I have a friend who was kind enough to send me some coins and notes after a trip to Cuba. To date, I only had one or two of the country’s coins, so I was very excited to go through them. I’ve also never seen any bills from Cuba so I spent a little more time looking at those. Of the ones I received, the one that stuck out to me the most was the 3 Peso bill with Ernesto (Che) Guevara’s face on it. It reminded me not only of Cuba’s rich history, but of a personal experience I had in Little Havanna, Miami.

For better or worse, Che Guevara had an incredible impact on the transformation of Cuba. He initially joined with Fidel Castro to overthrow the Batista dictatorship. Their first attack was unsuccessful and forced the remaining rebels into hiding. Eventually, Fidel and Che regrouped and overthrew the Cuban Government and began to lead the country.

Che and Fidel did not always get along and the Cubans often relied on Fidel’s political deftness to counter Che’s approach. While Che excelled in guerrilla warfare and fought for the people, he was known for his ruthlessness to both the enemy and his own people.

Under Che’s leadership, rebels who deserted were treated as traitors and sometimes even tracked down and punished. Enemies, both military and political, were summarily executed.

Che made many changes to their economy as well. He emplaced minimum quotas on goods and those who failed to meet them were given pay cuts. Those who met or exceeded them were given certificates instead of raises.

One of the signature ways he demonstrated his disdain for money and the divided economic classes was how he signed the Cuban paper money. Instead of carefully writing out his full name as previous bank presidents had, he simply scribbled “Che” and had them printed onto the bills.

Ultimately, Che’s efforts were deemed failures and the Cuban economy began to collapse. Che disappeared from the Cuba altogether. Rumors spread regarding a rift between Che and Fidel and they were enflamed by Fidel publicly stating Che renounced his Cuban citizenship through a letter.

After traveling around the world, Che focused efforts in Africa where he attempted an armed revolution in the Congo. Disheartened by the lack of progress in the Congo, Che turned his efforts towards Bolivia.

It seems that Che’s only successful revolution would be Cuba as he was unsuccessful in Bolivia as well. I believe his lack of success had several factors: he did not get along well with the locals, he lost the support from Cuba, and the US Army Rangers had been assisting the Bolivian Government with defeating the guerrillas.

Felix had an influential role in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, where he snuck into Cuba and gathered intelligence prior to the attack. He was recruited by the CIA to hunt down Che Guevara. Felix later became a US Citizen and enlisted in the US Army. He served heroically in Vietnam. As a helicopter pilot, he was shot down five times but managed to make it out alive each time. He was awarded the Intelligence Star for Valor by the CIA as well as 9 Crosses for Gallantry by the South Vietnamese government.

In 2006, I had the pleasure of meeting Felix Rodriguez, during an academic trip to Miami. We spent half the day with him, listening to his stories regarding Che Guevara, Cuba, and Vietnam. We had an amazing time and he was kind enough to sign and give me one of his books Shadow Warrior. It is certainly a memory I will always cherish.