1 Mial: a nickname given to the author by Guevara. It is a contraction of Mi Alberto, which is what his grandmother used to call him.
1 César Vallejo (1892–1938), Peruvian poet, journalist, Communist militant born in Santiago de Chuco, whose Los Heraldos Negros marked the dawn of a new poetry in Peru.
2 José Carlos Mariátegui (1894–1930), Peruvian Marxist thinker who was among the first to blend nationalist and indigenous thought with international Marxism.
4 Ciro Alegría (1909–67), Peruvian writer and journalist. In Broad and Alien Is the World (1941) he depicts the suffering and exploitation of the Peruvian Indians.
1 The Ranqueles are an Indian nation who around 1775 settled in the Argentine provinces of San Luis, Córdoba, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires. They originally came from the foot of the Andes.
2 In fact the Von Puttkammer family claims to have been established in Argentina long before the Second World War.
3 Villa Concepción del Tío: a small town in the province of Córdoba where the author lived and worked as a pharmacist from May 1946 to April 1947.
1 Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (1877–1960), general and politician, who was twice elected President of Chile, but ruled as a dictator.
1 Elías Lafertté (1886–1961), Communist trade unionist who led the struggle for the rights of workers in the nitrate mines of Chile prior to the Second World War.
1 Pablo Neruda (1904–73), Chilean poet and diplomat. His Canto General (1950) is an epic history of the Americas. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
2 Diego de Almagro (1475–1538), Spanish conquistador who joined forces with Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru.
3 Pedro de Valdivia (1500–54), Spanish conquistador who took part in the conquest of Venezuela, Peru and Chile.
4 José Martí (1853–95), Cuban poet, writer, political thinker and activist, hero of several of his country’s attempts at independence from Spain and the USA. He died in battle in Dos Ríos, eastern Cuba.
1 Ocumo: a plant with yellow flowers and an edible root.
2 Inca Garcilaso (c.1540–c.1616), Spanish writer born at Cuzco, the son of an Inca princess and a conquistador. Wrote Comentarios, a moving description of the legends and beliefs of his mother’s peoples.
3 Vicuña: a tawny-colored cud-chewing Andean mammal similar to the llama.
4 Paccha Mama: mythical goddess of the Incas who represented Mother Earth.
5 Viracocha: mythical god of the Incas, “the creator of man and the rest of the divinities.”
6 Pisco: Peruvian liquor made from fermented cane sugar.
7 “Che” is an expression generally used in Latin America to refer to people from Argentina as it is an interjection they often pepper their conversation with. It was his Cuban comrades in Mexico, while training for the invasion of the island, that nicknamed Ernesto “El Che.” Nobody knows the origin of the word: it could be Guaraní or Mapuche (two Indian tribes of the continent) or it could have come from Andalucía with the conquistadores. In any case Guevara promptly adopted it and went as far as signing bank notes in Cuba simply “Che” when he was Governor of the National Bank.
1 Atahualpa Yupanqui (1908–92), Argentina’s foremost folk-music composer, guitarist and singer.
2 Manuel A. Odría (1897–1974), Peruvian dictator who was President from 1950 to 1956.
3 Simón Bolívar (1783–1830), Venezuelan general and statesman who liberated seven countries of South America from Spanish rule.
4 The Lost City of the Incas by American archaeologist Hiram Bingham (1875–1956), who rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911.
5 Edelmiro J. Farrel (1887–1980), Argentine general and de facto President of Argentina from 1944 to 1946.
1 Benito Lynch (1885–1951), Argentine writer whose famous novel El inglés de los güesos (The Englishman with the Bones) contrasts the European spirit with that of the local criollo.
2 BCG: bacillus of Calmette and Guerin, or Koch, used as inoculation against tuberculosis.
3 Hansen’s bacillus: another name for leprosy is Hansen’s disease, after G. H. Hansen (1841–1912), a Norwegian doctor who discovered the leprosy bacillus.
1 General Antonio José de Sucre (1793–1830), Venezuelan soldier-patriot who was Bolívar’s lieutenant on several campaigns. He was the first President of Bolivia (1826–8).
2 Luis Sandrini (1905–74), a popular Argentine comic film and theater actor.
1 Ceviche: a typical Peruvian dish consisting of raw fish marinated in lemon with onion and chilies.
1 Porfirio Barba Jacob (1883–1942), Colombia’s most influential poet, despite having spent most of his life in exile.
2 The Forbidden Christ: Italian film written and directed in 1951 by controversial fascist author Curzio Malaparte (1898–1957).
3 Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (1903–48), Colombian lawyer, sociologist and Liberal politician. He became President of Colombia in 1946 and was assassinated two years later.
1 Laureano Gómez (1889–1965), combative Colombian Conservative politician and reviled public figure, who was President from 1949 to 1951.
2 Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969), Venezuelan writer, educator and politician, who was briefly President of the republic between February and November 1948.
3 Agustín Aragón (1870–1954), Mexican engineer, positivist philosopher and essayist, who wrote about the evolution of popular language in his country.
4 Augusto “César” Sandino (1895–1934), charismatic Nicaraguan nationalist and anti-imperialist guerrilla leader. He was betrayed by the President, after signing a ceasefire, and assassinated by the National Guard.
1 Juan Vicente Gómez (1857–1935), Venezuelan dictator who dominated political life in his country from 1908 until his death.
1 Empanada: a traditional Argentine meat pasty.
2 The dedication was written by Guevara in the first page of a book about the Cuban sugar-cane industry and sent to the author in March 1965 on the eve of Che’s departure for Congo.