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 wildly 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 poor
, to a cold-hearted
executioner
.
History
[
edit
]
Writings
[
edit
]
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.
[1]
As a consequence, his writings have been translated into hundreds of different languages.
Martyrdom
[
edit
]
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.
[2]
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."
[3]
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
."
[4]
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
.
[5]
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".
[6]
Italian students took up a similar tone and christened Guevara an
angela della pace
?"angel of peace."
[6]
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.
[7]
Political symbol
[
edit
]
Guevara, who has been variously described as "the rock-hero biker revolutionary", "the martyr to idealism", and "
James Dean
in fatigues";
[7]
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."
[8]
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
Jose Marti
.
[9]
Moreover, the slogan
Che lives!
began to appear on walls throughout
the West
,
[10]
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."
[11]
"That he was shot after capture demonstrates the fear that the Bolivian authorities felt even of an imprisoned Che. They were afraid to bring to him to trial: afraid of the echoes his voice would have aroused from the courtroom: afraid to prove that the man they hated was loved by the world outside. This fear will help to perpetuate his legend, and a legend is impervious to bullets."
?
Graham Greene
, 1960s playwright
[12]
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.
[13]
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.
[14]
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.
[15]
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."
[16]
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."
[17]
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."
[15]
A
photograph of Guevara
taken by photographer
Alberto Korda
[18]
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
."
[19]
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.
[20]
Celebrated poets such as
Pablo Neruda
,
Allen Ginsberg
,
Julio Cortazar
,
Nicolas Guillen
,
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
".
[21]
In September 2007, Guevara was voted "
Argentina
's greatest historical and political figure."
[22]
"Che Guevara - hero of the
Cuban Revolution
, left-wing icon and the face that has sold more posters than anyone else in history. Remembered as a romantic
freedom fighter
, an expert in
guerrilla warfare
, and a thoughtful philosopher who died young for his cause, Guevara has always been the revolutionaries' revolutionary. Stylish, vehemently anti-American and considerably better looking than
Lenin
,
Trotsky
and
Stalin
, he practically invented the image of the bearded, beret-wearing left-wing radical, as adopted by thousands during the 1960s and 70s."
?
BBC News
,
[17]
Controversy
[
edit
]
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."
[10]
American, Latin American and European writers,
Jon Lee Anderson
,
Regis Debray
,
Jorge G. Castaneda
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.
[23]
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."
[10]
Taking the opposing view,
Richard Gott
a
Guardian
journalist in
Vallegrande
, sent a dispatch on the day of Guevara's death stating the following:
It was difficult to recall that this man had once been one of the great figures of Latin America. It was not just that he was a great guerrilla leader; he had been a friend of Presidents as well as revolutionaries. His voice had been heard and appreciated in inter-American councils as well as in the jungle. He was a doctor, an amateur economist, once Minister of Industries in revolutionary Cuba, and
Castro
's right-hand man. He may well go down in history as the greatest continental figure since
Bolivar
. Legends will be created around his name.
[24]
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 Castaneda 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."
[25]
Castaneda 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."
[26]
The saying "Viva la revolucion!" has also become very popular and synonymous with Guevara.
[27]
Conceptions
[
edit
]
Cuba
[
edit
]
Cuba has promoted Che as a "symbol of revolutionary virtues, sacrifice and internationalism" inside and outside the country since his death.
[28]
Guevara remains a "beloved national hero" in Cuba (almost a secular
saint
, to many on the Caribbean island),
[29]
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.
[30]
The Cuban state has continued to cultivate Guevara’s appreciation, constructing numerous statues and artworks in his honor throughout the land; adorning school rooms, workplaces, public buildings, billboards, and money with his image.
[31]
His visage is also on postage stamps and the 3-peso coin beneath the words
"Patria o Muerte"
(Homeland or Death).
[29]
Moreover, children across the country begin each school day with the chant "Pioneers for Communism, We will be like Che!"
[
citation needed
]
. The
University of Havana
also possesses an academic
concentration
in "Che."
