Much has been told and written about Ernesto Che Guevara, but there are still stories powdered in the hearts of people that over the years share the experiences they lived with a man who was made of flesh and blood.

I met Albio Bermúdez González a few times when, out of friendship with his children, I visited his house, but I never imagined that after his calm walk and his joviality when greeting; there was a person who treasured so much history.

Participant in the Escambray fight, later a member and founder of the border guard troops in Camagüey, a member of secret missions that for me only remained in that adjective and also a fighter in Angola; He agreed to tell me the two anecdotes that he shared with the Argentine, as they called Che.

The reason why telling makes a difference

“My first meeting with Che took place as a result of Cyclone Cleo, in the last days of August 1964. We went to Santa Cruz del Sur to organize the evacuation of the Harbor Master’s Office. There, two large vehicles arrived and Che was inside of one of them. He got out right away, we talked and asked us why we had taken so long to evacuate; we explained that we were evacuating other places before.

Immediately afterwards he saw one of our combatants, -we came from the Escambray-, and this comrade carried a revolver on the right side and an F4 grenade on the left, even wrapped with tape. He asked him why he was carrying such a thing. The combatant tried to justify himself, but he called the escort and said: Take the grenade! From there he gave a sermon to all of us who were present; but it was not enough he went to the kitchen and asked what they were cooking. When they told him that tortoiseshell steak they were even more reprimanded, because he said that, they were out of their mind, that the tortoiseshell was an endangered species, but the cookers explained that it was a tortoise that had drowned in a net and that is why it was being cooked”.

Book in hand tells me about the strength and integrity with which Che behaved, with no room for half measures. The other anecdote that Bermúdez shared, I prefer to hear it in his own voice so that there is no letter or syntactic interpretation, but sound by sound his experience.

Many times history forgets to capture those brushstrokes that make heroes human. For this reason, our sincere gratitude to Bermúdez for bringing us closer to the Che that he had the opportunity to meet, as was also the place that he made next to his hammock to share these stories; right in the cozy space of his hallway from where he shared his experiences to have more to tell about Che.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García