years old. He was of average height and had an erect figure. His keen eyes shone through his tortoise-shell glasses. He spoke with the typical La Plata accent with which it is so easy to pick out an Argentine and, like all Argentines and Uruguayans, he made frequent use of the interjection “che”.Pundits argue that the Argentines borrowed this “che” from the Guarani Indians for whom it means “my”. But for the residents of the pampas “che” can express, depending on intonation and context, the entirethe spectrum of human passions—surprise, exhilaration, sorrow, ten- demons, approval or protest. It was because of fondness for this interjection that the Cuban rebels gave Don Ernesto’s son, Ernesto Guevara, the nickname “Che'’. With time this nickname became his pseudonym in combat and was firmly attached to his name. He became known as ErnestoChe Guevara both in Cuba and throughout the world. After the overthrow of Batista, Guevara, now the director of the Cuban National Bank, added the signature “Che” to the new banknotes and caused great indignation among the counter-revolutionaries. When he was once asked, after the victory of the Cuban Revolution, whether he liked his new name, he answered: “ For me ‘Che’ signifies all that is most important and valuable in my life. 1t couldn’t be otherwise. After all, my first name and surname represent something small, private, insignificant.”