Casa del Che Cultural Center

Inside are exhibition halls, an art studio, rooms for lectures and screenings, and a chess room. Among them are the restored office and bedroom; beside them is a display of personal belongings. After the building was closed, it was first turned into a house museum, then the rooms were used by instructors in geodesy and cartography at an artillery school. The current cultural center opened after restoration.

This house was built in the middle of the nineteenth century as the residence and office of the commander of San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress. Its last owner under the overthrown Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was General Roberto Fernández Miranda, who commanded the local garrison. On December thirty-first, nineteen fifty-eight, he fled the island. The house stood empty, as did his post.

Three days later, a new commander entered the house. Ernesto Che Guevara—an Argentine doctor who became commander of the eighth column of the Rebel Army—received an order from Fidel Castro to take San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress. The leader of the victorious rebels needed to take over the main Havana garrisons as quickly as possible. Guevara arrived after the fighting for Santa Clara and settled in his predecessor's official residence. Thus one commander's surname disappeared from the door, while the other's nickname eventually became the building's name.

There was almost no family life here. Part of Guevara's column was quartered with him. He received visitors, held meetings, and handled cases; rest came between working hours. The distinction still matters today: inside San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress there is a separate Comandancia del Che, whereas this was his first Havana residence, connected to an office under the old layout of the fortress commander's house.

He did not stay here long. Guevara had suffered from severe asthma since childhood, but during the campaigns and after the victory he treated his own health more harshly than a doctor would advise a patient to. In January nineteen fifty-nine, a severe attack forced him to take to bed. For recovery, he was taken to the seaside settlement of Tarará, where he continued to deal with papers and hold meetings, sometimes without getting out of bed. By the end of March, the house by San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress had definitively ceased to be his residence.

After Guevara's departure, the building was closed. In nineteen seventy, it was turned into a house museum; later, the rooms were used by instructors in geodesy and cartography at an artillery school. After restoration in two thousand six, the house reopened as a cultural center, with exhibition halls, an art studio, rooms for lectures and screenings, a chess room, and a display of personal belongings.

The restored office and bedroom stand side by side. One explains why Che was housed here in the first place; the other, why his first house in Havana remained Che's house for only a few weeks.