Juan Gelman and Paco Urondo: Che and his death-life

Abstract

The cultural magazine Casa de las Américas, in 1968, an issue dedicated to Ernesto “Che” Guevara, murderer on October 1967, in Bolivia. Juan Gelman and Francisco Urondo write for this issue: the first one, “Pensamientos”, which he would publish later in his book Cólera Buey of 1971; the second “Descarga”. Both poets will eventually join the FAR. Ernesto Che Guevara in “El Socialismo y el hombre en Cuba” had especially summoned artists and intellectuals to come out of their "invisible cage", self-educate their own selfish subjectivity and work for socialist revolution, but it was not only them who had to be permanently modified, but also everyone. It would not be enough with the construction of the economic and social bases towards a new material order but they had to be collectively revolutionized. Guevara also supported the idea that the moment was always: that humanity had said enough since ignominy had reached its bottom. The “time-now” and this new patiently built subjectivity called especially artists, poets and intellectuals to make their contribution. This led to a feeling of sorrow and despair after his murder.