After Che Guevara’s Death, Five Results
HAVANA TIMES — Up until the present day, Che Guevara continues to be the personification of the tireless revolutionary who is idolized by many in spite of his violent actions. His execution in Bolivia on October 9th 1967 made him a “martyr”, something which had several key historic and cultural consequences, reports the dpa news agency.
– EAST-WEST CONFLICT: Che’s guerrilla armed forces roused the fear of “a second Cuba” in Latin America and of the Soviet Union’s increasing influence in the United States’ “backyard”. This led to a massive Washington-backed intervention in Chile and Nicaragua and to support the military dictatorships which plagued South America in the ‘70s.
– GENERATION OF ‘68 ICON: Che Guevara was present at all of the Generation of ‘68 protests, whether they were in Paris or anywhere else in the world. He became the role model of the student movements as a fighter in favor of socialist ideals and against capitalism, embodied by the US. His phrase: “Let’s be realistic, demand the impossible!” became a whole generation’s slogan.
– THE LATIN AMERICAN LEFT: A decade of Leftist governments in several South American countries began with Hugo Chavez taking power in Venezuela in 1999. Himself and Evo Morales in Bolivia (since 2006) always referred to Che as their role model. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) was created and Cuba wasn’t so isolated anymore. It began to receive oil from Venezuela and it sent doctors to South American countries in exchange.
– MYTHIFICATION: In spite of the fact that Che Guevara had killed people by execution and supported the persecution of people who didn’t think like him in Cuba, he is one of the most worshipped figures in the world still today. Whether its critics of globalization or at pro-peace protests, Che is synonymous with the struggle in favor of the poor and against oppression.
– POP ICON: On t-shirts, posters or on soccer great Diego Maradona’s arm, there isn’t another picture that has been reproduced so many times as that of Che wearing a beret and looking out at the horizon. Separated from his historic context, he became a symbol of a rebellious youth and has even been of use to capitalist companies to give their new products a revolutionary touch.
But sir, your opinion does not matter
Che traveled a lot in his motorcycle on Latin America’s dusty roads with little time to bathe. I know because I had the same experience traveling on the dusty roads in West Africa, often arriving caked with dust, dirt and other smelly things. Che and I were about the same age during our respective times. I, too, have witnessed the same oppression of the poor in Africa while living among them.
According to Wikipedia, Che received his medical degree as a specialist in allergies; he himself had to deal with his own asthma attacks since he was an infant! As a soldier and fighter, he definitely did not acquire a Nobel Peace Prize. The internet is available for your benefit, Joseph, and you can google as much as you want.
Personal attacks notwithstanding, your opinion that Ernesto Guevara is a hero, is just that …. an opinion. You know what they say about opinions! On the other hand, comments about Guevara’s hygiene is common knowledge reflected in the memoirs of numerous confidantes of Guevara with first-hand knowledge of his bathing habits.
100% accurate, &well said,this guy is bitter and ignorant
I consider myself very well informed,so enlighten me as to how you know about a Hero’s personal hygiene who was murdered by the CIA.I have advised you before, if you he nothing good to say, say nothing. You only show yourself up for what you are, a bitter excuse for a human being.
Against the wall!!!!
Anyone who believes racism has not existed since before the revolution to this very day in Cuba is quite simply ignorant – or at a minimum idealistically blind and misinformed. In fact, it is more prevalent and transparent in Cuba than in the US. In the US, African-Americans, bless their souls, have had the courage and opportunity to openly fight their plight and made significant progress. Cubans more or less have maintained Cuban status quo.
Hans. Consider the source of your “information.” A bit narrow in your “knowledge?” I’m sure his father would have claimed he won the Nobel Peace Prize if he would have thought he could get away with it.
That’s why, Nick, Che wanted to visit the USA during the Jim Crow era and check them out, indicating he was NOT a racist, although he spent a few weeks in Miami after he was deported in Venezuela and awaiting a free flight (he ran out of money) back home to Argentina. He did express a frustration why the overwhelming poor in Latin America, mostly of indigenous and African descent, let their oppressors get away with this without organized resistance. I think that Mr. Douglass would have fully understood the situation.
He briefly left medical school in 1953 to visit friends in Bolivia; he later returned the following year on his father’s insistence and passed the test with one of the highest scores and received his medical degree. His family has the documentation. Because of your bias against him, you’re not looking hard enough!
Actual documentation does not exist. It is believed he left medical school as much as a year early.
Frederick Douglass was from the USA.
Che Guevara, for whatever other faults may have he had, was part of a government that made racism and colour bars illegal during an era in which an apartheid system was still firmly in place in large parts of the USA.
As Jon has said, ‘I suspect he (Mr Douglass) would have been more appreciative of Che than you are’.
Didn’t Diego get kicked out of the national soccer team, for snorting cocaine???
I wonder what El Che would have thought of Maradona being addicted to cocaine!!!! Counter Revolutionary?
People do smell when they’re always on the road wearing the same clothes. Ask any traveler like I did in Africa. On a human level, he may have his biases but not an outright racist as was implemented by that one in the WH. He accomplished his mission in life well only to be rudely ended in Bolivia.
Nonsense! That means you know very little of Dr. Ernesto Che Guevara; he received his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1953. According to his father, his family is of Basque and Irish origins. Read the book “Young Che, Memories of Che Guevara by His Father” by Ernesto Guevara Lynch. You get too much inaccurate information from the corporate owned media in the US…it’s not what they mention, but what they don’t bother to mention!
So anyone who speaks out against the racist institution existing in America in perpetuity to this fucking day is racist huh? Racist white folk and their relatives are an abomination to all human existence and I literally hope they die off painfully. How’s that for racism.
Search and read the comments that Che Guevara made about. Mexicans. Calling them ignorants Indians, and calling blacks lazy. He wrote intensively about the European superiority and helped Ramiro Valdez and Raul Castro creating de concentrations camps for homosexuals named UMAP. RACIST AND HOMOPHOBIC. Just google Che Guevara Racist quotes.
There is no known proof that Guevara actually graduated from medical school. Referring to him as a Medical Doctor is technically inaccurate.
Been there, done that. He was a virulent racist. That kills it for me. The personal hygiene problem is just icing on the cake.
Hard to respond to your well-developed and thought-provoking comment.
Che Guevara was a racist. Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave. I don’t see him “appreciating” a racist.
Ridiculous comment.
He was hated only by the poorly informed. Read his biography and/or autobiography! There was also a movie made about him based on his diaries.
I recently read Che’s biography written by his father; he was a precocious child since birth and an adventurer as a young man motorcycling from his native Argentina to Mexico while learning about the plight of Latin America’s poor and disenfranchised. He had a long stay in Guatemala in 1953 when that country’s democratically elected government was overthrown by the United Fruit Company and the CIA, and this had distraught him! For his own safety he fled to Mexico for another long stay, and there he met the Castro brothers. He was more popular in Cuba than the Castro brothers, and his father wondered why he chose to leave Cuba and pick a fight somewhere else. As a medical doctor, Che also established Cuba’s medical system which still is provided free to the Cuban populace; for this reason Cuba’s average life span even exceeds that of the US (Cuba’s literacy rate is also higher than in the US). I would have loved to know him personally to understand his restless mind. He will remain an icon among the young throughout the world!
Isn’t that a picture of Frederick Douglas you have purloined? I suspect he would have been more appreciative of Che than you are.
Che Guevara was a racist with poor personal hygiene as well. He’s a hero only to the poorly-informed.