Before anything else I’d like to share this quote from the book which in a way describes what to Che Guerrilla warfare meant.

“Guerrilla warfare, the basis of the struggle of a people to redeem itself, has diverse characteristics, different facets, even though the essential will for liberation remains the same.”

In essence, this quote is stating that every single instance of Guerrilla warfare is unique and methods and techniques learned and applied in one can not be applicable to another, the only thing that each unique event share is the will and struggle to gain liberation. Although I agree with this statement which describes each action in Guerrilla warfare as though they are occurring for the first time, which they most likely are given the circumstances that Guerrilla warfare entails, it makes the idea or concept that this book is a guideline for future Guerrilla fighters to be redundant. For almost the whole first chapter of the book, Che goes into great detail in describing the perfect characteristics for what a Guerrilla fighter should be or what tactics fighters should use in specific situations and such. Although he states earlier that each instance of war is different and unique, he explains and molds a fit-all strategy for fellow fighters. Even though he describes different fighting types that he has learned about, his theories and experiences are heavily tied to his time in the Cuban movement. What this book does do, is provide basic information for starting Guerrilla movements with existing tactics which have worked for another movement. Even if these tactics do not work on the same level as they have worked for another movement they provide the basic groundwork for establishing a potentially good Guerrilla movement. I found some of his advice to be somewhat redundant, though, he mentions for the Guerrilla fighter to be willing to die for the cause but to be able to retain his life for his death causes more damage to the cause than the death of one soldier.

Overall I found the book to contain some interesting aspects of what it means to be part of a Guerrilla movement, but I did not feel as though some of those aspects were new to me. Even most Guerrilla movement is usually tied to strong social and political reform, I found that the book had very little to do with political ideologies of Guerrilla fighters. Something which I found weird as this book is very much a guidebook on how to become a true Guerrilla fighting for a cause. Yet at the same time, I do see how someone could become a successful Guerrilla fighter following Che’s steps. He makes it sound so easy as though if you follow his steps you could be toppling governments left, right, and center.

During revolutions, we usually hear the about the heroic efforts made by individual men or about the grandiose goals that these men have for the revolution, but in the stories of Carutcho, we learn of these men made famous by the revolution who are not in any way special.  What these short stories truly do is humanize the men of the revolution, not just specifically the men of Villa or of the Federales we learn about the human elements of all men and women involved in the revolution. Much like we talked about last week in class in regards to Pancho Villa being portrayed as a mythical beast who without the revolution would have failed, the short stories work past the imaginaries of the battlefield and focus more on the human elements outside of the battles and conflicts. The interactions that Nellie had with both soldiers and men alike, both through stories or real life interactions shows us the humanity in the revolution. In both the stories of the lives of individuals to their deaths, we learn how they lived their lives or why they were killed. Some even killed too soon, but it is through the lives and deaths of those during the revolution that we not only learn of the ideologies of the revolution but of the humanity of the revolution.

One of the stories that stuck with me the most was of Nacha Ceniceros, one of the few female generals in the Villa army who supposedly got executed only to have run away from the revolution in order to rebuild her life away from it all. This story about someone re-establishing their lives during the revolution is rare like we mentioned last week in the Underdogs, most people who join the revolution cannot leave the revolution once they join they are forever stuck in a perpetual motion  like a stone rolling down a hill. The notability that Nacha was able to forge for herself in an almost man driven revolution is noted in her story, even at the end when she states herself that if she truly wanted she could have stayed in the army and marry one of the generals. It is her ability to give up becoming one fo the “most influential women” of the revolution to become a rancher instead. Although she is given a fake story to cover up her departure from the army, the fake story maintain’s her prowess and significance as both a general and a woman. The symbolism of the way that she died and many other died who infront of gun squads on both sides of the revolution is immortalized in these short stories. Deaths which otherwise may have gone completely unheard of as are those in many other revolutions.