che-che-che cheetos
Sep. 28th, 2007 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It is customary for followers of a cult not to know the real life story of their hero, the historical truth. (Many Rastafarians would renounce Haile Selassie if they had any notion of who he really was.) It is not surprising that Guevara’s contemporary followers, his new post-communist admirers, also delude themselves by clinging to a myth—except the young Argentines who have come up with an expression that rhymes perfectly in Spanish: “Tengo una remera del Che y no sé por qué,” or “I have a Che T-shirt and I don’t know why.”
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1535
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-29 01:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-29 02:05 am (UTC)p2. "I have an ASCII Che .signature, and I don't know why."
I agree that Che-image-pervasion is excruciatingly annoying. But!
Date: 2007-09-29 03:50 am (UTC)I think there is shocking exclusion in this article of the fact that there exists a certain level of respect for Cuba and Castro in the rest of the world, right or wrong, for liberating themselves initially - and subsequently resisting - United States economic dominance and control. The cost to the people is great and that is also recognized and rejected as immoral. The entire 'special period' and resulting oil independence (excluding the foreign commercial interests involved) has created both propaganda opportunity for Cuba, of course, but also renewed respect from many disparate groups, for example, urban environmentalists.
We know many Cubans want to leave and I also think Che should certainly be deconstructed as a folk hero as all leaders should be naturally subject to scrutiny. But he was one man and his actions as a man have to be analyzed in some fuller context. It excuses nothing for me, but bloody revolution and power confusion can quickly excuse, for many, blood-thirstiness.
I don't support executions, period, and I sure as hell don't support them without due process - but that is happening all over the world. So I just keep coming back to this fact: Che is hot and photogenic and so he gets to be on t-shirts. He is the Justin Timberlake of revolutionaries. It's that shallow, I think.
Thanks for posting this! Good thought-provoking stuff.
Re: I agree that Che-image-pervasion is excruciatingly annoying. But!
Date: 2007-09-29 03:55 am (UTC)Maybe I should sell t-shirts with Gavrilo Princip on them and see who buys them.
Re: I agree that Che-image-pervasion is excruciatingly annoying. But!
Date: 2007-09-29 01:31 pm (UTC)Re: I agree that Che-image-pervasion is excruciatingly annoying. But!
Date: 2007-09-29 03:36 pm (UTC)Tengo una remera del Che y no sé por qué
Date: 2007-09-29 07:11 pm (UTC)He's not so photogenic, but I actually dig him.
Votchy
Date: 2007-09-30 02:56 am (UTC)I think I'm the just only person in town who ILLs things,
or even knows that they can, or how.
Re: Votchy
Date: 2007-09-30 08:57 pm (UTC)ILL is inter-library loan, yes?
Re: Votchy
Date: 2007-09-30 11:21 pm (UTC)And I don't know the titles. I mostly picked at random; and
the system doesn't give email confirmations or anything, so I
guess I'll just find out in a week or something when they
come in. No rarities or anything.
Re: Votchy
Date: 2007-10-06 11:02 pm (UTC)Open Letters
There might be more on the way– I can't remember,
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-30 11:19 pm (UTC)