The pages of our history are exalted by the blood of many young people, who with courage, answered to the call of the Motherland to break free from the chains that subjugated it. Jesús Suárez Gayol was one of those who answered and, together with Che’s forces, participated in the fighting, which declared the Cuban Revolution winner.
That Camagüey man by adoption, who became the Blonde of the Che’s Guerrilla, stood out for his position against the Batista dictatorship, organized the Federation of Secondary Students in this city, where he lived for more than a decade, and was one of the founders of the July 26th Movement in the locality, some of their comrades in arms still remember his vibrant speeches.
His friend and classmate who shared his same goals, Agustín Días Hernández, affectionately known by Chichi, tells us about his meetings at Gayol’s mother’s guest house, and his basketball games in the afternoons after school.
As Chichi remembers
Without the emotions leaving our meeting in the living room of Chichi’s house he clears his throat and with a look of sadness and longing, we return to the year 1958 …
“Gayol was a young man like any of my time, happy, playful, a basketball lover, so in love, he had two girlfriends at the same time and got himself into trouble,” he says with a mischievous smile.
“We were like brothers, I used to go to his house, nowadays the student museum, and her mother showered us with affection, she and some of her guests participated in our meetings, there we prepared the sabotage actions that we would carry out in the future.
Our head of action at the institute was Gayol and his contact with the higher level of the July 26th Movement was Cándido González, but he was under the police radar and we had to be very careful when meeting. ”
An action
I remember that I “was a staple spreader” to mess with the tires and we had set fire to a government payment booth. They arrested me because I already had a history of being a troublemaker with the DTI but they couldn’t prove anything, so I left to Santiago de Cuba.
I returned on November 1st, 1958, and there they did catch me; they sentenced me to one year in prison. When the revolution triumphed, I was still in prison but that was the happiest day of my life, excitement and joy drew tears from his eyes again.
After the triumph
Chichi stopped seeing his companion and comrade in arms, with the triumph of the Revolution he went to Moa to start up the nickel plant, the first productions of the Cuban mineral were achieved under his supervision, as Shift Manager of the larger plant, where in 1963 he received a pleasant visit.
There the town was going to be inaugurated and a ceremony would take place with the mining community, for the occasion there were El Che and his comrade in arms Jesús Suárez Gayol.
When they met, they became one with a hug, immediately after the reunion Gayol proposed to Chichi to go with him to the capital, as his chief of office, but the plant needed his work and could not accept the invitation.
The brothers did not imagine that this would be their last meeting, as the blond would soon leave with Che’s guerrilla for Bolivia. In 1966 he became the first Cuban martyr of the Bolivian guerrilla.
After the departure
He received with great pain the news about Gayol’s death, a beautiful letter that he left to his son before leaving does not stop moving him, a fragment says… “When you are a true revolutionary, you feel the need to serve the Revolution from the more difficult places, in the forefront.”
The night fell reliving the memory of Chichi. This is the story of two friends united by their ideals: Jesús Suárez Gayol and Agustín Días Hernández, Agustín today at the age of 84, deeply regrets the dead of valuable comrades, but remembers with pleasure those times when they risked their lives to serve the Revolution and assure us that he would do the same all over again.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
