The legacy of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967) is constantly evolving in the collective imagination. As a symbol of counterculture worldwide, Guevara is one of the most recognizable and influential revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. However, during his life, and even more since his death, Che has elicited controversy and divergent opinions on his personal character and actions. He has been both revered and reviled, being characterized as everything from a heroic defender of the oppressed and poor, to an executioner and the "Butcher Of la Cabaña".
History Writings
Guevara's extensive written legacy includes intellectual writings on radical Marxist politics and social theory, military/guerrilla warfare strategy and tactics, diplomatic memos, books, speeches, magazine articles, letters, poetry and diaries, as well as official documents preserved in Cuban government archives. Che's practical and theoretical work had a profound political impact around the globe during the second half of the 20th century, especially in the developing world, where revolutionary organizing and anti-colonial struggles were inspired by his thought and example.Commandante Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928–1967) by The Mostly Water Collective As a consequence, his writings have been translated into hundreds of different languages.
Martyrdom
In 1967, while pictures of Guevara's dead body were being circulated and the circumstances of his death debated, his legend began to spread. Demonstrations in protest against his execution occurred throughout the world, and articles, tributes, songs and poems were written about his life and death. Carlos Puebla: "Hasta Siempre, Comandante" Latin America specialists advising the U.S. State Department immediately recognized the significance in the demise of "the most glamorous and reportedly most successful revolutionary", noting that Guevara would be eulogized by communists and other leftists as a "model revolutionary who met a heroic death."U.S. Department of State: Guevara's Death, The Meaning for Latin America pg 6. October 12, 1967: Thomas Hughes, the Latin America specialist at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research providing an interpretive report for Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
British politician George Galloway has remarked that "one of the greatest mistakes the US state ever made was to create those pictures of Che's corpse. Its Christ-like poise in death ensured that his appeal would reach way beyond the turbulent university campus and into the hearts of the faithful, flocking to the worldly, fiery sermons of the liberation theologists."George Galloway "Should Che be an icon? Yes", The Independent, October 6, 2007 The Economist magazine has also pointed out how Che's post death photos resemble Andrea Mantegna's The Lamentation over the Dead Christ. Thus fixing Guevara as a modern saint, the man who risked his life twice in countries that were not his own before giving it in a third, and whose invocation of the "new man", driven by moral rather than material incentives, smacked of Saint Ignatius of Loyola more than Marx.Che Guevara: Modern Saint and Sinner" by The Economist, Oct 11, 2007
This rung true the following year in 1968 when among Italy's emerging new breed of Catholic militants, named the Jacques Maritain Circle, arranged a memorial Mass in Che's honor and Catholic services were held for him in several other countries. In addition, in Brazil, mythmakers began to circulate thousands of photograph copies of a dead Che captioned "A Saint of Our Time". Italian students took up a similar tone and christened Guevara an angela della pace—"angel of peace."The Cult of Che by Time, May 17, 1968 Regardless of Che's non-sanctifying failures and contradictions, the potency of his "messianic image", with its "symbolic" and "religious quality", continues to inspire many throughout the world.
Political symbol
Guevara, who has been variously described as "the rock-hero biker revolutionary", "the martyr to idealism", and "James Dean in fatigues"; became a potent secular symbol of rebellion and revolution during the May 1968 protests in France. In the view of The Guardian'''s Gary Younge, "(Che's) journey from middle-class comfort to working-class champion and his long-haired unkempt look, mirrored the aspirations and self-image of the Woodstock generation as they demonstrated against the Vietnam war."Che Family Album Presents New Image of Revolutionary by Gary Younge, The Guardian, July 24, 2004 For her part, the 1960s literary icon Susan Sontag spoke glowingly of the "inspiring beautiful legend" that was Guevara, comparing him Lord Byron, Emiliano Zapata, and José Martí.Viva Che!: The Strange Death and Life of Che Guevara, by Andrew Sinclair, 1968, re-released in 2006, Sutton publishing, , p. 124 Moreover, the slogan Che lives! began to appear on walls throughout the West,Just a Pretty Face ? by The Guardian, July 11, 2004 while Jean-Paul Sartre, a leading existentialist philosopher who knew Guevara personally, encouraged the adulation by describing him as "the most complete human being of our age."Michael Moynihan, "Neutering Sartre at Dagens Nyheter"
In addition, more radical left wing activists responded to Guevara's apparent indifference to rewards and glory, and concurred with Guevara's sanctioning of violence as a necessity to instill socialist ideals.Trento, Angelo. Castro and Cuba : From the revolution to the present. p.64. Arris books. 2005. Even in the United States, the government which Guevara so vigorously denounced, students began to emulate his style of dress, donning military fatigues, berets, and growing their hair and beards to show that they too were opponents of U.S. foreign policy.Ernesto "Che" Guevara (World Leaders Past & Present), by Douglas Kellner, 1989, Chelsea House Publishers (Library Binding edition), , p. 101 For instance, the Black Panthers began to style themselves "Che-type" while adopting his trademark black beret, while Arab guerrillas began to name combat operations in his honor.Che: A Myth Embalmed in a Matrix of Ignorance by Time Magazine October 12, 1970 Addressing the wide-ranging flexibility of his legacy, Trisha Ziff, director of the 2008 documentary Chevolution, has remarked that "Che Guevara's significance in modern times is less about the man and his specific history, and more about the ideals of creating a better society."Viva the Chevolution! by Trisha Ziff, The Huffington Post, April 21, 2008 In a similar vein, the Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman has suggested Guevara's enduring appeal might be because "to those who will never follow in his footsteps, submerged as they are in a world of cynicism, self-interest and frantic consumption, nothing could be more vicariously gratifying than Che's disdain for material comfort and everyday desires."
