Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara
By Carlos Puebla
Song Review
The song Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara was written by the Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer Carlos Puebla (1917-1989) in 1965. His musical style is typically borelo and nationalistic songs. This song was written in response to Fidel Castro’s speech announcing Che Guevara’s departure from Cuban politics in 1965. Puebla was a strong supporter of Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolutionary movement from before the revolution was completely underway in 1959. Though he had a fair amount of success in his native city of Manzanillo before he became a well known musician throughout Latin America. Along with Puebla’s musical ability, his political affiliations helped to make him more widely known, eventually being known as El Cantor de la Revolucion,
and was considered an ambassador for Cuba.
When this song was first written and performed, as mentioned above, it was in response to a letter that Che Guevara had written to Fidel Castro announcing his intentions to resign from Cuban government and go to Bolivia in order to help foster revolution first in the Congo and later in Bolivia, where he would eventually be captured and executed. In 1965 the Cuban revolution had already happened and been successful for Fidel Castro, though there was extreme resistance from other nations, especially the United States of America. This resistance from neighboring democratic nations resulted in many goods and services being embargoed from being sold to Cuba, causing Cuba to turn to the Soviet Union and China for oil and sugar among other goods. Also there was a resistance forming amongst the anti-Communist factions in Cuba supported by the American government, though by the end of 1965 The United Nations General Assembly adopted a “Declaration of the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of their Independence and Sovereignty.” It says that “ no state shall organize, assist, foment, finance, incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed activities directed toward the violent overthrow of another state, or interfere in civil strife in another state.”
This declaration caused the American government to remove their support for this movement.
The song lyrics mention key moments of the Cuban revolution, describing Che Guevara and his role as one of the revolutionary leaders. It also talks about the inspiration Che Guevara had become to the Cuban people, but also the people of Latin America as a group. He had risked his life in fighting in revolutions in countries that were not his own and was going onto fight for another. He had values, and believed that the people of Latin America deserved more and was willing to stand up and fight for them. This caused the Latin American people to have great respect for him and they seemed to love him deeply. This song is an expression of those feeling, as well as an expression of the sadness that would be felt by the Cuban people since Che Guevara would not be going back to Cuba.
After Che Guevara’s death in 1967 the song came to have even more meaning to the people of Latin America. Because Guevara was killed on the orders of the American government, and there were so many pictures showing his death he became almost martyred as a symbol of freedom for the people, for socialism, and for humanism. This is also shown by Nelson Mandela referring to Che Guevara as “An inspiration for every human being who loves freedom.”
This song seemed prematurely sad to me, as it was written before Che Guevara’s death, but it seems like a tribute to him and a recollection of him and the things he did for not only Cuba but all of Latin America. It seems like as soon as Puebla heard that Che was lean=ving Cuba to help in other countries he regulated him to the past and gave the impression that he would never see him alive again. That may have actually been the case but there is no indication that that was Guevara’s intentions, the letter he wrote to Fidel Castro did not state that he would never return to Cuba in his travels and in future roles as either a government official or as a revolutionary leader for Bolivia or other countries. This song was well written and well performed, the music draws you in and is enjoyable to listen to. I think that as I did my novel review on The Motorcycle Diaries I had more of an understanding of who Che Guevara started out as, and that gave me some context to understand the meanings behind this song. As well as a clearer understanding of why the Cuban people would have felt so loyal to Che Guevara and such distress at his leaving Cuba. This song was a way for Carlos Puebla to express his gratitude to Che Guevara in a way he was comfortable doing, when perhaps he would not have been able to say these things to Guevara personally. It was also done in a way that Puebla could be guaranteed that Guevara would hear at some point and every time he heard the song, he would be reminded of the Cuban people’s gratitude to him.
Biography
Cuba Famous, "Carlos Puebla- Mini Biography, photos and detailed information." Last modified 2011. Accessed June 17, 2012. http://www.cuba-famous.com/en/details.asp?p=92.
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