Recently I have been studying the life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. I knew of him for a long time, was exposed to his famous image strewn about in pop culture and on the clothing of so-called rebellious youth, but I never had really known much more about him other than the bare minimum that he was a leader and guerilla fighter in the Cuban Revolution by the side of Fidel Castro. The more and more I have learned about Che, I have grown to admire him and draw much inspiration from what he left the world. He has been called one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century, a legend, but as with all legends, much of the real Che has been lost or compromised for the sake of a symbol just like Bob Marley. Its no coincidence that you will see both Bob Marley and Che Guevara shirts side by side in some trendy counter-culture store, maybe along with a Grateful Dead or Led Zeppelin and a shirt with a big cannabis leaf you know hippie-dippy stuff yeah dude.
Despite all of the confusion and perversion of Ches legacy, there is plenty of reliable information about him. He wrote severable books during his lifetime, spanning from his early twenties until his last days. Of course more recently the movie Motorcycle Diaries came out in 2004, which is based on his first diary and collection letters of the same name.
Guevara grew up comfortably in an upper middle-class Argentine family with Leftist sympathies. While he was still a medical student, Che decided to take two trips across Latin America which he recounts in The Motorcycle Diaries when he left for the first time with his friend Alberto Granado and in his second book Back on the Road. During these journeys, Che was transformed as he became increasingly aware of the social injustices across all of the Latin American countries. As he traveled further away from the modernized Argentina he saw that there were more and more problems with the political and economic systems in the continent. In Chile he saw how miners were treated unfairly by large and (often American owned or invested companies) forced to work in harsh conditions in order to earn a living. When he entered Peru, he was awestruck by the poverty of the indigenous Amerindian people, descendants of the once great Incans. He also realized that his disillusionment with the situation in Latin America stretched all the way back to the time of Spanish conquistadors who left their mark on the ruins of Incan civilization in Machu Picchu and relocated its people as slaves to the colonial city of Lima. Around this time Ernesto Guevara began to imagine a Pan-American society, free of the separate national entities which have only warred and caused destruction, like Paraguay and Argentina, since Spanish independence. Che was also deeply inspired when he visited the San Pablo leper colony, which was also in Peru, and saw the segregation of the lowest of the low in society.
By the time Che Guevara speaks of his second travel in his book Back on the Road, he has made up his mind that revolution was the only solution to all of the inequity he has witnessed. Halfway through his tentatively planned journey, he detoured to Guatemala, attracted by the Arbenz government and the controversial land reforms which ruffled the feathers of American interests in the country. After a CIA-backed coup in Guatemala, Guevara along with other Arbenz supporters and Communist sympathizers left to Mexico where he finally concludes that the United States is the most recent in a long line of imperialist powers upsetting the progression of the people in Latin America as well as across the globe. While staying there Che meets various Cuban revolutionaries, eventually including Fidel Castro. It is interesting to see how passionate and determined Che Guevara becomes, a long way from the hedonistic youth who began a road trip several years before. During the 1950s and 1960s the world was polarized between the United States and its seeming disposition toward neo-colonialism and the Communist countries. Che believed in social equality and thought that Communism was the answer. He also became convinced that revolution required action and violence if necessary since oppressive powers were behind so-called democracies and capitalist economies.
After learning about the turbulent emergence of independent Latin American countries, I believe that one can not help but empathize with Ernesto Che Guevera, his vision, his sacrifice, and his love for his people, even a people that belonged to America more than he ever believed he could, the indigenous people, the Quechua, Aymara, the Guaran. He believed in a collective and common mestizo culture, a Pan-American nation to unite all Latin Americans and their rich heritage and backgrounds. Che was tired of seeing injustice, tired of imperialism pitting Latin Americans against each other, he recognized the need for a revolution, a revolution yet to be fulfilled. During 1967 while he was leading an insurgency in Bolivia, Che was captured and executed with the help of the CIA.
However as a Rastaman there are certain things Che Guevara believed in that I could not promote. He was very involved with politics and it polarized him, causing him to sometimes gravitate toward extremes. Che also saw war and violent conflict as the only solution to the power struggle he saw. Finally Che became an avowed Communist and lost his faith in JAH, finding it a foolish thing to believe in and instead relied too much on human action. Guevara was driven by a passion for sufferers but that passion like any passion can be come darkened and misguided.
Today Ches legacy remains strong in Latin America, he is a hero to many people. Leftist leaders, having grown more and more popular in these past years, have cited Guevara as an inspiration. Evo Morales the indigenous American Indian who was elected president of Bolivia this year owes a lot to the empowering ideas Che helped to bring about. President Hugo Chvez of Venezuela, although a controversial figure and unpopular with the Bush administration, is also using the legacy of Che to bolster popularity with his people and enforce his aid for the poor with government sponsored education and social programs. In times when many are displeased with America imperialist policies, Caracas, Venezuela has become a mecca for Leftists and social revolutionaries from all across the world. The socialist governments of Latin America have challenged America and its concept of democracy and foreign policy.
And so we return back to the pop-image of Che Guevara. Yes, as Huey P. Newton said, the revolution will not be televised (of course how many people really know who said that) but it will be advertised!... on my hip new $100 Che shirt and $300 camouflage prada jeans! Its so funny to me to find such revolutionaries so eager to show their support for some cause but caught up in the Babylon system, having to have the latest and greatest, lining their pockets with hundred dollar bills and enjoying the luxurious comforts of modernity. Its either that or some apathetic skater kid whose identity depends so much on being different, that he becomes the same as everyone else individualistic clones. Guevara would be disgusted at how the system that opposed and eventually executed him now profits from his famous image. Those who want to promote Che should do him justice by studying his life and what he stood for. Viva la revolucin... Rastafari!
JAHsh
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
June 14, 1928 - October 8, 1967
"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true Revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality." - Che
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