I did some searching on the Net and came up with stories ranging from a benevolent, brilliant, guerilla revolutionary of the People to a mass murdering pinko poster boy pansy. Who was he and why is it that people wear merchandise with his face on it without knowing who he really was?
Very short biographical summary first:
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Argentina in 1928. During a stay in Mexico in the 1950s, he met Cuban lawyer Fidel Castro, who had successlessly attempted to overthrow the US-supported Cuban dictator Batista in 1953. Guevara joined Castro’s revolutionary forces and in 1959, after some years of guerrilla fight, they succeeded in seizing power in Cuba. Guevara, now nicknamed “Che,” became a cabinet minister and head of the Cuban central bank, but wanted to “export the Revolution” to other Latin American countries and started a guerrilla war in Bolivia. This one was successless, he was arrested by government troups and shot in 1967.
Since this was the time when many young people in the Western world were protesting against capitalism and US policy in Vietnam, and Che was clearly anti-US and a marxist, he soon became an idol and a martyr to the youth, someone who sacrificed himself in the struggle for a better world. That photograph found on so many merchandise products certainly is one of the most often reproduced pictures in the world.
His achievements in literature mostly consist of his diaries and a guerrilla warfare manual.
Now what to think about the reputation he has?
stories ranging from a benevolent, brilliant, guerilla revolutionary of the People to a mass murdering pinko poster boy pansy
Was he benevolent? Not easy to say. Sure, he killed people, something that can hardly be avoided if you’re fighting a guerrilla war. But this was restricted to “enemy combatants,” soldiers fighting for Batista’s regime. Among the Cuban population, Castro’s group was very popular and they were provided with food and other necessary stuff by Cuban farmers, while recruiting volunteers for their army. Che certainly had a vision of creating a better and more just world; this vision was the communist one.
Was he brilliant? Maybe a good guerrilla strategist, but even close comrades said that he was a lousy politician and clueless in economic affairs.
Was he just a “pinko poster boy”? Hardly. Comrades describe him as someone who was capable of enduring extreme pain (he had been an asthmatic throughout his lifetime, which doesn’t make it easy to fight in tropical climate).
So all in all, Guevara was a visionary ready to fight for his ideals. Maybe he was a dreamer just as well, considering his visions of the New Man. But he’s certainly a fascinating person. Not that many of today’s people running around with his face on their t-shirts new about him.
It might be added that while Che today would find support among weekend radicals on the nation’s college campuses, the Bolivian peasants for whom he allegedly fought were hardly impressed. Despite his agitation and trumpeting of the New Communist Man, Che never claimed more than a token following and his death in Bolivia stirred little public sympathy.