Who are Los Comandantes?

We're in Santa Clara now, which was a key strategic city during the revolution. The biggest attraction here is definitely Che Guevara's museum. Admission is free! The museum showcases photos and items from El Che's childhood, his life as a doctor, and his time in the mountains as a guerrilla fighter. You can also visit his grave, which is pretty special. The revolution had four major "El Comandantes" - Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and Emilio Cienfuegos - all of whom helped write history. The two main figures, Fidel and El Che, both came from well-off families, facing a comfortable and secure life. They had a lot to lose, but their ideology rooted in communism was more important to them. **The Castro Brothers:** Of course, the biggest figure of the revolution was Fidel Castro, who worked closely with his younger brother, Raul. The Castro family belonged to the middle class in Cuba at the time, owning a sugarcane farm. Fidel received a good education as a lawyer and was a talented athlete in baseball. He even got an offer from a major American baseball team—ironically enough. Additionally, he was born with almost telegraphic abilities, which he honed further during his studies. Fidel's memory is incredible, something he often relied on for his lengthy speeches. He also seems to have more lives than a cat, having survived 15 months in a Cuban prison and later exile in Mexico after his first failed attempt to take Cuba. During his time in exile, he met El Che, who quickly realized they were both passionate about the same cause. This led to a two-year guerrilla war in the mountains of Cuba, where they gradually gained control of the country until they conquered it all. A final testament to Fidel's cat-like resilience is that he survived 617 assassination attempts. In 1959, Fidel finally took control when Batista fled the country. One of the first laws passed was nationalization—the abolition of private property rights. His family's sugarcane farm was one of the first to be taken over by the state. **Ernesto Che Guevara:** He was born in Argentina into a middle-class family, where he suffered a lot from illness and asthma as a child. This led him to develop a tremendous fighting spirit to achieve his goals. He trained as a doctor, and at one point traveled around Latin America, where he became acutely aware of the vast divide between the rich and the poor. His journey took him to Mexico, where he met the Castro brothers. Together, they went to Cuba to take over the country. El Che played a significant role in the conquest, capturing Santa Clara with just a handful of men. They sabotaged the railway, where Batista had several men on their way to fight Fidel. The takeover of Santa Clara forced Batista to flee the country. El Che was a tough man, focused on the goal rather than the individual. For him, achieving the goal, following his ideology, and serving the cause was more important than considering people's lives. A few years after the victory in Cuba, where he was appointed president of the National Bank and Minister of Industry, he became restless and went to Bolivia to fight for socialism. However, the peasants betrayed him, and he was captured by the military and executed in a mass grave. The CIA monitored the execution to ensure that one of America's enemies was dead. As proof of his death, his hands were cut off for evidence. Thirty years later, the grave was exhumed, and his remains were returned to Santa Clara, which stands as the pinnacle of his "career." Today, El Che's face is everywhere on souvenirs like T-shirts. Fidel declared him a national hero. You can see El Che's face on large government-installed billboards alongside communist slogans like "Hasta la Victoria Siempre." **Emilio Cienfuegos:** He isn't as well-known a figure in the revolution but still played a crucial role in the victory. Cienfuegos met the Castro brothers and El Che in Mexico, where his excellent speaking skills got him on the "team." After the victory, he remained a loyal and close friend to Fidel. He died under mysterious circumstances that were never solved. One theory is that Fidel had him killed because his popularity was becoming too great. Fidel had sent Cienfuegos to Camaguey on a mission, and on the way back, his plane disappeared without a trace... Some say that if he had lived, Cuba's future might have looked very different, as he didn't fully share Fidel's far-left views.