The legacy of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967) is constantly evolving in the collective imagination. As an iconic 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 as to who he was and what he represented. Mostly revered and occasionally reviled, he is passionately characterized along the entire continuum as everything from a heroic defender of the poor, to a cold-hearted executioner. Admired, sanctified, romanticized and derided, his crystallized status as either a brilliant intellectual or a violent ideologue is usually dependent on where one falls along the left and right of the political spectrum. The debate around his legacy is further complicated by the fact that Guevara exists simultaneously as several different entities, both literal man and global emblem, leading to disputes between what people contend he did and what he now represents.
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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] His writings have been translated into hundreds of languages.
"Che was not only a heroic fighter, but a revolutionary thinker, with a political and moral project and a system of ideas and values for which he fought and gave his life. The philosophy which gave his political and ideological choices their coherence, colour, and taste was a deep revolutionary humanism. For Che, the true Communist, the true revolutionary was one who felt that the great problems of all humanity were his or her personal problems, one who was capable of "feeling anguish whenever someone was assassinated, no matter where it was in the world, and of feeling exultation whenever a new banner of liberty was raised somewhere else. Che’s internationalism -a way of life, a secular faith, a categorical imperative, and a spiritual "nationality"- was the living and concrete expression of this revolutionary Marxist humanism."
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.[3][4] Latin America specialists advising the U.S. State Department immediately recognized the importance of the demise of "the most glamorous and reportedly most successful revolutionary", noting that Guevara would be eulogized by communists and other leftists as "the model revolutionary who met a heroic death."[5]
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."[6] 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.[7]
This rung true in 1968 when among Italy's emerging new breed of Roman Catholic militants, 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 copies of a photograph of the dead Che captioned "A Saint of Our Time", while Italian students also took up a similar tone and christened him "Angela della Pace" – "Angel of Peace."[8]
Regardless of Che's failures and contradictions, or the obsolescence of his methods and ideology, the potency of his "messianic image", with its "symbolic" and "religious quality", continues to inspire many.[9]
"Through the image, the complexities of Che's life and thought are reprocessed into an abstraction that can serve any cause. It has been painted as graffiti in Bethlehem, carried in demonstrations from Palestine to Mexico and borrowed by such artists as Pedro Meyer, Vik Muniz, Martin Parr and Annie Leibovitz. It has been used to represent causes as diverse as world trade, anti-Americanism, teenage rebellion and Latin American identity."
Guevara, who has been described as "the rock-hero biker revolutionary", "the martyr to idealism", and "James Dean in fatigues";[9] became a potent secular symbol of rebellion and revolution during the global student protests of the late 1960s. 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."[10]
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.[11] The Black Panthers, began to style themselves "Che-type" while adopting his trademark black beret, and Arab guerrillas began to name combat operations in his honor.[12] The slogan 'Che lives!' began to appear on walls throughout the west,[13] while Jean-Paul Sartre, a leading figure in the movement, encouraged the adulation by describing Guevara as "the most complete human being of our age".[14] 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."[15]
To some Che is known as a hero —Nelson Mandela has referred to him as: "An inspiration for every human being who loves freedom"[16] – but others view him as the spokesman of a failing ideology and a ruthless executioner who did not afford others a legal process.
Typically, responses to Guevara's legacy followed partisan lines. 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.[5] Subsequent analysts have also shed light on aspects of cruelty in Guevara’s methods, and analysed what Fidel Castro described as Guevara’s "excessively aggressive quality."[17] Studies addressing problematic characteristics of Guevara's life have cited his principal role in setting up Cuba's first post-revolutionary labor camps, his unsympathetic treatment of captured fighters during various guerrilla campaigns, and his frequent humiliations of those deemed his intellectual inferiors.[18][19] 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 authoritarian, anti-working-class Stalinist, whose legacy was the creation of a more bureaucratic, authoritarian regime.[20] Johann Hari, for example, stated that "...Che Guevara is not a free-floating icon of rebellion. He was an actual person who supported an actual system of tyranny, one that murdered millions more actual people."[21] Detractors have also theorized that in much of Latin America, Che-inspired revolutions had the practical result of reinforcing brutal militarism for many years.[22]
Cuba has promoted Che as a "symbol of revolutionary virtues, sacrifice and internationalism" inside and outside the country since his death.[23] Guevara remains a "beloved national hero" in Cuba (almost a secular saint, to many on the Caribbean island),[24] 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.[25]
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 tenure as Minister of Industries, "standing like sad memories of the conflict between pretension and reality".[26]
The Cuban state 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.[27] His visage is also on postage stamps and the 3-peso coin beneath the words "Patria o Muerte" (Homeland or Death).[24] Moreover, children across the country begin each school day with the chant "Pioneers for Communism, We will be like Che!". The University of Havana also possesses an academic concentration in "Che."[28] Guevara's mausoleum in Santa Clara has also become a site of almost religious significance to many Cubans,[13] while the nation’s burgeoning tourist industry has benefited greatly from the ongoing international interest in Guevara's life. Some 205,832 people visited the mausoleum during 2004, of whom 127,597 were foreigners.
