Unflappable Texas Teen Goes One-on-One with Iconic Cuban Revolutionary Che Guevara in Lead-up to Historic 1964 UN Address
December 10, 2024 — United Nations Headquarters, New York City
With unusual solidarity, journalists around the world today united in totally missing the sixtieth anniversary of a rare event involving Houston then-teenager Ethan Hirsh and the infamous Che Guevara, ruthless henchman of Fidel Castro. Guevara was in New York to deliver a blistering speech to the United Nations General Assembly while Hirsh was on a brief visit to the UN headquarters building before driving back to Texas.
Under the watchful eye of armed guards, the two came together in a private setting Hirsh describes as ‘intense cosmic synchronicity’. Their unscripted turn at body language diplomacy ended as clandestinely as it began. The guards exited, and the next day Guevara delivered his memorable one-hour-plus speech entitled Colonialism is Doomed. Hirsh modestly doubts Guevara altered his text because of their brief meeting, unobserved by Cuban and American authorities, but adds wistfully: “You never know, do you?â€
Hirsh did not realize until revisiting the events more than half a century later that December 11, 1964, the day of that speech, was one of the most colorful days in the history of the United Nations. Anti-communist protesters climbed a UN flagpole and removed the banner of the Soviet Union. A female Cuban exile was arrested trying to enter the building with a hunting knife intended for Guevara’s chest. The sound of a bazooka firing at the UN from across the East River could be heard inside the General Assembly as Guevara spoke without missing a beat. Demonstrators outraged by his masquerading as a respectable diplomat berated him as he exited his limousine at another engagement later that afternoon.
Guevara’s response to all the fuss was typical, as noted in the Hirsh non-fiction memoir published in 2024 [Editor’s note > Hirsh’s My Search for Jazzbo Jones is now available in paper, hardcover, Kindle and audiobook.]:
El Che himself found all the acts of the opposition circus amusing. The explosion, he said, gave his visit to the UN ‘more flavor’. Informed about the would-be assassin named Molly, he quipped, “It is better to be killed by a woman with a knife than by a man with a gun.â€
Two years and 10 months later, October 9, 1967, Che’s corpse was on display in the laundry room of a rural hospital in Bolivia’s Andes where his attempt to foment a Cuba-like rebellion came to a gruesome end. For the full story of the Hirsh/Guevara tête-à -tête and its bizarre aftermath, read Chapter Eight of My Search for Jazzbo Jones: A Real-life Memoir Adventure, entitled Cheek to Cheek with Che. You won’t find it anywhere else.
