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Authors: Humberto Fontova
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different terminology regarding the incident. Much like John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima , Che recalls saying, “I’m hit!” But far be it from Che Guevara to stop there, so his official diary gushes forth: “Faustino, still firing away, looked at me . . . but I could read in his eyes that he considered me as good as dead. . . . Immediately, I began to think about the best way to die, since all seemed lost. I recalled an old Jack London story where the hero, aware that he is bound to freeze to death in the wastes of Alaska, leans calmly against a tree and prepares to die in a dignified manner. That was the only thing that came to my mind at that moment.”
In fact Faustino Perez later recounted that he was nearly wounded himself—not by the whizzing bullets, but by a hernia while trying to stifle his laughter at the look on Che’s face, especially after seeing the nature of Che’s wound. “It’s a scratch!” Perez blurted. “Keep walking.” 3 A bullet had barely grazed the back of Che’s neck.
And what about Fidel? Upon hearing the first shots fired in anger against his glorious rebellion, this hands-on comandante- in-chief vanished, leaving his men to scramble and scrounge for themselves. The future Maximum Leader’s headlong flight from the skirmish site, through rows of sugarcane, leaping over brambles, dodging trees, was so long, and his speed so impressive, that one wonders if he really had missed his true calling, playing major league baseball, as urban legend has it.
None of his men, including Che, could find Castro for the rest of the day. But in the middle of the night, after miles of walking, Faustino Perez heard a tentative voice: “Mr. Perez? . . . Mr. Perez?” And out came Fidel Castro from a cane field, accompanied by his bodyguard, Universo Sanchez. 4 “Later I learned that Fidel had tried vainly to get everybody together into the adjoining cane field,” is how the ever-faithful Che covers for Fidel in his diaries. Considering the length and breadth of Cuban cane fields in that area, “adjoining” is technically correct for a place three miles away.
A few weeks after this skirmish, when the only thing Fidel Castro commanded was a raggedy band of a dozen “rebels” in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra mountains, he was approached by some of his rebel group’s many wealthy urban backers. “What can we do?” they asked. “How can we help the glorious rebellion against the upstart mulatto scoundrel Batista? We can write you some checks. We can buy you some arms. We can recruit more men. Tell us, Fidel, what can we do to help?”
“For now,” Castro answered, “get me a New York Times reporter up here.”
The rest is history. Castro’s July 26 Movement’s efficient and well-heeled communications network fell promptly to the task. Lines hummed from Santiago to Havana to New York. Within weeks, the New York Times ’s ranking Latin American expert, Herbert Matthews, was escorted to Castro’s rebel camp with his note-pad, tape recorder, and cameras. Castro was being hailed as the Robin Hood of Latin America on the front pages of the world’s most prestigious papers. The following month CBS sent in a camera crew. Within two years Castro was dictator of Cuba, executing hundreds of political prisoners per week and jailing thousands more—all the while being hailed as “the George Washington of Cuba” by everyone from Jack Paar, to Walter Lippmann, to Ed Sullivan, to Harry Truman.
While Castro and Che failed to launch a successful military invasion, they invaded nonetheless, riding rivers of ink.
Shooting Back at Che
On their march from the Sierra mountains of eastern Cuba to Las Villas province in central Cuba during the fall of 1958, Che’s “column” somehow ran into a twenty-member band of Cuba’s Rural Guard, who started shooting. Che and his band scattered hysterically, bewildered and shocked by hearing hostile gunfire. In this mad melee, they fled from a band of country boys whom
In fact Faustino Perez later recounted that he was nearly wounded himself—not by the whizzing bullets, but by a hernia while trying to stifle his laughter at the look on Che’s face, especially after seeing the nature of Che’s wound. “It’s a scratch!” Perez blurted. “Keep walking.” 3 A bullet had barely grazed the back of Che’s neck.
And what about Fidel? Upon hearing the first shots fired in anger against his glorious rebellion, this hands-on comandante- in-chief vanished, leaving his men to scramble and scrounge for themselves. The future Maximum Leader’s headlong flight from the skirmish site, through rows of sugarcane, leaping over brambles, dodging trees, was so long, and his speed so impressive, that one wonders if he really had missed his true calling, playing major league baseball, as urban legend has it.
None of his men, including Che, could find Castro for the rest of the day. But in the middle of the night, after miles of walking, Faustino Perez heard a tentative voice: “Mr. Perez? . . . Mr. Perez?” And out came Fidel Castro from a cane field, accompanied by his bodyguard, Universo Sanchez. 4 “Later I learned that Fidel had tried vainly to get everybody together into the adjoining cane field,” is how the ever-faithful Che covers for Fidel in his diaries. Considering the length and breadth of Cuban cane fields in that area, “adjoining” is technically correct for a place three miles away.
A few weeks after this skirmish, when the only thing Fidel Castro commanded was a raggedy band of a dozen “rebels” in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra mountains, he was approached by some of his rebel group’s many wealthy urban backers. “What can we do?” they asked. “How can we help the glorious rebellion against the upstart mulatto scoundrel Batista? We can write you some checks. We can buy you some arms. We can recruit more men. Tell us, Fidel, what can we do to help?”
“For now,” Castro answered, “get me a New York Times reporter up here.”
The rest is history. Castro’s July 26 Movement’s efficient and well-heeled communications network fell promptly to the task. Lines hummed from Santiago to Havana to New York. Within weeks, the New York Times ’s ranking Latin American expert, Herbert Matthews, was escorted to Castro’s rebel camp with his note-pad, tape recorder, and cameras. Castro was being hailed as the Robin Hood of Latin America on the front pages of the world’s most prestigious papers. The following month CBS sent in a camera crew. Within two years Castro was dictator of Cuba, executing hundreds of political prisoners per week and jailing thousands more—all the while being hailed as “the George Washington of Cuba” by everyone from Jack Paar, to Walter Lippmann, to Ed Sullivan, to Harry Truman.
While Castro and Che failed to launch a successful military invasion, they invaded nonetheless, riding rivers of ink.
Shooting Back at Che
On their march from the Sierra mountains of eastern Cuba to Las Villas province in central Cuba during the fall of 1958, Che’s “column” somehow ran into a twenty-member band of Cuba’s Rural Guard, who started shooting. Che and his band scattered hysterically, bewildered and shocked by hearing hostile gunfire. In this mad melee, they fled from a band of country boys whom
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