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Zoila Rodríguez García
2014.02.02. 16:11
Zoila Rodríguez García's confession (Ernesto Che Guevara's girlfriend in the Sierra Maestra)
She was 18 years old when she first met Che, in las Vegas de Jibacoa, in the Sierra Maestra; at about 4 o' clock in the afternoon. She was looking after the cattle when he arrived. He was riding a mule, while another compañero was riding a horse. He was wearing green clothes and a black cap.
After greeting the girl, Che asked if El Cabo lived there. It was the nickname of her father. When she said that she hadn't met him for a while, Che exclaimed: "What a nuisance!" When she asked what the problem was, Che said that he was looking for him to shoe his mule. She explained to him that there would be no problem because she could shoe the mule as her father had taught her how to do it.
She closed the cattle and started to shoe the mule; he didn't tell her that he was Comandante Ernesto Guevara. She didn't know him or who he was.
While she was working, she noticed that he was watching her "like young men watch girls" and she became nervous. When she finished, she offered coffee to him, and he said that he liked it bitter so she gave him bitter coffee.
He seemed to be interested in her, he asked her where she had learnt to shoe mules and if she was single or married - she told him she was single, though she had a daughter. When he left, he said: "Tell Cabo that Guevara was here".
She found him funny and extremely handsome, he really impressed her and she was really enchanted by his beautiful eyes and lovely, quiet smile that "could melt any female heart".
In the evening her father arrived home and she asked him who Guevara was. He replied that he was "an extraordinary man". She told him what happened that afternoon, then she asked him why Che was so extraordinary. He replied that Guevara came to help them to shake off misfortune, hunger, filth and misery.
Her father was a supporter of Fidel Castro and Celia Sánchez and he finished the revolutionary war with the rank First Lieutenant in the Rebel Army. He often visited the camp in Minas del Frío and one day he asked her if she wanted to complete a mission in Manzanillo; so she could work for the Rebel Army. On that mission she met Che again. He liked the way she did her job, so soon he gave her other missions to do.
One day she decided to stay in the camp in Minas del Frío, she helped in the kitchen and in the hospital, and she worked hard. Che told her that he admired her and the peasants for working so hard. They often talked because he wanted to know everything about the animals and the plants in the area. She fell in love with him deeply.
One day he asked her to bring a book with golden letters out of his rucksack. She asked if the letters were really made of gold, then Che laughed and told her that the book was about Communism. She asked what Communism was as she had never heard about it before.
One day she was with Che in his small house in Minas del Frío, when Batista's plane arrived and dropped a bomb that caused a huge damage in the house. However, Che remained totally calm and it really impressed her.
On a mission, when they were attacked, Guevara's mule, Armando and one of the guerrillas, Alberto Pesant died. Watching the man bleeding from deep wounds, she was crying: "Beto, don't die, don't die." but then Che told her: "Zoila, he is dead."
He wrote a letter to Pesant's mother and sent a message to his wife, who lived in Manzanillo. When standing at the grave, she saw Che's eyes were wet with tears. [...]
After the victory of the Revolution, she stayed in the Sierra Maestra and continued working on the fields and raising animals, then she got married. [...]
(From the book Che entre nosotros written by Adys Cupull and Froilán González)
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