[
citation needed
]
Guevara's mausoleum
in
Santa Clara
has also become a site of almost religious significance to many Cubans,
[10]
while the nation’s burgeoning
tourist industry
has benefited greatly from the ongoing international interest in Guevara's life. For example, some 205,832 people visited the mausoleum during 2004, of whom 127,597 were foreigners. However, Argentine
psychoanalyst
Pacho O'Donnell
regrets the formal rigidity of Che's state-crafted image, opining that "The Cubans have excluded everything about the younger Che that is not heroic, including that which is most deliciously human about him. Personal doubts, the sexual escapades, the moments when he and
(Alberto) Granado
were drunk, none of that fits with the immortal warrior they want to project."
[32]
Despite the formal adulation, Guevara's legacy is less pronounced on a national policy front. In Cuba, Guevara's death precipitated the abandonment of guerrilla warfare as an instrument of foreign policy, ushering in a
rapprochement
with the
Soviet Union
, and the reformation of the government along Soviet lines. When Cuban troops returned to Africa in the 1970s, it was as part of a large-scale military expedition, and support for insurrection movements in Latin America and the Caribbean became logistical and organizational rather than overt. Cuba also abandoned Guevara's plans for economic diversification and rapid industrialization which had ultimately proved to be impracticable in view of the country's incorporation into the
COMECON
system. As early as 1965, the Yugoslav communist journal
Borba
observed the many half-completed or empty factories in Cuba, a legacy of Guevara's short tenure as Minister of Industries, "standing like sad memories of the conflict between pretension and reality".
[33]
Cuban exiles
[
edit
]
Many
Cuban exiles
have spoken of Guevara in unfavorable terms, and he is remembered by some with the
epithet
"The Butcher of
la Cabana
", a reference to Guevara’s post-revolutionary role as "supreme prosecutor" over the
revolutionary tribunals
at the fortress. Similar disapproval has been shared by
Cuban-American
actor and director
Andy Garcia
, whose 2005 film,
The Lost City
, portrays what could be perceived by some, including Che, as the brutality of pre and post revolution
Cuba
.
[34]
In reference to such polarization, Cuban-American academic Uva de Aragon has hypothesized that "we'll still have to wait many years for history to deliver a definite judgement on Che, when the passions of both sides have passed."
[35]
Latin American left
[
edit
]
In Latin America, the perceived failures of the liberal reforms of the 1990s intensified ideological antagonism towards the United States,
[36]
[37]
leading to a resurgence in support for many of Guevara’s political beliefs: including
Pan-Americanism
, support for
popular movements
in the region, the
nationalization
of key industries and
centralization
of government.
[38]
In nearly every upsurge of revolutionary movements in Latin America over the last forty years, from
Argentina
to
Chile
, from
Nicaragua
to
El Salvador
, from
Guatemala
to
Mexico
and
Chiapas
, there are traces of "Guevarismo" ? sometimes clear, sometimes faint.
[39]
In the view of the
indigenous rights
activist
Rigoberta Menchu
, "In these present times, when for many, ethics and other profound moral values are seen to be so easily bought and sold, the example of Che Guevara takes on an even greater dimension."
[40]
In Nicaragua, the
Sandinistas
, a group with
ideological roots
in
Guevarism
were
re-elected to government
after 16 years. Supporters wore Guevara T-shirts during the 2006 victory celebrations.
[41]
Bolivian president
Evo Morales
has paid many tributes to Guevara including visiting his initial burial site in Bolivia to declare "Che Lives",
[42]
and installing a portrait of the Argentine made from local
coca
leaves in his presidential suite.
[43]
[44]
[45]
In 2006, Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez
who has referred to Guevara as an "infinite revolutionary"
[42]
and who has been known to address audiences in a Che Guevara T-shirt,
[46]
accompanied Fidel Castro on a tour of Guevara’s boyhood home in
Cordoba Argentina
, describing the experience as "a real honor." Awaiting crowds of thousands responded with calls of "We feel it! Guevara is right with us!"
[47]
Guevara’s daughter Aleida also transcribed an extensive interview with Chavez where he outlined his plans for "The New Latin America", releasing the interview in book form.
[48]
Guevara also remains a key inspirational figure to the Colombian guerrilla movement, the
FARC
,
[49]
and the Mexican
Zapatistas
led by
Subcomandante Marcos
.
[50]
[51]
In addition, the various "expressions of the popular will" that Che favored over ballot-box democracy ? neighborhood courts and the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution
? have found new expression in Venezuela and Bolivia.
