Che took over the commandant's house and lodged his Afro-Cuban escort in the adjoining room. It shocked some combatants a little as racial integration didn't exist in Cuba that time. Many black and mulatto people fought in the rebel army, (descendants of slaves, imported by the Spanish to work on the fields and in the sugar mills), they were not segregated like in the USA but they were not treated as the white Cubans, they couldn't hold prominent positions. Until Che came and fought for racial integration of the Afro-Cubans and mixed races.  
He also gave interviews to the local press and one over the telephone  to an Argentine newspaper.

On 8th January Fidel Castro arrived at Havana after a week's victory tour in Cuba that was covered by the television news every day. Che drove to Matanzas with Aleida to join him before the final lap.
The following day Che met his parents, his brother Juan Martin, his sister, Celia and her husband at the airport. (His other two siblings had to stay in Buenos Aires because of their work.) The invitation was Camilo's idea to surprise his friend.
Che inaugurated the Military Cultural Academy at La Cabaña, founded La Cabaña Libre and organised classes for all the combatants who wanted to learn to read and write. He also set up courses for history, geography, social studies, military matters, chess, and even riding. Cultural and sports activities took place regularly. He did away with cockfights, he called a judge and a priest for those combatants who wanted to get married. Then he gave a speech at the Medical College in Havana where he was given an honorary doctorate.
On 21st January Hilda and the three-year-old Hildita came to Havana. Hilda wanted to see and to contribute to the general reorganisation in Cuba. Che told his wife that he was in a relationship with another woman and that he wanted a divorce.

In February Che set up a tribunal at La Cabaña to judge all the people who committed crimes, tortured and killed during Batista's regime. He had the final word after the appeals had been heard, so his enemies say that it was him who killed thousands of people. Actually there is no proof for this - according to less partial sources, the exact figure is about two hundred or less. [Read more: Charges and refutation]

During secret meetings, with other leading men of the revolution like Raúl Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos, Che also planned a secret military body (G-2) to ensure the security of the revolutionary government. Ramiro Valdés was put in charge.
Che was given a Cuban citizenship in recognition of his contribution to Cuba's liberation. This privilege had been given to only one person before him - to the Dominican general Máximo Gómez, who fought for Cuba's independence from Spain. Fidel Castro had to lower the age to thirty so it could apply to Che, who became an Argentine-Cuban citizen.

On 16th February Fidel Castro became Prime Minister and Cuba embarked on an extensive programme of economic and social reforms.
In March Che's whole body suffered a serious collapse and the doctors ordered him to have a big break. He was given a luxurious seaside house in the exclusive neighbourhood of Tarará, large enough to give accomodation for Che, Aleida and his bodyguards. (It belonged to one of Batista's  customs officers who managed to obtain a great amount of money besides his small salary.) The magazine Caretas published an article about it, saying that Che was abusing his privileges. Che got angry and replied in an open letter. He said he became ill because of overwork and the government loaned him a house - he chose the least luxurious one - because his salary as an officer of the Rebel Army was not enough to pay for it. He promised to leave the house as soon as he recovered - he did so.
By the end of May Che was in great form again, so he and Aleida moved to a rented house in Santiago de Las Vegas, a suburb of Havana.

The divorce from Hilda was finalised on 2nd June, and Che married Aleida on the same day on a small, private ceremony, organised in the fortress of La Cabaña. When the couple returned to their home, Hilda sent Hildita to live with them. Che was overjoyed to have his daughter near him. 
Hilda was working in the same building on the same floor where Che and Aleida did, and she often found time to visit her ex-husband - that really annoyed Aleida who was very jealous of everyone from Che's past. There was a constant tension between the three of them and Che couldn't handle the situation between his ex and present wives.

On 12th June Che set out on a long trip round Europe, Asia and Africa to negotiate commercial, technical and cultural agreements. He gave press conferences at every stop and he was constantly photographed.
He visited Madrid (where he saw a bullring and a flamenco show), Cairo, Gaza, Damascus, the Suez Canal, Alexandria, Port Said, then New Delhi (where he met Prime Minister Nehru whom he admired; he also did sightseeing there and in Calcutta, then he visited Taj Mahal, also taking a lot of photos).
In New Delhi he met the popular radio commentator José Pardo-Llada (it was Fidel Castro's idea that he would join the delegation) - they disliked each other from the first moment and Pardo-Llada kept spreading nasty tales about Che. He said that Che wrote a pornographic letter to Aleida (he read the letter that was forgotten on the desk  and that contained a description of sexual act - quite normal between couples).
Then he flew to Burma, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. (He used up four rolls of film to take photos of the devastation of Hiroshima. Every member of the Cuban delegation was given a pearl necklace for their wives - Che went to the Mikimoto Store (where the most famous Japanese pearls are sold) in Tokyo and he bought an identical pearl necklace to Hilda - to maintain the fragile peace between the two women).
On 31st July he arrived at Djakarta, then he visited Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Pakistan, Belgrade (Yugoslavia), Rome, Madrid, Seville and Casablanca and he took a flight for home in Madrid.

He arrived back in Cuba on 8th September and within a short period of time he was appointed head of the department for industrialisation of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform. (Besides working, he found time to write books: he was working on the book titled Guerrilla Warfare and The Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, a summary about the revolution, based on his diaries.)

On 21st October Huber Matos, Rebel Army Comandante was arrested for counter-revolutionary activities by Camilo Cienfuegos. Five days later the National Revolutionary Militias were created to fight against the threat of counter-revolution. Che would be a key player in the development of the militias.
On 28th October Camilo's aeroplane disappeared over the sea on his return flight from Camagüey to Havana. In spite of the intensive searching for days (Che even spent many hours flying with his Cessna over the area) , no trace of the plane or of him was found. Che lost his best friend.

In November Che became the president of the National Bank of Cuba, with total responsibility for the country's finances. He converted Cuba's gold and dollar reserves (held in Fort Knox, USA) into foreign currencies and transferred them to Swiss and Canadian banks - this way he saved a significant amount of money from the later expropriation of all Cuban assets in the USA. Next month he started to learn higher mathematics and he asked Professor Salvador Vilaseca to teach him from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. every day. (The lessons went on for three years.) After they finished studying, Che started his working day.

On 28th December he was given the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in pedagogy at the Central University of Las Villas. He made a speech in which he talked about racial and social integration - that the universities "must paint itself black, mulatto, but not just the students, but the tutors as well; they must paint themselves worker and peasant and the colour of the people, because the university is not the property of anyone and it belongs to the Cuban people."