Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2855
Date of Award
6-2024
Degree Name
MA in History
Department/Program
History
College
College of Liberal Arts
Advisor
Andrea Onate-Madrazo
Advisor Department
History
Advisor College
College of Liberal Arts
Abstract
The following thesis describes the life and activities of Jorge Ricardo Masetti, an Argentinian journalist who was assigned to interview Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista. Masetti was responsible for broadcasting interviews with Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara to the rest of Latin America for the first time, allowing people to understand what was happening in Cuba through the words of the Revolution’s leaders. Masetti returned to Cuba to found the first international Latin American news agency, Prensa Latina, which still exists today. However, ideological factionalism within Prensa Latina drove Masetti to resign in 1961. Afterwards, he worked closely with Che Guevara to foment a guerrilla uprising in the pair’s home country of Argentina, forming a guerrilla army known as the Ejército Guerrillero del Pueblo (EGP). Using the experiences of revolutionaries abroad in places like Cuba and Algeria, the EGP faced several setbacks in their area of operations, the province of Salta, that ultimately led to the group’s demise before their operations had truly begun. Masetti, cornered by the Argentine Gendarmerie, disappeared into the jungle in 1964, never to be seen again. His life illuminates aspects of transnational ideology, namely socialism, and its mosaic nature. His life also reveals facets of the informational and journalistic endeavors in Latin America during the Cold War.