In the Defense of “Che”

It’s been an eventful weekend. I’ve had some time on my hands, with my current muse, a book, a revisit to one of my favorites, and one of the many that got me into the habit of reading. It was in my days as a college going, t-shirt wearing malcontent, that I picked up a superbly worn copy of “The Motorcycle Diaries”. The book was a hand-me-down, an edition published in the late 1990s, the thoughts it provoked then, and now, weren’t.

The life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, has been an enigma for a lot of people. Over the years of his short, eventful life, he went from being a student, to a traveler that rode through most of South America on a Norton 500 named “La Poderosa II”, the invincible one, a name that can just as simply be translated to Che’s life. He went from being a physician that joined the revolution because of the poverty and sufferings he witnessed on that eventful ride, to being one of the best guerilla fighters there was, a truly gifted tactician, a textbook Marxist communist, an astute politician, and at the end of the day, no matter what people say, I believe, a martyr at the altar of world opinion.

My time in the United States brought me into contact with people that talked about a personal hero of mine, as someone, who was given to violence, someone who didn’t believe in the due process of the law, and handed out death sentences at tribunals, that amounted to little more than summary execution, and someone that destroyed anyone that stood in the way of his quest to a Marxist answer to South America’s troubles. This, in addition to a lot of other unenviable names, that I wouldn’t grace a certain dictator from Germany with.

Reading the book again, draws a picture in my mind of someone that decided to take action against the poverty, the misery and the lax attitude toward the people of the political leadership at the time, and took a stance, necessarily radical to bring attention to a part of the world that was mostly being ignored up until that point. To say that an Argentinean, fought for his beliefs in three countries says something about his perseverance, and dedication to his cause. Throughout, he wasn’t just a fighter. He was a physician that, following the disastrous beach landings at the Cuban revolution, dropped his medical kit for a box of ammo, that following the explosion of La Coubre reversed the tide just as easily, ran to the docks, and administered emergency medical treatment to the wounded crew and dock workers. He was a diplomat that set the tone of Cuban relations with the rest of the communist world. He was also an involved intellectual whose interests stretched from philosophy to sociology. In short, he was the sort of person the youth of today, need to look up to as an icon, not a counterculture one, but as someone that they need to strive to follow, much like our very own Subashchandra Bose, a Nelson Mandela, or the countless others the world honors.

I cannot help but build parallels, to the issues that we face in our country today, and how closely they match up to the apathy of the government, the law enforcement and the general administration, that was being displayed to people in the countries that Che decided to make a difference in. Maybe, I border on not agreeing with a way of violence to make your opinion felt, and to enforce change, but I do support taking action. Today, though, the inaction among those that stand to inherit our world is appalling. So here’s where we can delve into our past, and conjure up icons that help propel us forward to a world where we demand action from our government, and jolt them into action, if need be.

To sum up, in Guevara’s own words to his kids, in a letter written to them, to be opened upon death:

"Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary." – Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.