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<a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=13990" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=13990<br>
<br>
</a><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5>The face of rebellion
everywhere<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>by Mahir Ali; October 09,
2007</b> <br><br>
IN a small Bolivian town called Vallegrande, somewhat to the discomfiture
of the resident priest, local Catholics commonly offer prayers not only
to the Lord but also to a certain Saint Ernesto. The reference is not to
some revered religious figure from the distant past but to a devout
atheist who blazed a revolutionary trail in the latter half of the 20th
century.<br><br>
<br><br>
It is hard to say whether Che Guevara would have been amused or repulsed
by the Vallegrande variety of veneration. “When I go to bed and when I
wake up,” says a 27-year-old local, “I first pray to God and then I pray
to Che - and then everything is all right. Che’s presence here is a
positive force.” In many houses, representations of Guevara are displayed
next to those of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary; others feature altars
built in his memory, and there is no dearth of stories about miracles
that Che is believed to have facilitated.<br><br>
<br><br>
The laundry room of a Vallegrande hospital has been turned into a shrine.
This is where Guevara’s mortal remains were displayed 40 years ago on
Tuesday, after his summary execution by US-trained Bolivian troops in
nearby La Higuera. There is also a massive irony in the fact that he is
thus honoured in a region where his attempt to foment revolt floundered
chiefly on account of the absence of local support.<br><br>
<br><br>
The final chapter in Guevara’s brief life - he was not yet 40 when he
breathed his last - was monumentally tragic. There was a variety of
reasons why the lessons imbibed during the successful guerrilla war to
overthrow the Batista dictatorship in Cuba could not be replicated in
Bolivia. Among other factors, the Cuban campaign was waged under the
leadership of Fidel Castro, who was a well-known figure in his
homeland, and his force, with one notable exception, consisted entirely
of Cubans. An Argentinian doctor leading a troop of mainly Cuban fighters
was unlikely to produce a comparable impact in Bolivia.<br><br>
<br><br>
Che himself was an exemplary internationalist to whom boundaries and
flags were of little significance. The first mission he undertook after
deciding to leave Cuba was in the Congo, where he hoped to assist the
forces purportedly intent on re-establishing the legacy of Patrice
Lumumba. Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser had warned Che against the risk of
being perceived as a Tarzan figure, but that turned out to be the least
of his problems: it was his disenchantment with the local leadership,
particularly Laurent Kabila, that drove him out of Africa.<br><br>
<br><br>
By then it was too late, in Guevara’s view, for him to return to a useful
role in Cuba. He did go back, but only in secret, with the aim of
preparing his next mission. Che hoped eventually to devote his energies
to establishing socialism in Argentina. He accepted Bolivia as an interim
task, little knowing that his expedition to that country would be
betrayed by the local communist party, which went back on a promise to
provide assistance, possibly at Moscow’s direction.<br><br>
<br><br>
Orthodox communists in Latin America and elsewhere viewed Guevara as a
reckless adventurer and spared little sympathy for his view that instead
of waiting for the appropriate circumstances to arise, Marxists were
duty-bound to contribute towards creating revolutionary conditions. A
trenchant critique of Soviet trade policy at a 1965 conference in Algiers
had done little to endear him to the party faithful. Quite a few of them
viewed his death in Bolivia as a convenient conclusion to a turbulent
career.<br><br>
<br><br>
However, by then it was too late for anyone to prevent Guevara from being
transformed into an iconic harbinger of radical change. The image that
immeasurably aided this process was snapped by Castro’s official
photographer, Alberto Korda, on March 5, 1960, during a funeral for 80
Cuban victims of an explosion aboard a French cargo ship loaded with
ammunition. Korda noticed the head of Cuba’s national bank gazing into
the distance, his handsome features reflecting wrath, sorrow and
righteous indignation coupled with steely determination.<br><br>
<br><br>
The photograph remained unpublished for many years. By 1967, however, it
had made its way to Europe. One of the people reputedly responsible for
its dissemination was the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who had
described Guevara as “the most complete man of his age”. It was a young
Irish graphic artist called Jim Fitzpatrick who transformed it into the
familiar two-tone image that became ubiquitous after Che’s
martyrdom.<br><br>
<br><br>
During the rebellion among western youth in 1968, this representation of
the heroic guerrilla was borne aloft at almost every demonstration.
Before long it was transformed into a universal symbol of resistance,
visible from Palestine to Peru. Even so, few could have imagined at the
time that its appeal would prove so enduring.<br><br>
<br><br>
In some ways, the face of Che Guevara became a fashion statement,
coopted by the very forces of capitalist commerce that the
revolutionary leader sought to destroy. Yet the image has always - even
when reworked by Andy Warhol and borrowed by vodka or underwear
manufacturers - subliminally reflected an undercurrent of rebellion,
a refusal to accept the status quo. <br><br>
<br><br>
In recent years it has been suggested that in order to reaffirm his
stature as a relentless warrior against the multifarious wrongs inflicted
on society, Che ought to be rescued from the T-shirt in which he has been
trapped. It may well be the case that a sizeable proportion of those who
slip into Guevara-adorned T-shirts or star-encrusted berets are only
vaguely aware of what he stood for. On the other hand, let’s not forget
that this method of pledging allegiance to Che’s vision is favoured even
by the likes of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, the elected presidents of
Venezuela and Bolivia.<br><br>
<br><br>
Yes, that’s right: Bolivia, the land where Guevara offered the ultimate
sacrifice, now boasts a presidential palace decorated with a coca-leaf
version of Korda’s iconic snapshot. Bolivia and the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela are both in some ways a crucial part of Che’s legacy, even
though Chavez and Morales acquired powers through democratic means. This
is how, in the 21st century, the spirit of Che is being kept
alive.<br><br>
<br><br>
Ideological foes are keen to equate Guevara with Osama bin Laden or with
suicide bombers inspired by Islamist zeal, but such comparisons are
odious not only because Che was fundamentally averse to the idea of
taking innocent lives, but also because his idealistic vision of a
hard-working, non-exploitative society bears no resemblance to the
deleterious goal of a shariah-governed caliphate.<br><br>
<br><br>
Three decades or so ago, I was impressed by biographer Andrew Sinclair’s
description of Che as someone who dedicated his “life and death to the
poorest of men without help from God”. More recently I encountered
Guevara’s response, in 1964, to a letter he received from Maria Rosario
Guevara, a Spanish woman who wondered whether they might be cousins. “I
don’t think you and I are very closely related,” he replied, “but if you
are capable of trembling with indignation each time an injustice is
committed in the world, we are comrades, and that is more important.”
<br><br>
<br><br>
Now there’s an emotion that deserves a resounding Amen from believers and
non-believers alike.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
Email:
<a href="mailto:mahir.worldview@gmail.com">mahir.worldview@gmail.com</a>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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