Hilda Gadea

Gadea and Che Guevara on their honeymoon in 1955

Hilda Gadea Acosta (born March 21, 1925 in Lima , Peru , † February 1974 in Havana , Cuba ) was a Peruvian economist , functionary of the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA), author and first wife of the Argentine- Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara (1928 -1967).

Life

Hilda Gadea comes from a wealthy middle-class family, but was involved in left-wing youth organizations in Peru at an early age and fled after the coup of General Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti in October 1948 first to the Guatemalan embassy in Lima and later to Guatemala City . There she worked for the left-wing government under President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán , including at the Instituto de Fomento a la Producción (Institute for Economic Development).

In 1953 Hilda Gadea met the Argentinian doctor Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Guatemala. A lively political exchange of ideas soon developed between the more moderate left Gadea and the more radical Guevara. As a good friend at first, she helped him find a job and took care of those suffering from asthma attacks. In February / March 1954 Gadea confessed her love to her reluctant boyfriend. In May 1954, Guevara had to leave Guatemala because his visa had expired. To say goodbye, Gadea and Guevara spent a few days together in the town of San Juan Sacatepéquez , around 30 kilometers north of Guatemala City, where, according to Guevara's notes, the first night of love should have come. Guevara then traveled on to El Salvador , where he obtained a new visa, only to return to Guatemala City a few weeks later.

After the fall of the Guatemalan Arbenz government at the end of June 1954 by reactionary forces under Castillo Armas with the support of the USA , Gadea was arrested by the new regime as an Arbenz sympathizer. She went on a hunger strike to force her early release on July 26th. She applied for a passport at the Peruvian embassy, ​​but was denied it. While she was waiting for news from Lima, the new ruler, Castillo Armas, invited her to the presidential palace, where he assured her that she would not be prosecuted until a decision by the Peruvian authorities in Guatemala. Guevara was meanwhile in the Argentine embassy, ​​where he had applied for asylum . Gadea's attempts to visit him there failed. At the end of August, Guevara received permission to travel to his home country Argentina, but initially stayed in Guatemala because he had made the plan to go to Mexico . Guevara finally found Gadea in their common pub.

While Gadea was waiting for her exit papers for Peru, the Argentine organized his onward journey to Mexico City in the following period . After he had left there in mid-September 1954, Gadea was arrested again in Guatemala. After a night in detention, she was taken to the Mexican border. There she managed to cross over to the border town of Tapachula , where she sought political asylum. She had to wait eight days for the authorities' decision there before she could also go to Mexico City.

According to Che Guevara biographer Jon Lee Anderson, Gadea's relationship with Guevara was at a "crossroads" at the time. Gadea moved into her own apartment with another woman. She continued to meet with Guevara regularly until he accepted her offer to move into the apartment with her and her roommate. In June 1955 Guevara met his future Cuban comrade Raúl Castro for the first time , who was supposed to prepare the arrival of his brother Fidel Castro in Mexico. Raúl soon became friends with the couple.

In September 1955 Gadea and Guevara married in Mexico City, where their daughter Hilda "Hildita" Beatriz Guevara Gadea († August 21, 1995 in Havana) was born on February 15, 1956.

On November 25, 1956, Che Guevara and a group of Cuban revolutionaries from the July 26th Movement (M-26-7) headed by Fidel Castro set out for Cuba to fight against the authoritarian regime of Fulgencio Batista , which began on January 1st 1959 collapsed.

After the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Gadea moved with her daughter to Cuba, where she lived until her death. At that time, Che Guevara was already living with a comrade-in-arms, Aleida March , whom he had met in October 1958 during the fighting in central Cuba. Gadea consented to the divorce so that Che Guevara and March could marry on June 2, 1959.

Che Guevara is said to have largely renounced contact with Gadea for the sake of his second wife. However, he regularly took their daughter Hildita with him to his new family. In April 1965, Che Guevara went to the Congo to promote the revolution there, and then moved to Bolivia in 1966 , where he was murdered by the army on October 9, 1967.

Publications

Hilda Gadea: Che Guevara. Los años decisivos. Mexico 1972 (new edition under the title Mi vida con el Che. Peru 2005; Engl. My Life with Che. The Making of a Revolutionary. 2005).

literature

Jon Lee Anderson: Che. The biography. List / Ullstein, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-548-60122-7 .

Web links

• Article on stern.de