Cultural Heroes Who Aren't
Walking through the book store the other day I came across a book with a most interesting title: Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him by Humberto Fontova. The book blurb description said:

Nearly four decades after his death, it’s impossible to avoid the image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara everywhere from T-shirts to cartoons. Liberals consider Che a revolutionary martyr who gave his life to help the poor of Latin America. Time named him one of the one hundred most influential people of the last century. And a major Hollywood movie is about to lionize him to a new generation.

The reality, as we learn from Cuban exile Humberto Fontova, is that Che wasn’t really a gentle soul and a selfless hero. He was a violent Communist who thought nothing of firing a gun into the stomach of a woman six months pregnant whose only crime was that her family opposed him. And he was a hypocrite who lusted after material luxuries while cultivating his image as a man of the people.

Fontova reveals that Che openly talked about his desire to use nuclear weapons against New York City. Such was Che’s bloodthirsty hatred that Fontova considers him the godfather of modern terrorism.
--Amazon.com

Now, anyone who knows me will know that I am not a right-wing reactionary. There might have been a day when I thought good thoughts about Che. But my just-as-liberal daughter agrees with me (and the book) when she says she doesn't see why people idolize Che. He was all the things mentioned in the above paragraphs- and worse. He was an angry young man- admittedly at least for some very good reasons.

But he is not one to be so idolized. If he had lived my guess is he would be in the same sinking boat that Fidel finds himself in. People like Hugo Chavez would find themselves on his wrong-side, I am sure. Whether Che could be seen as the "godfather of modern terrorism" is arguable, but he sure knoew how to do it.

Having said all that, I do believe that the interest that continues in Che should have some other things attached to it. I enjoyed, for example, both the movie and the book The Motorcycle Diaries. They give a hint of what it was that turned Che into who he became. He is more a symbol- a metaphor- than a real person. He has lost his anger and his hatred and his bloodletting behavior in the 21st Century views of him. He is now a man on a T-shirt looking into some distant future where poverty and oppression are history.

That is something worth working for, even in rebellious ways, perhaps. I have a hunch that much of what we see of Che today is for that very reason. He may have been as violent and brutal as just about any dictator, but being "martyred" in the eyes of his followers, added a sense of uniqueness to him.

What is perhaps the scariest thing when I think of Che? That the circumstances that led to his rise are not all gone. Peace and hope are lost in many parts of the world. Che wouldn't have- and still can't do anything about that. He would have made it worse.

I will still opt for a Gandhi or Jesus T-short any day.

Or better still, a world where Gandhi's lifestyle and Jesus' words and life are lived.