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297
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CHE GUEVARA, Ernesto Rafael Guevara de La Serna, known as (1…
See original version (French)
297
-
CHE GUEVARA, Ernesto Rafael Guevara de La Serna, known as (1…
See original version (French)
Estimate €400 - €600
Voluntary lot
Description
CHE GUEVARA, Ernesto Rafael Guevara de La Serna, known as (1928–1967), an Argentine Marxist revolutionary and Communist leader of the Cuban Revolution alongside Fidel Castro. Signed autograph. Cuba, Pinar del Río, 25 October 1961. 18 x 20 cm. In Spanish. Letterhead of the Republic of Cuba, Ministry of Communications. Minor signs of age.
A valuable telegram bearing a signed autograph annotation by Che (who had recently been appointed Minister of Industry) from Pinar del Río, where the Bay of Pigs invasion had just taken place.
This typewritten telegram from Paulino Alvarez, provincial delegate of the Ministry of Industry, contains the programme and instructions for the inauguration of the sulphuric acid plant, named ‘Patricio Lumumba’ ’ in Santa Lucía, in the province of Pinar del Río, Cuba.
Transcription: ‘Bienvenido Ponce. Adm fertilisers La Esperanza Artemisa. Scheduled for Sunday the 29th....at two pm inauguration of sulphuric acid plant les..... Patricio Lumumba in Santa Lucía; Minister Commander [Comandante] Ernesto Guevara will speak. Attendance is compulsory – no excuses or pretexts. Administrator. Technical Committee. Management Committee. Trade union.”
Translation: “Welcome, Ponce. Approval of fertiliser supplies for La Esperanza, Artemisa [the town of Artemisa]. Sunday the 29th… At 2.00 pm, inauguration of the […] Patricio Lumumba plant in Santa Lucía. Minister-Commander Ernesto Guevara will address the gathering. Agenda: compulsory attendance. No excuses or pretexts. Administrator’s agenda. Technical Council’s agenda. Management Board’s agenda. Trade Union’s agenda […]”.
Che Guevara added in his own hand: ‘Attendance is the proof [?] of revolutionary conscience’ [?].
The inauguration of this sulphuric acid factory was a significant event in the Cuban Revolution. Che Guevara’s speech, delivered in his capacity as Minister of Industry, did indeed take place on 29 October 1961. The plant was named in honour of the anti-colonial leader Patrice Lumumba [Élias Okit’Asombo (1925–1961)], who was the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from June to September 1960). He was one of the leading figures in the struggle for the independence of the Belgian Congo before being assassinated on 17 January 1961 in a plot supported by the imperialist powers. Guevara, who held him in high esteem, named several places after him in tribute, notably this factory, and took the opportunity to condemn this crime in his speech.
(Expert: Mathilde Lalin-Leprévost)
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
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