Che Guevara

¿El médico que se convirtió en un revolucionario perpetua?

All right, already! Enough of this broken, middle school level Spanish. From now on we'll fumble about in English.

If you want to send friends and family into a spittle flinging diatribe, just mention the name of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It doesn't matcter if you say he was good, bad, or indifferent. The odds are at least 50/50 that anything you say about Che will set off a spittle flinging diatribe. He has been hailed as a hero by many, decried as a cold blooded murderer by others, but the point to remember is that the two concepts are by no means mutually exclusive.

Ironically, it has been the Che detractors that have given his fame a revolutionary shot in the arm in recent years. Irritated at how teenagers keep putting the iconic Che Viva! photograph on their t-shirts, the detractors have started marketing Che's picture along with captions like "This t-shirt brought to you by the forces of free market capitalism" or "Communism killed 100 million people, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". No doubt about it, amigos, ¡Che Viva! indeed.

CooperToons, it must be said, has been accused of idolizing Che. From the way his friends (well, acquaintances) talk - the people most critical of his art, by the way - you'd think that CooperToons has a 72" X 55" poster on his living room that he genuflects to every morning. Either that or his cupboards are full of Che Guevara coffee mugs and his house festooned with Che Guevara refrigerator magnets. True, in his wild and irresponsible days CooperToons owned a whoopee cushion to which he put to diabolical use, but he has never - that's never, never, never! - even owned a Che Viva! t-shirt.

On the other hand, CooperToons is proud, yes proud, to say that unlike many in the world today he has never changed his personal philosophy simply because of an increased income or because of his selection in the personal agent for requiting the occasional distension of the corpus cavernosum. At the same time he will happily admit he has read many books about Che. Yes, books, those increasingly obsolete non-electronic devices with the white flappy things in the middle. Books, of course, are usually a source for more accurate and complete information than what is available on the Fount of All Knowledge, the World Wide Web. Books sure beat watching Dancing with the Stars, although perhaps CooperToons speaks of that he does not know, never having watched the show.

But why the reading of books about some historical character is considered virtual idolatry is all the more perplexing. As far as he knows, CooperToons has never been accused of fawning infatuation with George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Woodrow Wilson, Pancho Villa, John Scarne, Queen Elizabeth II, Leon Trotsky, George Orwell, Meyer Lansky, John Adams, Paul Robeson, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Pretty Boy Floyd, Phineas T. Barnum, Harry Houdini, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Oscar Wilde, James McNeill Whistler, Pablo Picasso, Bonnie and Clyde, Eduoard Manet, Norman Rockwell, Julius Caesar, Nero, Muhammad, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Al Capone, Bertrand Russell, Stanislaw Ulam, Michelangelo, or Leonardo Da Vinci, all about whom CooperToons has read books. Still, some of CooperToons - quote - "friends" - unquote - seem hard to convince and think comments like, "How about a cup of Che - I mean, tea?" is the height of sophisticated wit. So rather than attempt further futile attempts convert the vulgar herd, CooperToons now takes his discussions to a wider and certainly more sophisticated, better read, and intelligent readership.

So what do we know about Che if we do read books, those non-electronic, etc., etc.? Well, regarding Che himself you learn he was born in Argentina on May 14, 1928, to Celia de la Serna and Ernesto Guevara y Lynch (Che's maternal grandmother was Irish). Yes, that is May 14, not June 14, despite what you read on the Fount of All Knowledge. The reason for the discrepancy in the dates need not be belabored other than to say dissemblings of similar sort have been practiced by other married couples after they have their first child.

Che's family has been called well-to-do, and that's correct as far as it goes. However, his dad did have money problems, and all was not always rosy in casa Guevara. Difficulties between Sr. and Sra. Guevara began early, and Che's dad spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch. Nevertheless, the young Ernesto got along with his parents quite well. Certainly when he became famous they expressed pride in their son's achievements, and they even went to visit him in post-revolutionary Cuba.

One fact is clear. Young Ernesto Guevara received a very good education and had wide interests. More importantly, we learn "Che" Guevara el revolucionario grande y famoso, the bereted, bearded fighter for freedom, was actually Dr. Ernesto Guevara, M. D. Yes, Che was a doctor and had, we learn, been specifically recruited by Fidel Castro as the physician for his revolutionary army.

