City of revolution
Among a host of Che Guevara memorials, Santa Clara - the main city of central Cuba - features two statues: one is huge and heroic, perched high on a tall stone plinth; the other is life-sized, imaginative and humane, standing unfenced on public steps, freely touchable. Each seems to depict a distinctly different person. The big one, brandishing an automatic rifle, is the man of war and revolutionary fervour, the hero who strode the world stage; the small one, carrying a little boy, is the kind father, the good doctor, the children's friend.
Only one aspect is the same: both Guevaras are dressed in combat gear. Like his comrade-in-arms, Fidel Castro, Guevara always wore olive fatigues in public. The practice began when they became guerillas in the Sierra Maestra mountains of far eastern Cuba, kicking off the armed struggle against the Batista regime in 1956.
When the crunch came in late 1958, it was Guevara who led the decisive campaign, a daring thrust into central Cuba to capture the strategic city of Santa Clara. Against overwhelming odds, Guevara and his guerillas succeeded, so much so that Batista fled the country the next day.
The crucial event was the capture of a trainload of troop reinforcements and ammunition. Guevara's men fought their way to the railway line and ripped up the track, derailing the train, seizing the spoils and smashing Batista's plan to halt the rebel advance on Havana. At the spot, now a calm suburban level crossing, stands a museum dedicated to the event. Beside the track - Cuba's west-east mainline - a zigzag of brown goods wagons artfully resembles a derailment. Steps lead to open sliding doors and inside is the story of the Battle of Santa Clara.
Around the world, Guevera's name went out on the wire services - in full: Dr Ernesto 'Che' Guevara - and he's never looked back. His dying in Bolivia in 1967 in a futile guerilla campaign only sent the legend into overdrive; he became a worldwide youth hero and poster pin-up, and nowhere more so than in Cuba. There he is El Che, the great exemplar of revolutionary courage and determination, the official No 1 hero. And Santa Clara is his city, officially dubbed La Ciudad del Che.
Despite being an Argentine and a qualified doctor, Guevara gave his life to the Cuban revolution. Santa Clara is where the Cuban regime chose to commemorate him. The city is roughly in the centre of this long crocodile of a country and it makes a good national meeting point - Pope John Paul II gave a multitudinous mass here in 1998. But not, for obvious ideological reasons, in the place actually made for great gatherings: the Plaza de la Revolucion.