[7]
Amongst the youth of Latin America, Guevara's memoir
The Motorcycle Diaries
has become a cult favorite with college students and young intellectuals.
[32]
This has allowed Guevara to emerge as "a romantic and tragic young adventurer, who has as much in common with
Jack Kerouac
or
James Dean
as with
Fidel Castro
."
[32]
Speaking on this phenomenon, biographer
Jon Lee Anderson
, has theorized that Che is "a figure who can constantly be examined and re-examined, to the younger, post-cold-war generation of Latin Americans, Che stands up as the perennial
Icarus
, a self-immolating figure who represents the romantic tragedy of youth. Their Che is not just a potent figure of protest, but the
idealistic
, questioning kid who exists in every society and every time."
[32]
Critics
[
edit
]
The U.S. State Department was advised that his death would come as a relief to non-leftist Latin Americans, who had feared possible insurgencies in their own countries.
[3]
Subsequent critical analysts have also shed light on aspects of cruelty in Guevara’s methods. Studies addressing problematic characteristics of Guevara's life have cited his unsympathetic treatment of his fellow fighters during various guerrilla campaigns, and his frequent humiliations of those deemed his intellectual inferiors.
[52]
Though much opposition to Guevara's methods has come from the
political right
, critical evaluation has also come from groups such as
anarchists
,
Trotskyists
, and
civil libertarians
, who consider Guevara an anti-working-class
Stalinist
, whose legacy was the creation of a more
bureaucratic
,
authoritarian
regime.
[53]
Detractors have also theorized that in much of Latin America, Che-inspired revolutions had the practical result of reinforcing brutal militarism for many years.
[54]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Commandante Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928?1967)
by
The Mostly Water Collective
- ^
Carlos Puebla:
"Hasta Siempre, Comandante"
- ^
a
b
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
.
- ^
George Galloway
"Should Che be an icon? Yes"
,
The Independent
, October 6, 2007
- ^
Che Guevara: Modern Saint and Sinner"
by
The Economist
, Oct 11, 2007
- ^
a
b
The Cult of Che
by Time, May 17, 1968
- ^
a
b
c
d
Still a Messiah?
by Isabel Hilton,
New Statesman
, October 4, 2007
- ^
Che Family Album Presents New Image of Revolutionary
by
Gary Younge
,
The Guardian
, July 24, 2004
- ^
Viva Che!: The Strange Death and Life of Che Guevara
, by Andrew Sinclair, 1968, re-released in 2006, Sutton publishing,
ISBN
0750943106
, p. 124
- ^
a
b
c
d
Just a Pretty Face ?
by
The Guardian
, July 11, 2004
- ^
Michael Moynihan, "Neutering Sartre at Dagens Nyheter"
- ^
Viva Che!: The Strange Death and Life of Che Guevara
, by Andrew Sinclair, 1968, re-released in 2006, Sutton publishing,
ISBN
0750943106
, p. 82
- ^
Trento, Angelo.
Castro and Cuba : From the revolution to the present
. p.64. Arris books. 2005.
- ^
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (World Leaders Past & Present)
, by
Douglas Kellner
, 1989, Chelsea House Publishers (Library Binding edition),
ISBN
1555468357
, p. 101
- ^
a
b
Che: A Myth Embalmed in a Matrix of Ignorance
by
Time Magazine
October 12, 1970
- ^
Viva the Chevolution!
by Trisha Ziff,
The Huffington Post
, April 21, 2008
- ^
a
b
Comrade Che Keeps an Eye on British Workers
by Owen Booth,
BBC News
, October 24, 2002
- ^
Che Guevara Photographer Dies
by
BBC News
, May 26, 2001
- ^
Che Guevara: An Image that Keeps the Spirit of Revolution Alive
by the
Socialist Worker
, Issue 2005, June 17, 2006
- ^
A Radiant Face Driven Mad with a Rifle: Che in Verse
by
The Latin American Review of Books
Archived
November 8, 2007, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Intro to: Che in Verse, by Gavin O'Toole, Aflame Books, 2007,
ISBN
0-9552339-5-X
- ^
Poems Guevara Lived and Died by
, by Javier Espinoza,
The Observer
, September 9, 2007
- ^
The Cult of Che
by
Paul Berman
,
Slate magazine
, September 2004
- ^
The Final Triumph of Saint Che
The Guardian
, September 23, 2007. Retrieved: 12 October 2011.
