Why do some think it's trendy to idolize Communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che†Guevara. Che's face is emblazoned on T-shirts; he was glamorized by the movie The Motorcycle Diaries; and Time magazine described him as “a potent symbol of rebellion.†But few of the misinformed who admire Che know what he actually stood for. According to Cuban-American writer Humberto Fontova, during the first few years of Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba, Che was “second in command and chief executioner for a regime that jailed and tortured more political prisoners as a percentage of population than Stalin's and executed more people as a percentage of population in its first three years in power than Hitler's.†Che wrote that “the solutions to the world's problems lie behind the Iron Curtainâ€- and he was willing to torture and kill anyone who disagreed. Che's stock trade, according to Fontova, “was the mass murder of defenseless men and boys.†In a typical incident (one you won't see in The Motorcycle Diaries, which portrays Che as a sexually potent idealist who just wants to save the poor), he ordered the execution of a 17-year-old boy suspected of political subversion. When the boy's mother, Rosa Hernandez, tearfully begged the Communists to release him, Che invited her into his office. Then he picked up his phone and, as she listened, demanded that the Communists “execute the Hernandez boy tonight.†Then Che's minions dragged her away. A former prisoner named Pierre San Martin described his experience in one of Che's prisons to a Miami newspaper. “32 of us were crammed into a cell,†he said. “16 of us would stand while the other sixteen tried to sleep on the cold filthy floor. We took shifts that way. Actually, we considered ourselves lucky. After all, we were alive. Dozens were led from the cells to the firing squad daily…One morning Che's guards shoved a new prisoner into our cell. His face was bruised and smeared with blood. He was a boy, couldn't have been much older than 12.†The boy had fought back against Communists who arrested his father. Later, San Martin watched Che personally execute him: “Che raised his pistol, put the barrel to the back of the boy's neck, and blasted. The shot almost decapitated the young boy.†Che's cruel bravado wasn't on display when he was finally captured in Bolivia in 1967. Instead, like plenty of Communist thugs before him, he went out like a coward. “Don't shoot!†he whimpered. “I'm Che!†In his book, Exposing the Real Che Guevara, Fontova visits Miami's Cuban Memorial, which honors victims of the Castro regime. Elderly Cubans often go there to mourn relatives who died in prisons or in mass executions. Fontova describes a common scene: “Still escorted by her grandson, the grandmother crosses the street slowly and silently. They run into a dreadlocked youth coming out of a music store. His T-shirt sports the face of her husband's murderer.
the average high school to college douche bag only wears it to be trendy, not to make a statement. You never see anyone wearing ghandi or Paul revere t-shirts I don't believe that, that makes me question Fontova's motives being that one of che's most quoted lines was right before he was executed when he said “I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.” that's quite a jump from Che's character to say he whimpered after being proven to be a megalomaniac revolutionary...
What I find rather ironic is that near all leftist peace movements have posters of Che Guevara in their offices, and often on posters or some participants T-Shirts during protests. Peace and Che Guevara got nothing in common. Far from it, they are opposites. I can't for the life of me understand why some people actually idealize perpetrators of totalitarian ideologies. Chasing utopia always lead to dystopia. If people want peace, they should support free and fair domestic and international trade. People and countries with common interests, in this case the win-win of trade, have a tendency to work out whatever other problems they may have with eachother. You'll find precious few communists (or fascists or theocrats) that harbour such ideas.
well to Che's credit, Karl Marx said himself in the communist manifesto that true socialism would never work without a dictatorship, becuase eventually as he said it, "they would want to play the system agian."
I wear my che shirt for exactly that reason. I like to be inflammatory. I also have stalin, lenin, mao and pol-pot tshirts. It's like a weird collection of dictators. All I need now is Pinochet and that Panama guy.
Although i don't agree with you wearing it at least you made a decision based on thought out, intelligent reasoning. Not because your a trendy douche bag, well not that you aren't a trendy douche bag, i mean i don't even know you, you could very well be a trendy douche bag who happens to also base his decisions on thought out intelligent reasoning, i don't know.
it was a joke about indie kids. but i guess only people that have seen nick and norah's infinite playlist would get it. horrible movie by the way, don't see it.
Why not where hitler shirts, or why is it wrong to wear a shirt with hitler and a swastika but its ok to have the image of that pussy on a shirt, huh?
It's not as aesthetically pleasing. I find the Toothbrush Mustache to be a bad look. It's why I won't wear a Mugabe t-shirt either. Charlie Chaplin as well, except he isn't a dictator, he just played one.
Che is worth studying purely for his ability to take on a national military with a guerilla force and WIN. The info he left behind will come in handy soon enough. But a good man he was not.
Yes but the military he took on with those guerrilla forces can in no way be compared with the modern US military. If you were referring to a US civil war then the best bet for victory would be the military's reluctance to fire upon their own people.