El cuaderno verde del CHE
Paco Ignacio Taibo II

​Hours before his assassination, four people, including a CIA agent, looked through Ernesto "Che" Guevara's belongings in which amongst other items they found a green notebook, according to Paco Ignacio Taibo II, author of El cuaderno verde del CHE. After Guevara's assassination, his belongings passed through several owners and the whereabouts of the green notebook were unknown. It was until 2002, when an old friend and trusted source of Paco provided him with photocopies of the mysterious green notebook and its contents. After careful examination, Paco was able to authenticate the handwriting and discover that the green notebook was actually a collection of sixty-nine poems from prominent Latino poets, selected, copied and hand written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara himself. Paco identified Pablo Neruda, César Vallejo, Nicolas Guillén and León Felipe as the authors of the sixty-nine poems. Paco describes Guevaras personal relationship with these poets and with poetry itself. 

Some of the interesting recurring topics in the poems selected and handwritten by Guevara in his green notebook are love, death, war, and injustice (including injustice towards people of African descent). El cuaderno verde del CHE is a fascinating read, especially for those interested in Ernesto "Che" Guevara, poetry, or are just curious and would like to read all sixty-nine poems and contemplate as to why he would specifically choose to copy and write each one of them into his green notebook. Maybe through each selected poem we can learn a little more about Guevara himself. 

Francisco Ignacio Taibo Mahojo, better known as Paco Ignacio Taibo II is a writer, historian, reporter and activist. He has received numerous prestigious awards including, Premio Nacional de Historia INAH, Medalla de acero al Mérito Histórico Capitán Alonso de Leon and Premio Bancarella in Italy. 
 
El cuaderno verde del CHE is a publication by Editorial Seix Barral and can be purchase through Amazon. Click here to purchase. 

Reviewed by
Alan Gerardo Padilla
8/7/2017

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