Despite the occasional controversy, Guevara's status as a popular icon has continued throughout the world, leading commentators to speak of a global "cult of Che". Well known Bohemian writers extolled him, while West German playwright Peter Weiss has even compared him to "a Christ taken down from the Cross." A photograph of Guevara taken by photographer Alberto KordaChe Guevara Photographer Dies by BBC News, May 26, 2001 has become one of the century's most ubiquitous images, and the portrait, transformed into a monochrome graphic by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, is reproduced endlessly on a vast array of merchandise, such as T-shirts, posters, cigarettes, coffee mugs, and baseball caps. This fact led Argentine business analyst Martin Krauze to postulate that "the admiration for El Che no longer extends to his politics and ideology, it’s a romantic idea of one man going to battle against the windmills, he’s a Quixote."Che Guevara: An Image that Keeps the Spirit of Revolution Alive by the Socialist Worker, Issue 2005, June 17, 2006
On the 40th anniversary of Guevara's execution in Bolivia the compilation Che in Verse brought together a diverse collection of 135 poems and songs in tribute to Che Guevara.A Radiant Face Driven Mad with a Rifle: Che in Verse by The Latin American Review of Books Celebrated poets such as Pablo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg, Julio Cortázar, Nicolas Guillén, Derek Walcott, Al Purdy, Rafael Alberti, Ko Un, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko devoted the aforementioned works to, as the book states in its introduction, "celebrate the world's icon of rebellion".Intro to: Che in Verse, by Gavin O'Toole, Aflame Books, 2007, In September 2007, Guevara was voted "Argentina's greatest historical and political figure."Poems Guevara Lived and Died by, by Javier Espinoza, The Observer, September 9, 2007
Controversy In North America, Western Europe and many regions outside Latin America, the image has been likened to a global brand, long since shedding its ideological or political connotations. Conversely, the obsession with Guevara has also been dismissed by critics as merely "adolescent revolutionary romanticism."
American, Latin American and European writers, Jon Lee Anderson, Régis Debray, Jorge G. Castañeda and others contributed to demystify the image of Guevara via articles and extensive biographies, which detailed his life and legacy in less idealistic terms; and, in the case of Octavio Paz, was accompanied by a critical indictment of the Marxism espoused by many in the Latin American left. Political writer Paul Berman went further, asserting that the "modern-day cult of Che" obscures the work of dissidents and what he believes is a "tremendous social struggle" currently taking place in Cuba.The Cult of Che by Paul Berman, Slate magazine, September 2004 Author Christopher Hitchens, who was a socialist and a supporter of the Cuban revolution in the 1960s but later changed his views, summarised Guevara's legacy by surmising that "Che's iconic status was assured because he failed. His story was one of defeat and isolation, and that's why it is so seductive. Had he lived, the myth of Che would have long since died." Taking the opposing view, Richard Gott a Guardian journalist in Vallegrande, sent a dispatch on the day of Guevara's death stating the following:
British journalist Sean O’Hagan has described Che as "more (John) Lennon than (Vladimir) Lenin." Taking the opposite hypothesis, Mexican commentator and Che Biographer Jorge Castañeda Gutman has proclaimed that: "Che can be found just where he belongs in the niches reserved for cultural icons, for symbols of social uprisings that filter down deep into the soil of society."Che Guevara: An Image that Keeps the Spirit of Revolution Alive 2005 Issue of The Socialist Worker Castañeda has further stated that "Che still possesses an extraordinary relevance as a symbol of a time when people died heroically for what they believed in", adding that in his view "people don't do that anymore."Che Guevara: Revolutionary & Icon, by Trisha Ziff, Abrams Image, 2006, pg 76 The saying "Viva la revolucion!" has also become very popular and synonymous with Guevara.Discussion about Che Guevara, by CBC Radio One
Conceptions Cuba
Cuba has promoted Che as a "symbol of revolutionary virtues, sacrifice and internationalism" inside and outside the country since his death.Cuba Honours Comrade Che by BBC News, June 15, 2003 Guevara remains a "beloved national hero" in Cuba (almost a secular saint, to many on the Caribbean island),"Che Guevara Remains a Hero to Cubans", by People's Weekly World, October 2, 2004 where he is remembered for promoting unpaid voluntary work by working shirtless on building sites or hauling sacks of sugar. To this day, he appears on a Cuban banknote cutting sugar cane with a machete in the fields.Cuba remembers Che Guevara 40 years after his fall by Rosa Tania Valdes, Reuters, October 8, 2007