Members of the Solidarity Committee congratulated Che Guevara’s daughter Arieda Guevara, economist and Che’s granddaughter Estefania Guevara, at Kondaj Basappa Hall in Bangalore on Thursday. | | Photo credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
Aleida Guevara, a pediatrician and daughter of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, said solidarity is the most needed and most beautiful human emotion in a world devastated by the pandemic.
She was speaking Thursday after being welcomed by many progressive organizations in the city. Her daughter, economist Estefania Guevara, was also congratulated.
“Solidarity comes from learning and understanding each other’s cultures. This helps us find a common purpose to fight for a better world,” she said. She, who has severely lifted economic sanctions imposed on Cuba by the United States and has even refused to sell medicines, said Cuba does not have the syringes to provide the people with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Talking with Kerala
“We have appealed to Cuban solidarity around the world and have been flooded with help. Now we have developed an intranasal vaccine that does not require a syringe,” she said. Cuba is in talks with the state of Kerala to develop Ayurvedic medicine as an alternative to allopathic medicine, which was in short supply in Cuba, she said. She added that many of the plants grown in Kerala can easily be grown in Cuba.
Dr. Aleida corrected some anecdotes about Che Guevara told at the event. “When I attended a conference at a university in Spain, I saw a passage about revolution written on the bathroom wall and appreciated it at the event. We need to be aware of all kinds of misinformation, which is one of the biggest problems plaguing the world today,” she said.
“Best Romantic”
Correcting a previous speaker who said that Che Guevara often described herself as a “rebel who could not be a poet,” Dr. Aleida said that contrary to popular belief, her father was a poet. “But he was so critical of his poems that he never read or published them in public. But he read them to my mother at night.” She described her father as a “great romantic”.
