I was sitting a Starbucks reading a computer book, enjoying my Starbucks coffee. A couple walked in and sat down besides me. The man was a young college looking guy and he was wearing a Che Guevara shirt.
I have seen Che Guevara shirts around a lot of colleges. I knew very little about this man except he was a communist that was a friend of Fidel Castro. I also knew he was responsible for many deaths. So, I did some research to see for myself to answer a question; why is Che so popular among college students?
Here are some basic facts on Wikepidia.org:
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Dr. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928 [›] – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara or el Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader. Guevara was a member of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement that seized power in Cuba in 1959. After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in the Congo-Kinshasa (later named the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a CIA-organized military operation. It is believed by some that the CIA wished to interrogate Guevara but, after his capture in the Yuro ravine, he died at the hands of the Bolivian Army in La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967. Participants in and witnesses to the events of his final hours testify that his captors summarily executed him, perhaps to avoid a public trial followed by imprisonment in Bolivia. After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements worldwide.
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At first, I realize that this man was a communist and was killed by the CIA. I immediately recalled the popular pop song "where is the love" by the Black Eyed Peas where they sing "like the KKK and the CIA." They compared the CIA with the KKK, which is very popular among left leaning people. To many people in America, the CIA is not full of great Americans, but full of people that do only bad things in the world. Also, the CIA killed their hero Che and that is unacceptable!
Upon further reading, I realized some of the “great” acts of Che:
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In 1959, he was appointed commander of the La Cabaña Fortress prison; during his six months tenure in this post (January 2 through June 12, [1959]) [11], he oversaw the trial and execution of many people including former Batista regime officials, members of the BRAC (Buró de Represión de Actividades Comunistas , "Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities") secret police, alleged war criminals, and political dissidents. Even as early as 1959 he helped organize disastrously failed revolutionary attempts overseas, first in Panama and then in the Dominican Republic.
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So, he killed people that disagreed with him and helped organize "disastrously failed revolutions." Sounds like a winner!
Then, he helped bring the nukes from Russia to Cuba. That’s correct, the nukes that would have been used against America if war broke out. The same nukes that would have killed millions of Americans. Way to go Che! Where do I get your shirt?
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Guevara, by his own account, played a key role in bringing to Cuba the Soviet missiles that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis, with respect to which he later told the British Daily Worker that, had the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have fired them against U.S. cities.
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Here is the new T-Shirt I will be getting made soon.
This is the day before Che was executed. I will make it a T-Shirt and use the quote, "Communists aren't cool; death to a killer" Anyone else want a shirt?
I will admit that the man fought for what he believed in.
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While pictures of Guevara's dead body were being circulated and the circumstances of his death debated, his legend began to spread. Demonstrations in protest against his execution occurred throughout the world, and articles, tributes, and poems were written about his life and death. Even liberal elements that had felt little sympathy with Guevara's communist ideals during his lifetime expressed admiration for his spirit of self-sacrifice. He is singled out from other revolutionaries by many young people in the West because he rejected a comfortable bourgeois background to fight for those who were deprived of political power and economic stability. And when he gained power in Cuba, he gave up all the trappings of high government office in order to return to the revolutionary battlefield and ultimately, to die.
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He executed people under his control and then idiots around the work get mad when he is executed by his captures? Honestly, he died like he lived. I also find this quote funny:
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He is singled out from other revolutionaries by many young people in the West because he rejected a comfortable bourgeois background to fight for those who were deprived of political power and economic stability.
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Ok, this guy drove up to Starbucks in a $50,000 SUV and was buying a $5 cup of coffee in Hawaii. I have a feeling he doesn’t “reject” his “comfortable” background and is just wearing the shirt because his friends think it’s cool. I have a feeling if I asked him who Che was, he would say, “Who?”
To read the full life story of Che, go
here.
Mike
01-10-2006, 01:22 PM
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