Meaning

Guevara is identifying empathy as the core moral quality of a person committed to justice. He argues that a revolutionary must be capable of genuine feeling, of being moved by the suffering of strangers in distant places, not just by the injustices that affect them personally. Without that emotional and moral attunement, political struggle risks becoming merely mechanical or self-interested.

Context

This comes from a letter Guevara wrote to his children in 1965, a remarkably personal document in which he tried to pass on his deepest values to his family. The fact that he chose empathy above tactical or ideological instructions says something significant about what he believed truly sustained a life in service of others. The letter was written at a moment when he was preparing to leave for new struggles abroad, uncertain whether he would survive.

About the author

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was born in Argentina in 1928 and became one of the most iconic revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. Trained as a physician, he became radicalized through travels across Latin America and went on to play a leading military role in the Cuban Revolution alongside Fidel Castro. After Cuba, he continued seeking to foment revolution in other countries. He was captured and executed in Bolivia in 1967. His image and ideas have remained deeply influential in political movements around the world, admired by some and sharply criticized by others.