Hilda Gadea

Writing

1925-03-21 · Lima, Peru

Hilda Gadea Acosta (21 March 1925 – 11 February 1974) was a Peruvian economist, and author. She was the first wife of communist revolutionary Che Guevara. Gadea Acosta was Secretary of the Economy of the Executive National Committee for Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance). Her activities in Peru led to her exile in 1948. She met Guevara in Guatemala in December 1953. Gadea and Guevara moved to Mexico due to political pressure. She introduced Guevara to several Cuban rebels. They wed in Mexico in September 1955, after learning she was pregnant. They had a daughter named Hilda Beatriz 'Hildita' Guevara Gadea in February 1956, who died of cancer in 1995. The marriage ended in a divorce in May 1959. Following the Cuban Revolution, in which Guevara fought, Gadea came to Cuba, confronted with the announcement by Guevara that he had fallen in love with another woman, Aleida March, and requested a divorce. Gadea remained loyal to Guevara's movement; she died in Havana in 1974. She wrote the memoir 'My Life with Che', which is being adapted to film, starring Adriana Paz as Gadea.