Early Life

1. Childhood
Although he would become known under the nickname “Che”, Che was born under the name Ernesto Guevara. He was born in June of the year 1928 in the country of Argentina, more specifically the area of Rosario (McCormick 340). Che was the son of an engineer in the construction field. His interest in radical politics likely began with his family’s discussions and admiration for the anti-fascist groups who fought in the Spanish Civil War, to the point of welcoming former Spanish fighters to live with his family. Additionally, Che grew up hearing that he was in part a descendant of the Irish, and inherited an admiration for the often volatile politics of the region (McCormick 341).

2. Travel
Che’s upbringing was also one of geographical and intellectual variety. As a result of his father’s work and often entrepreneurial endeavors, Che would never live in one region for very long. The reason for his place of birth was not one which his parents lived for long for his birth, rather it was due to his father’s entrepreneurial attempt at the economic revitalization of an agricultural business specializing in the yerba mate botanical species. These migratory adventures would impart two things on the young Che: a propensity towards travel and a chance to engage with a large variety of Argentinian households, as his family often resorted to cohabitation with others who had housing (Spicer-Escalante 394). During his adolescence, Che continued his propensity towards traveling (Spicer-Escalante 394). Initially he was forced to engage in a form of travel by taking a bus to his high school and he also practiced a good deal of hitchhiking (Spicer-Escalante 394). Eventually as he entered into his twenties in the early 1950s, he engaged in an eventually famous motorcycle excursion. For more than seven months, he along with a friend, traveled across numerous countries with in the subcontinent, and would later pen down the journey in the book The Motorcycle Diaries, which was later made into a film (McCormick 341).

3. Books
Beyond Che’s diverse spatial habitations, his childhood was also marked by a wide array of literary exposures. His bibliophilic tendencies were expressed in the consumption of Kafka, Camus, H.G Wells, Nietzsche, Russell, Jules Verne and others. He also had a fascination for the intellectual endeavors of historical and archaeological studies, as well as poetic literary pieces (McCormick 341).

Sources:
McCormick, Gordon H., and Mark T. Berger. “Ernesto (Che) Guevara: The Last ‘Heroic’

Guerrilla.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, vol. 42, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 336–362. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/1057610X.2017.1398319.

Spicer-Escalante, J.“Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War,

and the Politics of Guerrilla Travel Writing.” Studies in Travel Writing, vol. 15, no. 4, 2011, pp. 393–405, Routledge, doi:10.1080/13645145.2011.617968.