Che the revolutionary

Tonight at dinner, my host mom and I started talking about Che, the revolutionary. (I am going to see a movie called Che this weekend). She commented that in the United States, people don't really like Che because he was a communist along with Castro in Cuba, and the U.S. definently does NOT like Cuba. While it is true that Cuba is a persona non gratis in the halls of power in Washington, I would still say that people like Che.



Che is a true idealist and revolutionary who fought for his ideas quite literally. He first fought in the Cuban revolution, and then went to Venezuela to help the fight there; a man who was ready to help anyone in the struggle for freedom and equality. The famous photograph of Che taken by the photographer Korda. Called Guerrillero Heroico, it was taken on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion. But Korda's photo was more that just an image of a stoic rebel leader, he captured, i believe, the very ideal of revolution itself. He personified revolution through the image of Che. For the first time when people thought about revolution, one image came to mind, no matter where the revolution was. It became an image that everyone could own; an image that currently adorns every other dorm room in colleges across America. Much like the whole weed-smoking, Bob Marley listening phase that most college students go through, there comes a phase of obsession with heroic revolutionaries, counter-culture, intellectuals, and Che.

Who cares if he was a communist in Cuba? Sure, Castro is bad (not my view necesarily) but Che is cool! Just seeing him brings to mind revolution. Even if the use of his image gets blown out of proportion a little, (Smirnoff anyone?), it will always return to its true roots of revolution. Each person who discovers Che for the first time, I believe, becomes a little obsessed with his heroism, his gallantry, his idealism. (Motorcycle Diaries?) The intrepid few will even pick up one or two of his manifestos to read, thus claiming a snobby intellectual superiority over those who merely idealize him. I do realize though that those who have time to learn about Che is due to their own enthusiasm or because they are of a privileged class economically and socially. And besides, we need something to rebel about, so what is better than Che. Down with the establishment!

FInally, I will leave you with a quote:
"Che was the revolutionary as rock star. Korda, as a fashion photographer, sensed that instinctively, and caught it. Before then, the Nazis were the only political movement to understand the power of glamour and sexual charisma, and exploit it. The communists never got it. Then you have the Cuban revolution, and into this void come these macho guys with straggly hair and beards and big-dick glamour, and suddenly Norman Mailer and all the radical chic crowd are creaming their jeans. Che had them in the palm of his hand, and he knew it. What he didn’t know, of course, was how much that image would define him."