(Parenthetically, we'll add - in parentheses - it is true that Fidel was not a communist at the beginning of his revolution although many anti-Fidelist claim his supposed neutrality was simple posturing to ingratiate himself with the various world powers. Truth is Fidel has a number of anti-communists in his army and was actually more anti-American than a communist. It was brother Raul and friend Che who were the real hardline Marxists.)

It need not be stressed that opinions of Che's ability and accomplishments remain a wee bit divided. As easy as it is to find an author who showers Che with praise, it is just as easy to find others who pooh-pooh the picture of Che the over-achiever and champion of the downtrotten. We can, if we are so inclined, learn that Che was really a feckless lagabout, a hooligan who shot out streetlights, a slob who rarely bathed, and a randy adolescent who hit the family maid between dinner courses.

Worse, we read that Che did not, that's did not graduate from medical school at all!

¿Que? ¿Che no era un médico? ¡Carramba!

Pero cuidado, amigos, caution the Che champions. With just a bit of reading, you will learn, by golly, our friend Ernesto did so graduate from medical school and when. It was in the spring of 1953.

Let it be known that ever since CooperToons saw the movie Che! starring Omar Sharif (not that bad a movie despite the reviews), he had never doubted for one moment that Che was a bonadide M. D. After all, Che was so depicted in an American movie, so how can anyone doubt the fact? However, after considerable research, study, and scholarship (ergo, reading books) spread out over many years, CooperToons noted that few books (whether pro-Che or con), and certainly not articles and blogs on the Fount of All Knowledge, provided any real proof that Che had received the final degree. Of major concern was the decided dearth of primary documented sources regarding Che's medical qualifications. This was very strange since medical school attendance and licensing of physicians are among the most widely preserved and accessible records. Instead, you usually just read "Che was / Che wasn't" a doctor and that's about that.

Naturally Che detractors have seized on this lack of documentation and jeer that Che was not only a murderer but a phony to boot. So that means the champions of such a phony are themselves naive idiots, jerks, and dupes. Che champions, though, continue to tout the medical credentials of Dr. Che, and the battle for Che's deification or his demonization continues to degenerate into spittle flinging diatribes (hereafter, SFD's) which prove nothing.

CooperToons always prefers to eschew SFD's but recognizes that SFD's usually point to a topic meet for an Official CooperToons Investigation. Although it is not likely CooperToons can resolve the issue to everyone's - or anyone's - satisfaction, he can provide a solution which, if not necessarily true (to borrow a phrase from John Steinbeck), it is at least plausible.

All right. Where do we start?

The first claim that Che-was-not-really-a-doctor was a short article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1969. This article was itself a rebuttal to another article in the same issue praising Che, who, we learn, had been a physician before he became a revolutionary. So we find that even in the prestigious NEJM and a scant two years after Che was dead, the SFD's about Che begin.

But (of course) neither article provided proof of its assertions. The article praising Che does so in a manner that you think you are reading about an Albert Schweitzer who indulges in an occasional bit of freedom fighting. On the other hand, the "Che-was-not-a-doctor" article bolsters it argument by pointing out "a lot" of Argentine physicians unanimously agreed that Che was not an M. D. Besides if you wrote to the University of Córdoba, about Che's academic career, no one would even respond. Unfortunately, statements by "many physicians" (who never knew Che) doubting he was not a doctor or the failure of the University of Córdoba to respond to a query proves nothing, particularly since Che went to the University of Buenos Aires.

The most heavily documented source asserting that Che entered medical school and graduated was in the biography, "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life". In this balanced book, we learn Che entered the UBA in 1947, and in 1953, after six years, he received his M. D. There is even a photo of Che as a medical student grinning cheerfully as he and his classmates stand before a rather unpleasant looking cadaver. So to Che fans, this settles the question. Che was a doctor.

Not so! snort the Che detractors. Instead, they will point out, no one doubts that Che entered medical school, but they deny that he graduated. Although there is considerable detail about Che's medical school career, there are no footnoted references for specific claims. Yes, at the end of the book the people interviewed are named, written sources listed, and there is a general discussions of where certain information came from. But we have no specific way to check up on any individual statement.

