Ray Gruszecki's Blog: Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Ernesto “Che” Guevara is a twentieth century icon. Glorified by many as the epitome of resistance and freedom fighters, and reviled by as many others as an unclean communist butcher, “Che” remains larger than life. His iconic bereted picture remains a symbol of resistance everywhere. He is almost better known than Simon Bolivar, who effectively freed much of South America from Spanish rule in the nineteenth century.

As an average anti-communist American, one side of my impression of Che Guevara has always been somewhat negative and linked with other revolutionaries such as Fidel Castro, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong, and other left-wing communist figures.

But Che Guevara tickled my libertarian side. I have always been against oppressiveness and unfairness, and Che’s resistance to these appealed to me. Also, who cannot get caught up in something as intriguing as “The Motorcycle Diaries”, that Che wrote about his travels in South and Central America? Sounds like something out of Kerouac.

I set out to confirm Che’s positive reputation, that notwithstanding the fact that he was a communist and atheist, he was indeed a positive force in elevating the poor, oppressed, masses.

In further researching Guevara, it is difficult to get a clear picture of the man. Some references almost deify him as a prime force against capitalist abuses in South and Latin America, referring to him as an enlightened, positive intellectual, physician and humanitarian. Other references cast him as a narcissistic, brutal communist who never earned his medical degree, and who had terrible hygiene.

Che Guevara was an accomplice and friend of Fidel and Raul Castro in Mexico prior to the Cuban revolution, and a major government figure in Castro’s Cuba. He may have been somewhat less successful and famous in his further revolutionary endeavors in South America after he left Cuba, but he remained as an active militant to his end. He was shot by the Bolivian army in 1967 at age 39.

Whatever he was, the mystique that has grown up around him has made Che a legend and a symbol of revolution and resistance to oppression everywhere. Crowds in Greece and Africa and across Europe chant his name and sing Che’s version of “Bella Ciao”.

Che Guevara - Bio’s and links

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Che-Guevara

https://www.history.com/topics/latin-america/che-guevara

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/iconic-photo-of-che-guevara-taken

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-guevara-life-idUKN0433620220071008

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/world/americas/che-guevara-history.html?_r=0

https://historycollection.com/nobodys-hero-9-inconvenient-truths-che-guevara/2/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/iconic-photography-che-guevara-alberto-korda-cultural-travel-180960615/

https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/che-guevara.htm

Che Guevara: Doctor, Revolutionary, Murderer

https://youtu.be/F6mrwD8J4vA