The Over-Glorification Of Che Guevara

Question: Was Ernesto “Che” Guevara the revolutionary hero as depicted in today’s pop culture, or was he a vicious murderer, obsessed with the destruction of capitalism?

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a part of the 26th of July Movement in Cuba. He became a revolutionary leader who inspired many and brought the guerrilla to victory in 1959. He was a part of the eighty-two men who sailed on the Granma from Mexico to Cuba in December of 1956 (Staten 114). The biographical film, Che: Part One directed by Steven Soderbergh, shows the journey of Che and the guerrillas as they attempted to defeat Batista’s military. Che: Part One is not simply just a depiction of Che’s life, but it brings you right into the action of the armed struggle the guerrilla faced. The revolution shaped Che into the leader he became. He started out as a simple doctor who wanted to bring the people of Cuba what they deserved. Che went through changes as the periods of the revolution went on. He grew to be a leader that would bring his people to the victories they achieved. Throughout the portrayal of the revolution, it can be seen how Che changes and adapts based on what situation he is facing and how the movie shows it. The film goes back and forth between the times Che is in Cuba fighting and after he wins the revolution and talks about his experiences.

In weeks 9 to 11, the movement we looked at had very similar themes, often regarding things like rebellion and standing up for culture and what a society deems is “right”. We first learned about Che Guevara and how he became an icon to both Latin America and North American culture from Dr Anna Hamling. Her lecture was on the perpective of cultural icons, how people viewed them, and what it took to become an icon. She discussed the ways that people viewed Che, some seeing him as a hero where others saw him as just a tyrant who murdered anybody who got in his way.

Have you ever heard of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The show aired in the early and mid 1990s and was very popular. It was a big hit then and is a big hit with me now. I started watching it when i was 8 land liked how funny it was and also liked the storyline.

Rationale For my second Written Task, I wanted to create something with which I could warn people for how widely used propaganda is and how easily influenced you are by it. I realized that the best way to create something like that, was to create a guide. In this guide I tried to help people recognise and prevent the influence of several propaganda techniques.

An individual’s discovery is transformative on their perceptions of the world. This is the case for the book ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and Keats’s sonnet “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”. In this book, we are taken on Che’s journey as he travels Latin America as a young man, before the fame. His diary entries lead the reader into his own eyes, as a typical young man on an adventure, not the revolutionary figure we all associate him with. Through his descriptive entries of the landscape he journeys across, we discover his deeper connection to the land of South America and the love he has for its people. As well as the beautiful things that South America has to

The most important sources that this paper will analyze are Che’s personal writings: Diary of a Combatant and Reminiscences of The Cuban Revolutionary War. Both are crucial for understand Che’s transformation from a troop doctor to a guerilla commander. To understand Che’s influence on the Cuban Revolution it is important to understand Che’s background. Che was born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna in Rosario Argentina on June 14, 1928. Che’s upbringing was modest and his parents were educated and a part of the middle class..

Che Guevara was a revolutionist, a liberator, and a medical school graduate. He was also an anarchist, murderer, and communist. It is possible to see Guevara through either fo these looking glasses. The same goes for Chris McCandless, a young man trying to escape society, or a reckless idiot who wandered around the country full odf himself. Regardless of how they are perceived, they both met the same fate, death.

The government saw whoever opposed the revolution should be punished. In the story, Nieve went to an art gallery and saw or heard someone get apprehended by the police for opposing Che Guevara. Guerra wrote, “Someone got taken to prison for stepping on an image of Che on the floor of an art gallery”(207). This shows that law enforcement also make sure that the people believe in what the media say about Guevara, as a smart activist who wants justice for the people. The government tries to make sure that the people think the way they want the people to think, however, the government and media can't reach everyone.

In the movie Evita, the narrator, Che Guevara, enforced these certain myths about Eva Perón as a slut, wife, and First Lady of Argentina. The movie is set during Eva Perón’s life, yet Che Guevara was a revolutionary figure from the time period after her death that critiqued her life throughout the film. The song “Oh What a Circus” in the film discusses how Che Guevara critiques Eva Perón on how she did not keep her promise to the people of Argentina and was not a great ruler to them (Evita, Alan Parker). Che is the main character who constructed the myth of Eva as a slut, wife, and First Lady of Argentina, while Eva constructed her own image of herself as a saint and powerful leader of Argentina.

The role of women is a crucial theme in both Hamlet and the Changeling to depict the chaotic turbulence in Hamlet’s family, the court of Denmark, Alicante’s household and the asylum. In Hamlet, the female characters, Gertrude and Ophelia, are unappreciated women that are considered frail and weak-minded by the men in their lives. In contrast, the Changeling explores the realms feminine power and weakness. While there are only a few years between the tragedies, the women’s behaviour towards the implications of their social status is radically different. Whereas Shakespeare only illustrates the destructive, deadly consequences when one rebels against their position in society, Middleton and Rowley demonstrate how remaining faithful and obedient

"Biography Che Guevara." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. "Che Guevara Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012 5 “ “ 6 "The 1960s - World Events." H2g2 -. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.

It is hard to travel anywhere in the world without seeing somewhere the iconic image of Che Guevara on a T-Shirt, souvenir, or poster. The original photographer, and the Irish artist who turned that photograph into a print, are virtually unknown. However, their image has been redistributed to the point where it can effectively be called an icon or a meme. There is no small amount of irony in the fact that an icon of communism has become an emblem of capitalism: as the image has been bought and sold countless times in countless countries around the world. The iconic image of Che Guevara has a hipster chic to it, but also political panache. To don the Che Guevara image means one does not agree with the establishment and is part of the 99%. However, Che Guevara is a controversial figure too. The image has been banned in some parts of the world, because Che was a radical revolutionary who was not against the use of armed uprisings in communist revolts. Therefore, the iconic Che Guevara image created first in Cuba and turned into pop art by an Irishman is a paradoxical and typically postmodern cultural meme.

In The Motorcycle Diaries, Guevara experienced a number of discoveries during his journey across South America which challenged his understanding of the widespread poverty. From a young age Che lived a relatively happy life; having received his preliminary education and enrolling at the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. In this sense according to the standard of the culture at the time, his upbringing was one of privilege and wealth. It was only during his journey that he witnessed the abject poverty and serious inequality between the have and have nots, broadening his understanding of the world. For example, in Valparaiso, while talking to swarms of beggars huddling under dark staircases Che writes: “...we plumb the city’s depths,

Like the much used stencil of Guevara's determined visage, the general perception of his life is flat and two-dimensional. No where more so, it seems, then in the country richest in Guevara's history, Cuba. An article printed July 21st 1997 in Newsweek, entitled 'Return Of The Rebel', explored Cuban society in the wake of the long-awaited discovery of Guevara's skeleton in Bolivian town of Vallegrande. In it journalist Brook Lamer explains how 'the Cuban Government played a pivotal role in creating the Che mystique, and it is not about to let its franchise slip away'[2].