Che Guevara in Love and Revolution

Can a battlefield prevent the birth of love? Can ruthless war push away the spread of affection? Probably not. And that is how Aleida March and Che Guevara came to each other's hearts during the days of the Cuban war. Che Guevara was born in Argentina on June 14, 1928. This Marxist guerrilla fighter, still discussed around the world, steps into his 98th birth anniversary today. Their first meeting took place on a bitterly cold night in November 1958.

Che was then stationed in the Escambray Mountains of Cuba with the guerrilla forces under his command. Cuba's liberation struggle was underway. Aleida had gone to those mountains to deliver a large shipment of money for the guerrilla forces. A schoolteacher, Aleida was already involved in the clandestine activities of the guerrillas in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba. That time, she was given a risky assignment and sent to the mountains for the first time. Avoiding the gaze of Cuban dictator Batista's soldiers and taking a long detour, Aleida managed to reach the mountains. Though she cleverly evaded the soldiers' watchful eyes, she could not escape the gaze of love. At first sight, seeing Commander Che Guevara sitting in the mountain hideout, she fell in love. Love at first sight? Very much so. Forty-five years after Che Guevara's death, in her memoir "Remembering Che," published in 2012, she recounted their love story. Che Guevara also fell in love with Aleida at first sight. Eight years later, while fighting in the Congo's liberation struggle, Che mentioned these feelings in a letter to Aleida.

Before their first meeting, Che Guevara was, to Aleida, a widely discussed guerrilla fighter. Every day, on Cuba's clandestine revolutionary radio, Aleida would hear stories of his successes in various battles. But seeing Che up close at the mountain hideout, she was captivated. Because of that fascination, she wanted to stay with the guerrilla group; but Che did not agree. Later, she found out that Che had suspected her of being a spy for a right-wing group. So, she had no choice but to return to the lowlands.

But love is a game of chance. Neither a battlefield nor war can hold it back. A few days later, the two met again in the city of El Pedrero. They unexpectedly ran into each other on the side of the road in that liberated area. Aleida was sitting by the roadside with her bag. Suddenly, a jeep carrying Che Guevara stopped beside her. Che invited her to get into the jeep. Aleida did not hesitate for a moment. In her words, "I could never get out of that jeep for the rest of my life."

Aleida wrote in her book that just as a storm of war had swept them toward each other's hearts, that same storm had also taught her many things. Starflowers of love bloomed on the battlefield. Che Guevara wrote in one of his essays, "I believe that a revolutionary is always guided by feelings of love. A true revolutionary can never remain distant from love."