We do get, though, a good picture of Che and Cuba after the revolution. By 1959, the old Batista government may have been no more, but there was still a country to run. Through the various circumstances, Che finds himself appointed as the president of Cuba's National Bank, a job he soon realizes he has absolutely no qualifications for (when a childhood friend heard about Che's appointment, she went into fits of laughter). But Che does put his heart and soul into the job and quickly becomes an administrator surprisingly in the mold of the modern American executive: autocratic, broking no dissension, and listening to no contrary opinions. But like a good manager, Che always asked for feedback and explored alternatives. Once when an employee disagreed with him, Che gave the man three choices. He could leave Cuba, go to prison for thirty years, or get shot.

But we digress. After all, we are talking about whether Che Guevara, Revolutionary, was also Dr. Ernesto Guevara, M. D.

That Che entered the University of Buenos Aires majoring in medicine is not to be doubted. The photo proves that pretty well. But Che soon developed a bad case of wanderlust. He began to take trips, sometimes to visit friends, sometimes just to travel around. How he arranged his travels to fit in with his studies is hard to gauge, and different authors give different timelines and duration for his trips. But the reader begins to wonder just how much time Che spent in studying.

Che's most significant wanderings began in January, 1950 where he took a trip around South America. Che's dad found a journal of the trip in the 1970's, and his son covered 4700 miles. Then in 1951 Che signed on for two trips on a merchant ship, although the duration of his time at sea isn't clear.

Che's most famous travels began on January 4, 1952. This trip, taken with his friend Alberto Granado was on a motorcycle called La Ponderosa (not to be confused with the famous ranch of the same name), and like his earlier journey covered the length of South America. Eventually his wanderings became the subject of the amusing book The Motorcycle Diaries and later a film of the same name. From the book we learn that in between finding places to stay, scrounging for meals, and hitting up on the ladies, Che saw the poor people of Latin America and began to want to do more to improve their lot. The motorcycle soon broke down, and Alberto and Che had to manage on foot or by hitching rides. Finally, on June 22 according to some, August according to others, Che arrived back home in time to begin his last year of school.

At the UBA Faculdad de Medicina, there were at least 30 examinations a fledgling physician had to pass to get his degree. The tests were spread out over six years with the student expected to pass an average of five a year. There was some flexibility, though, and the student could decide when to take a particular test. If he didn't pass, he could take the test again (in want of a dual gender pronoun in English, CooperToons is using "he" in a general sense - at UBAFM there were women students even then).

When Che returned, he had passed 16 of the tests. This presents a bit of a glitch in the timeline. It was now the beginning of his sixth year but Che had passed only a bit more than half of the required examinations. This is the number that Che would have managed if he had been taking classes from 1947 to 1950. But he had passed no additionalt tests since he began his trips. This strongly suggests Che's wanderings had indeed been at the expense of his studies and one question comes to mind. When did Che find time to actually attend classes in the years 1950 to 1952? Two long motorcycle trips and two trips on a merchant ship - and he was attendng medical school? In any case, if he wanted to graduate on time - that is in the spring of 1953 - Che had to pass 14 more tests.

Back at home, we read, Che began cramming like mad. He sat for his first test in November, 1952. Unfortunately, he became ill in the middle of the test and had to return home. He must have passed it somehow, though, because we learned that in December he not only took but passed a whopping 10 examinations. Then he finished the remaining five by spring. Pretty impressive, if you believe it.

Now the crucial question. Where is this information from? That is, what is the source of the documentation of Che's medical school career?

As far as CooperToons can tell, the source for Che's time spent in medical school that is used by scholars, historians, and web site caricaturists and artists is not from official archives of UBAFM. Instead we learn of Che's medical school education from the memoirs his dad wrote, Mi Hijo el Che. Only recently available in English, Che's graduation is noted, not by a contemporary program or newspaper announcement (such as "The University of Buenos Aires announces the graduation of Dr. Ernesto Guevara ...."), or not even by reminisces of his family attending the graduation ceremony or reception. Instead, his dad told how Che simply phoned him and said he graduated. Almost immediately, then, Che took off on another trip. He didn't even bother to pick up his diploma, which we later learn, he had mailed to him in Guatemala.

In a world where the laws of nature arise from probability at the atomic level, lacking firm proof - like an authorized transcript, photocopy of a diploma, or a copy of the graduation program - we must resort to looking at the likelihood that Che graduated given the stated conditions. So let's review what is being proposed for the case of Ernesto Guevara, M. D.

1. Che enrolls in the Buenos Aires medical school in 1947.
   
   
2. After five years he has passed 16 of the examinations required for the M. D. which is only slightly more than half of the requirements, but agree with a timeline of taking classes mostly between 1947 to 1950.
   