- ^
Che Guevara: An Image that Keeps the Spirit of Revolution Alive
2005 Issue of The
Socialist Worker
- ^
Che Guevara: Revolutionary & Icon
, by Trisha Ziff, Abrams Image, 2006, pg 76
- ^
Discussion about Che Guevara
, by CBC Radio One
- ^
Cuba Honours Comrade Che
by
BBC News
, June 15, 2003
- ^
a
b
"Che Guevara Remains a Hero to Cubans", by
People's Weekly World
, October 2, 2004
- ^
Cuba remembers Che Guevara 40 years after his fall
Archived
2008-02-13 at the
Wayback Machine
by Rosa Tania Valdes,
Reuters
, October 8, 2007
- ^
Cuba's Face
, by Stanford University Germanic Collections
- ^
a
b
c
d
Letter from the Americas; Che Today? More Easy Rider Than Revolutionary
by
Larry Rohter
,
The New York Times
, May 26, 2004
- ^
Hugh Thomas. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. p. 1,007.
- ^
Don’t Let This Movie Get Lost
Archived
2009-01-13 at the
Wayback Machine
by Kathryn Jean Lopez,
National Review
- ^
Sympathizers Mark 40th anniversary of Che Guevara's Death
, by the
Associated Press
, October 8, 2007
- ^
How the US 'Lost' Latin America
by
BBC News
- ^
Anti-U.S. Protests Flare at Summit
by
The Washington Post
- ^
Latin America's Left Turn
Archived
2008-03-02 at the
Wayback Machine
by
Foreign Affairs
- ^
The Spark that does not Die
by
Michael Lowy
,
International Viewpoint
, July 1997
- ^
Latin America: Awakening of a Continent
: Synopses & Reviews
by
Powell Books
- ^
Photograph of Sandinista election victory parade
- ^
a
b
Cuba pays tribute to Che Guevara
, by
BBC News
, Oct 9, 2007
- ^
Evo Morales 'Padlocked' in Palace
by
BBC News
- ^
Capitalism Has Only Hurt Latin America
by
Der Spiegel
- ^
President Evo Morales pays tribute to Che Guevara
by
The Latin American and Caribbean Information Center of the Florida International University
- ^
Hugo Chavez Superstar
by
The Guardian
- ^
Castro, Chavez Tour Che Guevara’s Home
by
NBC News
- ^
Chavez: Venezuela and the New Latin America
by
Aleida Guevara
- ^
The Impact and Legacy of Che Guevara’s Foco Theory, with Special Reference to Guerrilla Warfare in Colombia
[
dead link
]
by
Leeds University
- ^
Profile: The Zapatistas' Mysterious Leader
by
BBC News
- ^
The Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle
by the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
- ^
Anderson, Jon Lee.
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life
, New York: 1997, Grove Press, p. 567.
- ^
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, 1928?1967
at LibCom
- ^
Guevara has been heavily idolized by people in the music industry. Particularly rock and hip-hop. Despite this, some see Che as more champion of political and ideological conformity. Cuban jazz legend Paquito D'Rivera stated in interview "Che hated artists, so how is it possible that artists still today support the image of Che Guevara?"
The Killing Machine: Che Guevara, from Communist Firebrand to Capitalist Brand
by
The Independent Institute
External links
[
edit
]
- BBC:
Che's Spirit Burns on in Latin America
by Daniel Schweimler, January 3, 2009
- Daily Observer
:
Che Remembered: on 80th Birthday
June 12, 2008
- Der Spiegel
:
Photo Gallery ? Latin America Commemorates Che Guevara
- Harpers Magazine
:
Six Questions for Greg Grandin on Che’s Legacy
September 30, 2007
- PBS Forum:
The Legacy of Che Guevara
with biographer Jon Lee Anderson November 20, 1997
- Socialist Worker
:
The Legacy of A Revolutionary ? Who was Che?
October 12, 2007
- The Observer
:
The Final Triumph of Saint Che
September 23, 2007
- TIME
100:
Che Guevara
June 14, 1999
- Wall Street Journal
:
In Argentina, Che Guevara Finally Gets More Than a Lousy T-Shirt
by Michael Casey, June 14, 2008
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