Che Guevara — The Bolivian Diary

About the Book

This volume contains the authentic diary that Ernesto “Che” Guevara kept during his last campaign — the guerrilla attempt to ignite a revolution in Bolivia in 1966–1967. The Polish edition appeared in 1969, shortly after Guevara’s death, with an introduction and commentary by Ryszard Kapuściński, who brought the figure and the context of the Latin American guerrilla closer to Polish readers.

The entries take the form of a terse daily chronicle written in the harsh conditions of the jungle. Step by step they document the unit’s growing defeat: increasing isolation, illness (Guevara suffered from asthma), the lack of food and medicine, the distrust of the local peasants who did not join the uprising, and the ever-tightening manhunt by the Bolivian army backed by American advisers. The diary breaks off a few days before Guevara’s capture and execution in October 1967 in the village of La Higuera.

It is a harrowing first-hand document — at once testimony to a revolutionary’s determination and a merciless lesson about the limits of an idea confronted with reality. It remains one of the most important sources for the political history of 20th-century Latin America and a key to understanding the legend of Che.

Themes

• The guerrilla campaign in Bolivia
• Revolutionary ideology
• The myth and reality of Che Guevara
• The end of an era