   
3. He takes time off to go wandering around South America. There were two long motorcycle trips and two voyages on a merchant ship. The trips vary in duration and some definitely interfere with the UBA medical school schedule.
   
   
4. After the final trip through South America with Alberto, he returns home in 1952 to finish his last year of medical school.
   
   
5. Che, who took five years to pass his first 16 exams, amazingly passes 10 examinations in a single month and finishes the remaining five exams that spring.
   
   
6. He calls his dad on the phone to say he now Dr. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna. His dad is very proud.
   
   
7. Che attends no graduation ceremony and no newspaper or contemporary accounts of his graduation have been published. On the other hand almost as soon as he tells his dad he has graduated, Che takes off again on another South American trip.
   
   
8. Che says he received his diploma in the mail, a fact of which again there is no independent verification. Eventually he ends up in Guatemala, Mexico, and finally, as we all know, Cuba.
   
   

What we have here is decidedly strange - or at least quite unusual - for a medical student. With nearly half his graduation requirements unfulfilled by his final year, Che, who as the head of the Bank of Cuba had to be tutored in algebra, trigonometry, and analytical geometry (middle school subjects today) emerges as a student superman and passes the remaining 14 of the tests required for a six year medical school curriculum in a single year. Even more amazing, he passed 33 % of the tests in a single month! The source, as we say, is a memoir written by his father. Not official records or transcripts.

So in lieu of any contemporary documentation - graduation announcements, credible newspaper announcements, copies of diplomas, photocopies of transcripts, and the like - CooperToons sadly concludes the case that Che Guevara, revolucionario, was Dr. Ernest Guevara, M. D., is at best weak one, and that Dr. Ernesto Guevara should, like Dr. Mortimer, MRCS, be addressed as "Mister" or perhaps "Comandante". Instead we offer a speculative and hypothetical - yes, admittedly speculative and hypothetical - but nonetheless reasonable scenario regarding Che's academic career and its consequences. CooperToons will be more than happy to make any needed revisions if independent and definitive documentation on Che's medical career is found - but please no secondary, recycled, or Internet sources, please!

The current Official CooperToons Hypothesis is this. Ernesto Guevara, the son of a well-to-do Argentine businessman of Argentine and Irish descent, entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. But a combination of his broad interests, convivial personality, and natural wanderlust make focusing on medical studies difficult. So after two to three years of study, he goes off on various trips, the length of which interfere with his studies. After his final trip with his friend Alberto (who later moved to Cuba where he died in 2011) on his famous Motorcycle Trip, he returns to Buenos Aires in 1952, hopelessly behind his fellow students.

To avoid disappointing his family, Ernesto tells them he has begun studying for the remaining exams, and he may indeed have had that sincerely in mind. But with nearly half of the requirements to fulfill, he finds catching up impossible and simply tells his parents he has been taking and passing the tests. It appears at this time that the twenty-six year old Ernesto is at home only sporadically since in the spring of 1953, he phones his father to tell him he graduated. So he won't have to explain why he does not enter practice, Ernesto immediately takes off on another trip, conveniently skipping graduation and saying he will have his medical diploma mailed to him.

In South America, Che does find work at various medical related jobs (but never, it should be noted as a full physician). He ends up in Guatemala which has an up-and-coming leftist government. But almost immediately the government along with Che and his friends are caught up in the American supported coup. Finding himself persona non grata for his political leanings, Che takes refuge in the Argentine embassy and finally manages to leave for Mexico. There he meets a young Cuban lawyer named Fidel Alejandro Castro y Ruz. Fidel, as we know, is planning to return to Cuba to complete some - ah - unfinished business. Ernesto Guevara with a growing resentment against the US government and (it must be admitted) honest feeling that the people of Latin America who he feels are being exploited by US interests offers to help. As one of Fidel's new friends, Ernesto picks up the sobriquet, Che, and leaves with Fidel and 80 others for Cuba. The rest, they say, is history.

Admittedly this scenario could be effectively refuted by finding the appropriate records at the University of Buenos Aires that Ernesto Guevara fulfilled the requirements for the doctor of medicine. Even an answer to a FAQ at UBA websites about famous alumni ("Yes, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara graduated in ....") would be sufficient provided UBA posted the requisite documentation. Alas, although Che is listed as being a alumnus of UBA, such listings are not found on the current website of the University of Buenos Aires, but only on the Fount of All Knowledge using recycled and undocumented sources.

