A Revolutionary Icon, and Now, a Bikini
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, Oct. 8 - Aleida Guevara March, the 46-year-old daughter of Che Guevara, says she can bear the Che T-shirts, the Che keychains, the Che postcards and Che paintings sold all over Cuba, not to mention the world.
At least some of the purchasers truly cherish Che, she says. On Monday she was surrounded by thousands of Che fans wearing his image here in Santa Clara, where her father’s remains are kept, and where she sat in the front row of a ceremony to observe the 40th anniversary of his death.
Raúl Castro, the acting president, attended. A message was read from his older brother Fidel, who ceded power in August 2006 after emergency surgery, likening his former comrade-in-arms to “a flower that was plucked from his stem prematurely.”
But amid all the ceremony, what really gets to Ms. Guevara is the use of the man she calls Papi in ways that she says are completely removed from his revolutionary ideals, like when a designer recently put Che on a bikini.
In fact, 40 years after his death, Che - born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna - is as much a marketing tool as an international revolutionary icon. Which raises the question of what exactly does the sheer proliferation of his image - the distant gaze, the scraggly beard and the beret adorned with a star - mean in a decidedly capitalist world?
Even in Cuba, one of the world’s last Communist bastions, Che is used both to make a buck and to make a point. “He sells,” acknowledged a Cuban shop clerk, who had Che after Che staring down from a wall full of T-shirts.
But at least here he is also used to inspire the next generation of Cubans. Schoolchildren invoke his name every morning, declaring with a salute, “We want to be like Che.” His quotations are recited almost as often as those of Fidel Castro.
“There’s no doubt that when Fidel dies someday, his image will be just like Che’s,” said Enrique Oltuski, the vice minister of fishing and a contemporary of both men. But Che’s mythic status as a homegrown revolutionary does not extend everywhere, even if his image does. When Target stores in the United States put his image on a CD carrying case last year, critics who consider him a murderer and symbol of totalitarianism pressed the retailer to pull the item.
“What next? Hitler backpacks? Pol Pot cookware? Pinochet pantyhose?” Investor’s Business Daily said in an editorial, calling the use of the image an example of “tyrant-chic.”
That famous image of Che, by a Cuban photographer, Alberto Korda Díaz, was taken at a March 5, 1960, funeral rally for dozens of Cubans killed in a boat explosion for which Cuba blamed the United States. The picture became famous after appearing in Paris Match magazine in 1967, just weeks before Che was killed by soldiers in Bolivia, apparently aided by the C.I.A.
Mr. Korda, who died in 2001 at age 72, never received royalties but did sue a British advertising agency over the use of the photo for a campaign promoting vodka. He won $50,000, which he donated toward buying medicine for children.
Ms. Guevara and her family, too, have tried to stop the marketing of Che’s image in ways that they find abhorrent. She says they have reached out to lawyers in New York, whom she would not identify, to pursue companies the family thinks are misusing the image, not to sue them for damages, but to ask them to stop.
“We’re not after money,” she said. “We just don’t want him misused. He can be a universal person, but respect the image.”
Some of Che’s star power has rubbed off on his four surviving children, one of whom is named Ernesto Guevara and drove to the memorial on a motorcycle, just like Dad. Cubans hug the Guevaras in the street, and tourists are giddy when they learn who they are.
“I have goose bumps,” said Alfredo Moreno, 32, a Mexican who posed for a picture with Ms. Guevara, clearly overcome with emotion. “I can’t describe to you what this moment means to me.”
As Mr. Moreno went on and on, Ms. Guevara told him to stop his fawning words.
“I’m a child of Che,” she explained, “but I’m not Che.”
Ms. Guevara is in fact a pediatrician and mother of two who favors pantsuits over military fatigues. She resembles a Cuban soccer mom more than a revolutionary.
Her sister is a veterinarian. One brother manages a center devoted to Che in Havana. Then there is Ernesto, a Harley-Davidson aficionado. All are called on by the Cuban government from time to time to help continue their father’s legacy.
It is not hard to detect a bit of exhaustion in all this, particularly now, when Cuba and much of Latin America are holding major events to honor both his death and, next June, what would have been his 80th birthday.
“I can’t be everywhere,” Ms. Guevara said. “I can’t multiply myself.”
Ms. Guevara travels the world speaking at conferences dealing with Che. At one in Italy, she learned after signing T-shirts for some young people that they were fascists. “They knew nothing about him,” she said with a sigh.
Once, she said, she bumped into John F. Kennedy Jr. in Europe and discussed with him the challenges of being the offspring of a famous man.
She called him “a beautiful person,” and said she was able to separate him from his father, who ordered the Bay of Pigs invasion to try to topple the government that Che had helped put in place in Cuba.
But bring up United States foreign policy, and the resemblance to her father really emerges. The fiery speech flows when she discusses the war in Iraq. She calls the economic embargo of Cuba that has stretched on for 50 years “so brutal, so stupid, so irrational.”
And don’t even get her started about the Bush administration.
© 2007 The New York Times
Che Vive!
Maybe they should quote him on a bikini. That would certainly get read.
Here in Latin America there are lots of events going on to commemorate the murder of CHE at the hands of the CIA.
GIven that capitalism still is dominant on the planet–the Che merchandise will continue to be produced–moist of it, unfortunately, in sweat shops in China and INdonesia.
REady for disposable Che diapers–for The New Man?
That’s why our planet is being flushed into the a black hole in the universe.
