You wrote:
> Guevara was not much of a card,
>but he was a god-damned good and honest human being.
... come again? The mototcycle diaries are a roar, in Spanish at least. Too many people miss the vicious and hilarious jibes he takes at himself -- a master of self deprecation, mounted on his mechanical Rocinante. Some of it is a bit argentinian, like when he described his ancestors as coming from Spain with "one hand in front, the other in back" (i.e., so poor all they had to cover geneitalia and backside were their hands). The Guevara-Lynch's in their b-day suits -- got a chuckle out of me.
... and the story abut how he became cuban minister of the econ? They were looking for an "economista", and he thought they said "comunista"? I heard he was the first to tell that one.
Lots of good stuff on the man in Paco Igancio Taibo's new biography _Ernesto Guevara, tambien conocido com El Che_ (Barcelona: Planeta, 1997), still probabaly only in Spanish. Of all the bio's I've read this go-round (including John Lee Anderson's, etc.), Taibo's was the best at the human level. Never a dull moment with the Comandante!
Tom
Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242 Email: tkruse at albatros.cnb.net