Ruta del Che

Following the final days of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Bolivia, culminating in his death on October 9, 1967. 

When I arrive in La Higuera, after three long days of travel, I already imagine enjoying the results of this great undertaking, but instead…

I discover it is an isolated and inhospitable place, where families survive by harvesting corn and live on a subsistence economy. The central square features three statues of Che and the old school where he was executed. The houses are filled with murals and quotes. It feels like a movie set. I will spend three days there, discovering that people only talk about three things: corn, rain, and chickens.

I make friends with a lady who claims to have known the commander, but in the end, she just wants to sell me a terrible T-shirt. She is 76 years old, with no one to help her, and she has to till the land to get food. I refuse the shirt but offer instead to help her with her cornfield, and so we spend a day together as she teaches me how to clean the field. By late morning, she hands me a three-meter-high trunk to take home, and as she strokes it with her hand, she says, “If it doesn’t rain, we don’t eat, and if we don’t eat, how can we live?”

And here I thought of talking about Che.