Che's letter to Hilda Gadea (1958)

On January 28, Che wrote a letter to Hilda and had a trusted friend drop it in a mailbox in Santiago. This letter is our first written evidence of Che's estimation of the events in the two months after the Granma landing. He wrote:

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"Dear Old Woman!

"I am writing you these burning Martian1 lines from the Cuban manigua.2 I am alive and thirsting for blood. You might say that I'm really a soldier (at least I'm dirty and in tatters), for a mess-kit is serving as my writing desk, a gun is slung over my shoulder and a new possession-a cigar-stuck between my teeth. Things haven't been easy. You already know that after seven days on board the Granma where we were packed so snug you couldn't even breathe, we ended up by fault of our navigator in some fetid undergrowth, and our misfortune continued until we were attacked in the already notorious Alegr?a de P?o and had to scatter like pigeons. I was wounded in the neck and remain among the living only thanks to my cat's lives, for a bullet from a machine-gun found my cartridge case which was slung around my chest, and from there it ricochetted against my neck. I wandered in the hills for a few days, regarding myself seriously wounded, for besides my neck wound my chest ached badly. Of those you know only Jimmy Hertzel died, he surrendered and they killed him. I spent seven days with Almeida and Ramirito-you know them-fearfully hungry and thirsty, until we escaped from the encirclement and with the help of the peasants joined up with Fidel (they say that poor ?ico also died, though we're not yet sure of it). It took a good deal of effort to get organised again into a unit and arm ourselves once more. After that we attacked an army post, killed and wounded a few soldiers and took the others prisoner. We left the dead on the field of battle. A bit later we captured and disarmed another three soldiers. If you add to this that we haven't suffered a single loss and that in the mountains we feel very much at home, it becomes clear how demoralised their soldiers are. They'll never succeed in surrounding us. Of course the battle isn't over yet, we've still got a lot of fighting to go, but the scales are already tilted to our side and with every day more weight is added to our advantage.

"Now, about you, I'd like to know whether you are still at the same address, where I should write you, and how things are going, especially with our most tender petal of love. Hug her and kiss her as hard as her little bones will allow. I was in such a hurry that I left your photographs at Pancho's house. Send them to me. You can write me sending the letters to Uncle's address or to Patojo. There might be a delay, but I think the letters will arrive."

1 Martian-from Jos? Mart?, poet and fighter for Cuban independence (1850-1898).

2 Manigua-thickets of wild, prickly underbrush.