The CIA didn’t kill Che. Che was killed by Castro because he feared the popularity that Che was getting in Cuba. Who cares anyway? Che was a murderer just like Castro is. I’am a Cuban American … my parents are from Cuba and left as soon as the maniac took power. They saw how innocent people were executed by Che. Too bad Castro wasn’t assinated also.
rcarrace - Then I am sure it will thrill you and yours to see his face wiggle down the beach on some chicks rump!
His face makes me sick, I’d rather see “Jose Marti” on that rump. There is a real Cuban hero!
To the few, who had the resourses to flee.They did, and will have you believe it was Castro.
rccarrace
If it weren’t for Che and Castro, you would still be in Cuba, cleaning washrooms for the Mafia casinos for peanuts, or in the sugar cane fields, working for food
millercopter,
The few? Dude … you truly are a moron. Multitudes of Cubans left … and even after … they’d leave if they could float on a toothe pick … people got the hell out quickly … and when Castro decided to let more go in the early 80s … forget about it … BOATS AND BOATS AND BOATS AND BOATS of Cubans …. people have hidden in the bottom of airplanes and have frozen (died) to leave. Yeah, some country … people rather die than stay.
GIVE ME FREEDOM above all other things. Que viva Jose Marti!
US supported right wing puppet dictators are the primary reason Castro, Guevara, Chavez, Morales (and any of the other leftists that give right wing propagandists an excuse for existence) have been able to gain and maintain popular support.
If the US and multinational corporations had not been exploiting Latin American nations, centrists leaders would have emerged and the leftists would never have gotten to first base.
Neocon foreign policy during the past 6 years has been the biggest boon to the leftist movement in a century. Leftists are hitting one home run after another in Latin America.
rcarrace,
Jose Marti warned of the coming domination over Cuba by the US after the end of Spain’s colonization. Che and Fidel didn’t overthrow US neocolonialism–the Cuban people did. It was a revolution, not a coup. And Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador are moving toward socialism peacefully and democratically. Still, the US will do all it can to undermine any serious reform or revolution in Latin America that defies US hegemony.
Paz
So I think its funny … people left Cuba because “War of the Worlds” was playing on their tv, a lot of people believed in whats on tv and the radio then! I don’t think anyone knows what “REALLY” happened anywhere! We can just guess. The one thing I do know about Che, He was working for the greater good. He was willing to put everything he had on the table for what he believed. Who can you say has done that kind of honest work since. We can have a new line of t-shirts.
rcarrace,
Did you like “Whitey” banging your sister to feed you? Yer Mom? In America us whiteys (still, can you believe it?)like to keep all the colored folk in little comunities, like you have yourself in Miami, the Cuban district. That way we can keep all our money….segregated. Our jobs…segregated. Think health care…think segregated. Why did Che go to Cuba, Huh? To violate some little girl or boy like the US tourists wanted? Whose side of the mob are you on?
All the progressives on this site seem to want to indoctrinate some of the wonderful things Che and Castro have done and been doing into our/your political system. Like thinking…for oneself even! WOW! Try emergency preparedness, try healthcare for kids, try reading programs not ran just by the church, but, public! There really is quite a bit you minority republicans are missing. Try reality on for size. What has any rich repug done for you EVER? Look to the books and keep looking. It takes a long time to educate a country. The US is a sad example of that.
Revolutions are never peaceful. Somebody is gonna get shot!
AKA the puppets, not the victim.
thanks for the love.
Che was a doctor who could not sit by and watch people die from lack of clean water or enough food. He wanted to see people rise up and stop these corrupt governments. Nothing has changed in those countries.
Apparently some people want to rewrite history and paint Castro and Guevara as horrible villains.
The problem with Cuba during those revolutionary days was Batista, a dictator indifferent to the plight of his people.
Batista was elected president unopposed, he was a puppet for American corporations helping to exploit Cuban workers and forcing many women into prostitution to pay for food.
When it became clear that Castro was about to march victoriously into Havana the conservative republican Cubans who enabled Batista, took their money and ran to Miami.
Despite continuous harassment by the American government, Castro has done some amazing humanitarian things during his rein.
He took the profit out of healthcare and offered excellent medical services to all citizens of Cuba.
They now rank ahead of the USA in infant mortality and longevity.
Yes, Castro may have stepped on a lot of toes when tying to establish a government that was geared toward helping the Cuban people and not the American corporations.
Personally, I am still a big fan of Castro and while I do not agree with his suppression of dissenters I do agree with his approach of delivering the most good for the most people. Unlike the USA where greed is king and egalitarian ideals are gone forever with corporate rule now the controlling force in America.
The Motorcycle Diaries–for anyone who hasn’t seen it–is an excellent account of Che’s early years.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/motorcycle_diaries/about.php
rcarrace said
“when Castro decided to let more go in the early 80s … forget about it … BOATS AND BOATS AND BOATS AND BOATS of Cubans ….”
You’re absolutely right. As everyone knows it was Castro’s little joke.
Cuba had some mafia types and common criminals left over from the days of US outsourcing the brothel users (as a god-fearing country, the US produced lots of these consumers who now mourn “the good old days” and yell the loudest to support the embargo), and Castro decided what a neat trick it would be to empty the prisons of these undesirables and send them to the US as a present where there’s lots of free-market opportunity for them. And as you say, rcarrace, they came in BOATS and BOATS.
Were you or some of your friends there? Or are you a closet Langley resident?