The real Che Guevara

The real Che Guevara

by Maninda Boralessa

I think many of us have seen the picture of Che Guevara posing very confidently in a beret. The image emblazons T-shirts, posters and flags. Many recognize this familiar face, but have absolutely no idea who the man is. And sadly, most of the people who do know of Che might have only a very limited, skewed understanding of his life and what he lived and died for. This misunderstanding has to do with the way that Che has been portrayed by the media and politically biased individuals and organizations. For many years Che was a revolutionary, and because of this he has come to be known as a prominent figure in pop culture by people supporting somewhat rebellious ideals.These people admire and praise Che for his uninhibited thoughts and what they believe to be his acts of social justice. Across the globe many young, liberal adults, typically college students, identify with Che for his revolutionary spirit. Che is most famous for helping Fidel Castro orchestrate a coup d'etat of Flugencio Batista's corrupt Cuban government in 1959. However, most people do not know what his true beliefs were, and how he came to harbor those beliefs. The movie, The Motorcycle Diaries, which was released in 2004, contributes to the inaccurate biography of Che because it displays a young Che who seems to be a lot more empathetic and benevolent than he may have been in reality.

Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, Che, is known for his empathetic views towards the poor people of South America. On his famous motorcycle trip, he witnessed the suffering of the poor, unfortunate people of South America. A little-known fact, Che was born into an upper middle-class family in Argentina. The recipient of a fine education, he earned a medical degree, focusing on the study of leprosy. Che was extremely moved by the people he met on his trip because he was raised with privileges unknown to the majority of the South American population. Che was not the opinionated person he later became, but what he saw and experienced on this trip significantly influenced his development as a person and a revolutionary, and led him to hold the ideology he was famous for. This is the message that The Motorcycle Diaries really tries to convey.

Che believed the only way to overcome the economic disparity of South America and to liberate the impoverished people was through socialism, and that socialism would manifest only through revolution. The problem with the movie is that it leads most viewers to believe that Che was a lot more passive than he actually was. Evidence shows that Che's ideas regarding revolution were rather violent and bloody. The argument can and has been made that Che did not preach peace in any form, rather he told his followers to hold strong feelings of hatred toward their enemies. The leader of guerilla forces, Che trained his recruits to be ruthless killers if need be, and who made political objectives their top priority. Paul Berman, who reviewed The Motorcycle Diaries and drew upon valuable primary source material, quotes Che's diary which reads, "hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become."

What many people believe about Che's acts of social justice, if you will, are debatable. He did attempt to drive out capitalism in South America, one of the main factors leading to the economic situation in the majority of the continent.Yes, Che was a revolutionary. He did orchestrate change, but the way that he attempted to affect those changes and achieve those goals was violent and inhumane. Extremely resolute in his beliefs, he believed that what he was doing was righteous and just.

The biggest problem is that the life of Che Guevara is not being accurately disseminated. History is being rewritten by those using the actions of Che to promote and spread their own political platform.There is so much biased information regarding Che, his actions, and his beliefs, that it is difficult to know what to believe. The internet is probably the worst place to learn about Che Guevara, because it is unregulated, and most of the websites contain information that is politically biased in some fashion. However, a form of media that did portray a part of Che's life accurately was the movie The Motorcycle Diaries. The movie, based on the book of the same name, was largely accurate, but is not free of embellishment.

The movie over-emphasizes the scene at the leper colony in Peru. In reality, Che and Alberto did not spend much time there. The book contains less than a single page describing Che's time at the leper colony, but the filmmakers make this event the focal point of the movie. The episodes in the mining district were the key, and the movie depicts these episodes as the second most prominent part of the diaries. Also, a large part of the book and the movie is about chasing girls, having fun, and scamming people out of food. Overall the movie was well done, and it characterizes the young Che fittingly. The film effectively captures his awakening awareness of class consciousness.

Che was not necessarily a perfectly noble anarchist who changed the world for the better.Trying to help those who were suffering was the right idea, but he went about it the wrong way. He incited change through violence, rather than by other, more diplomatic, means. Of course the argument can be made that no revolution can be successful unless it is conducted through violent, coercive action, but the points are debatable. What is certain is that wearing the Che insignia does not necessarily make the social and political statement that one is in support of justice and opposed to a repressive government. Instead by donning items displaying Che, a person shows that, in most cases, they don't know much about Che's life and actions.