The Captives of Che

About the Book

This story opens in January 1968 with a CIA interrogation in the headquarters of the Guatemala military police. Expelled from the country, the author begins returning north through family contact in Mexico City, work in Texas, and in-laws in Iowa for rejoining his wife in Alaska. She is introduced in retrospectives leading up to detailing the Guatemala episode. Together, they move on to become involved with radical groups in Canada. This journey describes ground level activist values arising in people conscious of the history they live within, yet people basically concerned with building humane personal lives.

Chapter Contents

1. Guatemala 1968 - The interrogator at the presidio; in-country itinerary; his last question.

2. Mexico Exit - An American Friend; The Assistant U.S. Consul; Mexico City and Granpa Mac.

3. Texas Regroup - Southeast Asia news; Texas A & M heavy equipment school; a Canadian connection; bulldozer work at Bowie, Texas; writing the wife.

4. Tama - Hitch-hiking to Iowa; amends with in-laws.

5. Beginning with Janet - New Year 1965; Fairbanks, Alaska; graduate sabbatical travel; San Francisco anti-war rally; driving cross-country; a young Purple Heart in Times Square; Icelandic Airlines; Luxembourg-Paris-Barcelona; winter on Ibiza; back to Janet and work in Alaska; the marriage; as teaching assistant at U of A, Fairbanks.

6. Connecting North - 1968, hitching from Tama; Loraine in L.A.; family and friends in British Columbia; a motorcycle return to Fairbanks.

7. Fairbanks - Re-entry; Community Action work; a campaign for Janet; a cabin on Chena Ridge; the send-off to Viet Nam at a bulldozer placer mine; the communal circle and Jimini the wolf; a view of winter and the end of 1968; an unasked answer; New Year, and Janet rejoined.

8. Splitting - Fall ´66/Spring ´67; on campus; Creamer´s cattle; ski trails; English Department differings, and Janet; impassed.

9. The Death of Che - On in ´67; Chena River flood; roadway repairing; new motorcycle south; wrecked in British Columbia; Aunt Dora in Vancouver, and the news of Che; the captives of Che; reconditioning, refocus and preparation for the Guatemala gambit by New Year´s Eve.

10. The Best Winter - Into 1969; Elma-the-cat and a peyote cactus; cabin life; rifles; Big Black Cat; some psychedelics; the family plan.

11. Interior Alaska - 1969 into Summer; hired in the Food Stamp Program, field work on the Yukon; another Leon in Viet Nam; Janet pregnant; ten acres on Gilmore Trail; Elma kittens by BBC; brother Bill visits from Iowa.

12. Looking International - Exploring our ten acres; oil strike at Prudhoe Bay; choosing Canada public health, immigrant status; our belongings and six cats in a ´57 Volvo wagon.

13. On The Road - A thousand miles of unpaved gravel; sorting the prior American year; BBC bids for freedom; camping by the highway; Vancouver.

14. Mexico South - How 1968 began; the education of Granpa Mac; comparing Granpa Alex; Mexican factions; a hostel in Mexico City; through the city, to the border with Guatemala.

15. Vancouver, Canada - Fall ´69/Spring ´70; getting into the city; BBC free; Alaska friends in Vancouver; getting work; LSD; birth, and death.

16. Kitsilano - Help and hire at Vancouver Social Service; householding in Kits.

17. Hearts and Minds - The Vancouver Liberation Front; the Weathermen turned-out.

18. Into Guatemala - Military presence; the cover, a rationale for being; the troubling escapade; Guatemala City by day; riding to the Caribbean; vigilante inspections; curfew in Zacapa.

19. Into the VLF - East Germany lists U.S. intelligence agents; VLF leadership, and an anarchist thinking bad thoughts; Janet in the feminist collective; constructive and other criticism; the noise and smoke of history.

About the Author

Art Leon was born and raised in Los Angeles until he left high school at sixteen to join the Marine Corps. Student again after his hitch, he went north in 1962 for summer work and became Alaska resident for almost twenty years. He is a 1965 University of Alaska graduate. He has variously worked in highway engineering, social work, adult basic education, and as both a bulldozer operator and computer operator. He has variously traveled, from Pacific service including Borneo to a winter on Mediterranean Ibiza, from expulsion out of Guatemala to two years living in Canada. He has been variously married and unmarried.