Reverence among Cubans for Guevara's memory is by no means universal. Many Cuban exiles have spoken of Guevara in unfavorable terms, and he is remembered by some with the epithet "The Butcher of la Cabaña", a reference to Guevara’s post-revolutionary role as "supreme prosecutor" over the "revolutionary tribunals" at the fortress. Guevara's image was also removed from a CD carrying case after public opposition pressure from offended Cuban-American groups. For their part, retail group Target Corporation issued a public apology for producing the item.[29] Similar disapproval has been shared by Cuban-American actor and director Andy García, who alleged in 2004 that "Che has been romanticized over the years, but there is a darker side to his story. He looks like a rock star, but he executed a lot of people without trial or defense."[30] Garcia’s 2005 film The Lost City, which was reportedly banned in several Latin American countries, portrays what could be perceived by some, as the brutality of pre and post revolution Cuba.[31]
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."[32]
In Latin America, the perceived failures of the liberal reforms of the 1990s intensified ideological antagonism towards the United States,[33][34] 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.[35] 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.[2] 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.[36] Bolivian president Evo Morales has paid many tributes to Guevara including visiting his initial burial site to declare "Che Lives",[37] and installing a portrait of the Argentine made from local coca leaves in his presidential suite.[38][39][40] In 2006, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez who has referred to Guevara as an "infinite revolutionary"[37] and who has been known to address audiences in a Che Guevara T-shirt,[41] accompanied Fidel Castro on a tour of Guevara’s boyhood home in Córdoba, describing the experience as "a real honor." Awaiting crowds of thousands responded with calls of "We feel it! Guevara is right with us!"[42] Guevara’s daughter Aleida also transcribed an extensive interview with Chávez where he outlined his plans for "The New Latin America", releasing the interview in book form.[43] Guevara remains a key inspirational figure to the Colombian guerrilla movement, the FARC,[44] and the Mexican Zapatistas led by Subcomandante Marcos.[45][46]
Some of Che's ideas, too, are back in vogue with Latin America's new left: pan-Americanism, support for the region's popular movements, nationalization and centralization of government. 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.[9]
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". Writers from Graham Greene to Susan Sontag have extolled him, while West German playwright Peter Weiss has even compared him to "a Christ taken down from the Cross."[12] A photograph of Guevara taken by photographer Alberto Korda[47] 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 largely for profit. 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." While British journalist Sean O’Hagan has described Che as "more Lennon than Lenin." Taking the opposite hypothesis, Mexican commentator and Che Biographer Jorge Castañeda 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."[48] 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."[49] The saying "Viva la revolucion!" has also become very popular and synonymous with Guevara.[50] In North America, Western Europe and many regions outside Latin America, the image had been likened to a global brand, long since shedding its ideological or political connotations, and the obsession with Guevara has been dismissed by some as merely "adolescent revolutionary romanticism".[13]
Che Guevara as a cultural icon re-emerged in the news in October 2007, when 61 year old Texas bookstore owner and collector of 60s memorabilia Bill Butler, paid $ 119,500 (US) dollars for a lock of the late Che Guevara's hair. The hair was trimmed from Guevara’s corpse by Gustavo Villoldo, a Cuban-born C.I.A. operative who helped Bolivian troops capture him in 1967, and was accompanied by a sheaf of historical documents (map, photos, & fingerprints) related to his capture.[51]
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 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.[52] Author Christopher Hitchens, who was a socialist and a supporter of the Cuban revolution in the 1960s but has since changed his views, summarised Guevara's legacy thus: "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."[13]
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.[53]
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.[54] 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".[55] In September 2007, Che was voted "Argentina's greatest historical and political figure."[56]
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