At the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Commander Ernesto Che Guevara lives a moment of special connotation when he received his parents on January 9, 1959, who traveled to Cuba to meet him again, a few days after having triumphed the revolution.

The relatives of Che Guevara took advantage of the opportunity that a group of Cuban revolutionaries, who were exiled in Argentina, got a plane that would take them to Havana.

Almost six years ago the then 24-year-old Ernesto Guevara, shortly after graduating as a doctor, said goodbye to his parents, other relatives and friends at the "General Belgrano" train station in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

As his father later told him, his son on the platform was hurrying to get on the train that had already started slowly; Suddenly he turned around and while raising one of his arms in which he had a purse, he shouted jokingly: "Here goes a soldier from America!"

No one then imagined that this expression of the recent graduate of medicine would become reality in just over three years, much less reach the condition of being one of the most experienced leaders of a rebel troop, and at that time a prestigious leader of the Cuban Revolution.

Ernesto left his native Argentina with the intention of heading to Caracas to reconnect with his friend Alberto Granado, with whom between the end of December 1951 and July 1952 he had made a unique tour of several Latin American countries.

Alberto Granado settled in the capital of Venezuela because he had already completed his studies in biology. Ernesto undertook the return trip to Argentina with the intention of finishing his medical career and then returning to Caracas. In Argentina, he was able to complete his studies in less than a year.

Achieved that goal decided to go out to meet again with the great friend. First he goes to La Paz, capital of Bolivia in the company of another friend, Carlos Ferrer, known as Calica. Ernesto and Calica arrive in La Paz on July 11. It had been more than a year since a nationalist revolution had taken place in Bolivia. However, over time the process was losing strength. Ernesto was interested to appreciate what was happening in this country. Some time later he decided to go to Peru. Together with his friend, he crosses the Peruvian-Bolivian border in a truck and arrives to Lima.

In the Peruvian capital he interacted with Latin American exiles and obtained information about what was happening in Guatemala, where the progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz had enacted a series of popular benefit measures and was facing the actions and threats of the United States and reactionary elements. in the country.

In the month of October after having connected with the Argentine lawyer Eduardo García (Gualo), he goes with him and Calica Ferrer to Guayaquil, Ecuador, where he meets other Latin Americans who also talk enthusiastically about Guatemala.

He finally decided to decline his intention to travel to Venezuela. He made the decision to move to Guatemala. He left his friend Calica Ferrer and wrote a brief note to Alberto Granado in which he said: "Petiso, I'm going to Guatemala. Then I'll explain. "

From Guayaquil he moved initially to Panama. Later he went to Costa Rica. In this country, in a cafe - restaurant identified as Hotel Palace, he met the Cubans Calixto Garcia and Severino Rosell, who had participated in the events that took place on July 26, 1953, when the assault on the Moncada barracks took place in Santiago de Chile. Cuba, and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, in Bayamo.

Then he left Costa Rica for Nicaragua. Later he went through Honduras and finally on December 20 arrived in Guatemala where he had the opportunity to meet Antonio (Ñico) Lopez, a young Cuban who had also participated in the action of July 26, 1953, in the attack on the Bayamo barracks .

In Guatemala, the young Ernesto Guevara experienced a unique experience when in June 1954 an aggression was carried out by reactionary elements that had the support of the United States, which led to the overthrow of the government of Jacobo Arbenz.

Weeks later to be in the country illegally and unable to work had to move to Mexico, where he met again in a casual way with Antonio (Ñico) López and it is through him that he later met Fidel and Raul Castro.

As subsequently, Che himself explained, a conversation between Fidel Castro and him was enough to allow him to collaborate in the effort to achieve the resumption of the revolutionary struggle in Cuba.

After a period of preparation, and overcome difficulties having been arrested in conjunction with other Cubans who participated in the training, the already known as Che Ernesto, for his Argentine origin, he was part of the 82 expeditionaries under the direction of Fidel Castro They left on November 25, 1956 from the port of Tuxpán on the small yacht "Granma" to Cuba. The disembarkation of the expeditionaries took place on December 2 of that year for a place near Las Colorados beach, in the southeastern part of the Cuban territory.

Initially Che had the mission to serve as a doctor within the rebel troop. Very soon he showed his qualities as a fighter combatant, as someone with the conditions and capacity to lead and accomplish complex missions, as was the case of leading a rebel column, from the province of Oriente to the central area of ​​Cuba where he carried out a relevant work. political and military that greatly contributed to the total breakdown of the dictatorial regime.

In the early hours of January 1, 1959, when the dictator fled, he was commanded by Fidel to go to Havana to face the maneuver carried out by reactionary elements to try to avoid the triumph of the revolutionary forces.

He also fulfilled that mission, and in Havana, the day after receiving Fidel and the other members of the Freedom Caravan, Che was able to embrace his parents once again who arrived in the Cuban capital.

If for Che was emotional that moment, without doubt for his parents was something shocking the reunion with the son, already become a brave fighter, a great personality.

In a book that years later wrote Ernesto Guevara Lynch, father of Che, he recalled in particular a very intimate conversation with his son in Havana in January 1959, in which he, in fact, specified his internationalist vocation.

He said: "They were unforgettable days for us. We saw Ernesto every time he allowed us, or rather, that his occupations allowed him to chat with us. But I always found a moment to do it. One afternoon Ernesto was visiting us at our hotel. I took the opportunity and asked him to lock himself in a room with me. I wanted to talk to him alone; without anyone bothering us; other times he had wanted to do it, but he was always busy, carrying out orders or shaking by his occupations.

"We entered the room and sat quietly. He had changed a lot. When he left, he looked like a beard, and now a thin beard covered part of his face. He was very thin and burned by the sun. He spoke slowly, but his eyes were the same as always, ideas piled up and he did not have time to express them, and then he would chat nervously and sometimes swallow words. Now I saw him in front of me, more plumb; He meditated before answering, which he never did. I asked him what he was going to do with his medicine. He looked at me sideways, he thought for a moment and then, smiling, he answered:

"About my medicine? Look old, as you are called Ernesto Guevara like me, in your office building you put a sheet with your name and below you put a doctor and you can start killing people without any danger. And he laughed at his joke.

"I insisted on the question and then, getting serious, he answered: From my medicine I can tell you that I have abandoned it for a while. Now I am a combatant who is working on the propping up of a government. What will become of me? I myself do not know in what land I will leave the bones. "(1)

(1) Ernesto Guevara Lynch. My son Che, Editorial Arte y Literatura, 1988, pages 85 and 86

Source: Radio Rebelde website