References

In introducing the brief reading list about Che, we will borrow a phrase from historian Robert Utley when he was speaking about the equally idolized and reviled military leader, George Armstrong Custer. Who we think Che is depends on who we are. If we believe Che was an idealistic revolutionary who sacrificed himself fighting for the rights and liberation of the poor and downtrotten, you will find ample evidence to that effect. If, on the other hand, you believe Che was a heartless murderer who simply replaced one form of dictatorship with another, you will find plenty of evidence to support that picture. Some of the books to support both pictures of Che are listed below. The list, it need not be said, is by no means exhaustive.

"Doctors Afield: Ernesto (Che) Guevara - Physician, Revolutionary Physician, Revolutionary" G.P. Harper, New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 281 pp. 1285-1289 (December 4, 1969). From the title, you know this is an extremely pro-Che article. It does make you worry a bit about the rational faculty of physicians when one can conclude because a 22 year old school teacher saw Che was an agreeable looking man that "Where such a life leaves such nonviolent healing is for those who believe in, for us, to work out." What the heck does that mean?

"Che Guevara: The Anti-Hero", Lidio O. Mora, M. D. and B. A. G. Santamarina, M. D. New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 281 pp. 1289-1291, December 4, 1969. This article, expressing an extremely anti-Che viewpoint, was written in rebuttal of the one cited above and as far as CooperToons can tell was the first "Che-was-not-a-doctor" article written. To support this conclusion the authors tell us that there are "a lot of Argentinian physicians who unanimously agree that Guevara was not a physician". Secondly, the dean of medicine at the University of Cordoba did not respond to an inquiry. Thirdly, at a conference in Havana's medical school, Che apparently didn't even know the difference between a resident and an intern. Of course, none of this "evidence" proves anything one way or another, particularly since you can't expect the dean at the University of Cordoba to response to query about a student from the University of Buenos Aires. But the last point certainly raises questions of how far Che got into his medical studies.

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson, Grove Press (1997) Jon Lee Anderson. Che detractors sniff that this book glosses over Che's brutality, while Che's champions complain that it over emphasize the unessential like when Che ordered the army's young puppy mascot strangled because its howling was giving away their position (at the Washita Custer ordered his own dogs killed because they were barking). Che was definitely in charge of executions. At first these included deserters, informers, and what would be called brigands who were robbing and killing the peasants of the Sierra Maestras. After the revolution these included a large number of Batista officers and soliders and there is no doubt that many of the men executed were guilty of what we would call war crimes. Later, though, the "crimes" which would result in imprisonment or execution began to be "enemy of the revolution" or as we saw, disagreeing with Che.

The Young Che: Memories of Che Guevara, Ernesto Guevara Lynch (2007). A translation of Mi Hijo el Che and Aquí va un soldado de América, both memoirs written by Che's dad and seems to be the sole source that his son graduated with a M. D.

The author of CooperToons, by the way, wrote five graduates from the 1953 class of the University of Buenos Aires Medical School who were licensed to practice and living in the United States, but alas, received no replies (two letters were returned as undeliverable). Let's hasten to say he understands the lack of replies as the gentlemen probably have better things to do. Also a diligent search has found no one has either investigated whether Che has UBA FM records verifying his graduation or, if they did, published what they found.

Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him, Humberto Fontova, Sentinel (2007). This title sets the tone of the book pretty well. Not a calm and dispassionate study, and the author has written a book in a similar vein about Fidel and other articles about Che. Truth to tell the picture painted here and in the above biography are by no means contradictory.

As far as how one person can become a virtual diety to some and a demon to others, the answer is so trivial that CooperToons will not weary the reader further.

"Guevara's Last Stand", Chris Bradley, New Statesman, June 12, 2008. The reporter was trying to find if there was any monuments to Che in his home country. He went to the University of Buenos Aires and found none. He was, though, told that a record of Che's marks could be found in the library but did not try to inspect Che's academic records.

There are two documentaries on Che by mainstream networks. Both have some interviews with Che's friends and foes, one film reveals the shocking fact that US President John F. Kennedy actually smoked a Cuban cigar from Che!

The True Story of Che Guevara, The History Channel, 2007. This documentary says Che was a doctor.

Che Guevara - The True Story, The Discovery Channel, Despite the similar title and home movies from the Guevara family, there is nothing about Che's medical career.