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Che, Revolutionary or Saint?
Revered by some and hated by others, 40 years later he is remembered by those who knew him and those who weren’t even alive yet, when he was killed, but wear his face on a t-shirt, and think revolutionary…saint… hope.
October 9, 1967, Che Guevara, was captured in a jungle near the town of La Higuera, Bolivia, after 11 months of trying to raise the consciousness and arms of the Bolivians in an effort to bring social justice in Latin America.
Reportedly an atheist, he is now revered like a saint, pictures of him on people’s homes, Museums, T-shirts and Statues all over the world, even in Tattoos.
Although when captured he told his captors that he would be worth more alive that dead, he may have been wrong. He was executed the following day and in Bolivia for example, the people there have turned the hospital where they displayed his body, a tourist destination. In an effort to help the area out of it’s poverty, the international aid agency CARE, back in 2004 distributed $300,000 to promote what it calls Che Tourism. Maybe in death he has been able to achieve some of what he was not able to when he was alive. He still to this day is a symbol of hope for those less fortunate.
Others consider him, “the Osama Bin Laden of his time”, and remember him as a ruthless taskmaster. “It was Guevara who oversaw the military tribunals and subsequent firing squad executions of hundreds of people — military, police and other officials of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.”
Forty years later he will be honored in Cuba with a ceremony at his tomb, and with a Chess Tournament of 1500 people,Che’s favorite game. In Bolivia there will be a gathering at La Higuera, where he died. In Venezuela a music and art festival, and in Mexico, his portrait is being painted in Mexico City’s Subway. In Argentina a new Che statue is being erected.
It’s hard to figure out what he inspires in the young people today, whether it’s rebellion, fighting authority, honor, hatred ,social justice, or hope.
Peter Bourne in his biography of Fidel Castro may have put it best: “El Che, a revolutionary purist, and romantic, thought that being morally correct was, ultimately more important than victory.” For all those sporting his image now a days, are his beliefs even remotely relevant to their lives, or is it all just nostalgia.
on October 7th, 2007 at 5:12 am
I don’t think many kids today even know who he was. It’s just cool for rich, white kids to wear the T-shirt. If they do know anything about him, it’s what the revisionist historians WANT them to know. They don’t believe that he was the murderous bastard that he was.
BTW, if you haven’t done so, check out Che-Mart.