Che Guevera and Ireland —
by Mireya Castañeda, Granma International staff writer
Two islands, Ireland and Cuba, document a virtually unknown part of Che Guevara's history.
FEW people are aware that Ernesto Che Guevara was in Dublin in 1964. The landmarks of that year are his speech at the United Nations in New York and his journey to Algiers for the Tricontinental Conference.
When Adys Cupull and Froilán González, Cuban researchers on Che, included a letter written by him to his father in their book Un hombre bravo (A Brave Man), some people questioned it.
The brief letter, dated December 18, 1964, reads:
Dear Dad:
With the anchor dropped and the boat at a standstill, I am in this green Ireland of your ancestors. When they found out, the [Irish] television came to ask me about the Lynch genealogy, but in case they were horse thieves or something like that I didn't say much.
Happy holidays, We're waiting for you
Ernesto
FROM IRELAND AT ANOTHER TIME
Bernie Dwyer is an Irish philosophy graduate interested in women's issues and clearly a woman of her time. Thus it came as no surprise when she informed this weekly that she has always closely followed the Cuban Revolution.
In 1988 she traveled to Havana on a solidarity brigade and, impressed by what she saw, became an active member of the solidarity movement with this other island.
She took part in European solidarity conferences (in 1990 and 1992) and the 1st World Solidarity Conference (1994) where, as part of the Irish delegation, she met with President Fidel Castro.
"I had a speech prepared on the two islands and imperialism," she recalls, "but when I came face to face with him I don't remember having said anything, it was Fidel himself who saw to it that we had a photo taken together." (It now hangs framed on a wall in the room where we talked here in Havana.)
Thanks to Bernie Dwyer's solidarity, various Irish films were screened in the 1996 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, also attended by director Jim Sheridan, who presented his film In the Name of the Father (and who we interviewed for this weekly).
Dwyer returned to Cuba in 1998 with a Pastors for Peace Friend-shipment, and the following year at the invitation of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).
That was how she arrived at the home of Adys Cupull and Froilán González in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, where they are involved in an interesting community project and, moreover, have a Che Guevara study group.
MEANWHILE, IN CUBA
Roberto Ruiz has always being attracted to "making" television, even in his native Guantánamo (Cuba's easternmost province) where, only at the end of the '80s, the Solvisión studios were inaugurated. Ruiz immediately worked as director of programs there and started to film documentaries, his central interest.
As a director, he has also worked in other provinces: HolguÃn, Camagüey, the Isle of Youth and City of Havana (CHTV).
He was asked to interpret for Bernie Dwyer when she was invited to appear on a TV program, and agreed. Later he accompanied her to the home of Adys and Froilán.
Talking with an Irish woman and a documentary maker triggered Froilán's imagination, and he mentioned to them the letter from Che referring to his stopover in Dublin and the Irish stock of the Lynches.
CHE AND THE IRISH LEGACY
Dwyer recounted to this weekly how she and Ruiz were fired with the enthusiasm of these two academics, who have spent years researching the life and work of Comandante Che Guevara.
"On that same visit," she said, "I was able to talk to Aleida March, Che's widow and the executor of all his papers. She only recalled a stopover in Shannon on his journey from New York to Algeria."
Nevertheless, with the letter to his "Dear Dad" on her mind, on returning to Ireland Dwyer began her own investigations and, in Dublin's National Library, found three newspapers, The Evening Press, The Irish Independent and the The Irish Times, dated December 19, 1964, all of which covered Che's presence in Dublin.
Naturally, Che Guevara's presence wasn't passed over by the Irish press. During the 60 minutes that the then minister of industry, age 36, spent in Dublin airport, he gave several interviews, among them one for the nascent Irish television, and spoke of the Lynches, his Irish ancestors.
It's funny the way things happen. Bad weather that day prevented the stopover in Shannon and the aircraft landed in Dublin.
In addition to the photocopies of those dailies, Dwyer discovered one and a half minutes of TV footage. But this researcher went further.
In one of the photos in the press, Comandante Guevara appears with an Aer Lingus stewardess, Felima Archer, the improvised interpreter. Dwyer met with the stewardess, who still has the original photo.
"After 35 years, she still remembers Che's eyes, his look, and that he was very relaxed, calm and happy."
With all her precious historical material, Dwyer returned to Havana and, for her and Ruiz, the idea of a documentary was not far from their thoughts.
Thus they began to prepare Che, legado irlandés (Che, the Irish Legacy). "We didn't want an experimental documentary, as the important thing for us was the content," Ruiz explained, "so we decided on a simple structure. It's a 10-minute documentary in which we tell this unknown story of Che in Dublin."
The documentary covers the research, the documents they had recovered, photos of the family, interviews with Cupull and González and the Irish television footage, all with a soundtrack of Irish music.
They explained that they also included pictures of Irish patriots, as Che's father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, mentioned at times that Che "had rebel Irish blood."
HIS IRISH ANCESTORS
In Havana, Dwyer met with Ana MarÃa Erra, the widow of Che's father, who showed her a letter dated 1929, signed by Augusta Lynch and inquiring about his family's Irish history.
Dwyer's research into archives in Dublin confirmed that the Lynch family originated in County Galway and, with a complete genealogical tree, she, Ruiz and Rosa Tanya of CHTV have made a second, five-minute documentary, Las raices de un mito (The Roots of a Myth).
Patrick Lynch, founder of the Argentine branch of the Lynches, was born in Ireland in 1715. He left for Bilbao, Spain, and traveled from there to Argentina. Francisco Lynch (Che's great-grandfather) was born in 1817, and Ana Lynch (his grandmother) in 1861. Her son Ernesto Guevara Lynch (Che's father) was born in 1900, married Celia de la Serna and had five children. Ernesto was born in 1927.
LOVER OF HUMANITY
Dwyer and Ruiz have more ambitious plans. They know firsthand the passion of researching a life like that of Ernesto Guevara and have put together a project which is to take them to Ireland, Argentina and Bolivia.
"We want to show the beautiful facet of Che, the family man, poet, philosopher, athlete and lover of humanity," they say.
It was solidarity, which Che preached by his example, that made it possible for the unknown story of his stay in Dublin to come to light, as well as the documentation of his Irish ancestry.
And, finally, Ernesto Che Guevara is "at anchor" on another island, Cuba, which he chose as his mother country for its ideals, and where another part of his genealogy began.
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