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By Madeline Baro Diaz | Sun Sentinel
Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s face is a familiar one around the world, stamped on shirts, hats, postcards, lighters and other items.
To some, the famous picture of the revolutionary with the beret, long hair, scraggly moustache and faraway gaze, symbolizes idealism and rebellion.
To many Cuban exiles, however, he’s a ruthless killer who helped establish a totalitarian regime in their homeland.
Today, those exiles seem to be feeling a heightened Guevara presence. The movie The Motorcycle Diaries had screen star Gael Garcia Bernal as Guevara and, until recently, clothing with Guevara’s face on it could be found at Burlington Coat Factory.
“There’s a whole phenomenon going on with Che Guevara that’s really difficult to explain,” said Valentin Prieto, a Cuban-American who has written about Guevara in his online Babalu Blog, where he also posted information on protests against Guevara merchandise.
“You have kids who don’t even know who Che Guevara is wearing his clothes. Che Guevara to Cubans is a murderer.”
An Argentine doctor, Guevara fought alongside Fidel Castro in the revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista’s government in Cuba. He held various posts with the new government and was involved in attempts to export Cuba’s revolution to other countries. During one such attempt in 1967, he was caught and executed in Bolivia, cementing his legend for those who saw the Marxist as an anti-establishment icon.
The growing myth bothers people such as Prieto, who say it glorifies a man who put scores of Cubans to death by firing squad.
“I think of my father or my mother who lived seeing people get taken away by Che Guevara and his henchmen,” said Prieto, 39. “I can’t imagine the pain that they must feel to see a kid on television rapping, wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt.”
Teenagers in Che wear, such as one featured in a Burlington Coat Factory television commercial earlier this year, were offensive enough for those who bristle at Guevara goods. But a baby outfit featured in Time magazine’s recent gift guide really riled them up.
The Guevara onesie is sold by La La Ling, a Los Angeles children’s store that promotes the outfit online with a description that reads, “Do you have a little revolutionary on your hands?”
“It’s one of our top sellers,” said store owner Ling Chan. “The Che image is just trendy right now.”
After appearing in Time, Chan’s online sales increased, but so did the hate mail. Last weekend a handful of protesters showed up outside her store.
Chan said she doesn’t know much about Guevara’s history and has heard both from those who view Guevara as a hero and those who call him a villain.
“I don’t think people are buying the shirt necessarily because of his exact politics,” she said. “I have a baby store, and in my eyes it’s just a T-shirt.”
Both Chan and Appaman, the company that makes the baby clothes, say they will keep selling Che items.
Burlington Coat Factory, however, has pulled Che clothing off its racks. In a statement, the company said it sold Che Guevara T-shirts earlier this year “as a trendy item” but removed the shirts from stores after receiving complaints.
Gloria La Riva, who has coordinated efforts to free five Cuban men convicted of spy-related charges in the United States, said she had a college roommate in the 1970s who had a Guevara poster. Curious about who he was, she ended up learning about and supporting the Cuban revolution.
“I think he represents an ideal of justice and of equality and sacrifice,” she said. “He made the sacrifice of his own life. ... He was trying to help the people of Bolivia.”
La Riva said Guevara is hated because of his efforts to spread socialism. She disputes the characterization of him as a cold-blooded killer.
She contends the government Guevara helped put in place has saved millions of lives through programs such as immunization for children.
La Riva said more young people are taking an interest in learning about Guevara, and seeing his face on clothes might stoke that interest.
At one point, Prieto tried to sell his own shirts with an anti-Che sentiment on them, but copyright issues over the Guevara image, snapped by the late Cuban photographer Alberto Korda, ended that effort. One aspect of Guevara merchandise, however, brings a bit of satisfaction to detractors.
“Che Guevara was a communist Marxist anti-capitalist,” Prieto said. “There’s people making money off his image. That’s the delicious irony of it. He must be spinning in his grave.”
Madeline Baro Diaz can be reached at or 305-810-5007.
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I wish I could find a T-shirt with a picture of Guevara between cross hairs. That one I would buy and wear proudly as a young Cuban. Every elder Cuban that lived through the “revolution” has told me the same story, that Che was a ruthless man who enforced harsh and sometimes ridiculous laws by sending Cubans to a firing squad at will!
Hi-I dont wanna upset anyone. My sister and brother family are cubans. after seeing the “che” shirt on so many people i got curious and bought one. But then i started reading his books. for some reason what he said made sense to me. That everyone should be treated equal. castro is a horrible man. and i know that che was “friends” with him. But to my belife of cuba now a day che would not stand for that. castro went into cuba took over took the money and greed and left the people. che was someone who wanted to help the people. he wanted everyone to have the same treatment as the person next to them. since buying the shirt i have read almost all the books on che and im fasinated (im sorry im spelling so bad its a long day). Trust me, the last thing i would want is a person who would kill people. I do not believe in murder. But lets look at america. maybe bush is not taking the gun directly to the people in iraq but in a way he is killing these people. my husbands best friend just died their. I do not believe that all countries should be communist but i think if their is a right person to be able to treat everyone the same then good. come some countries half is starving and half is rich. like look at all these famous people eating 1,000 dollar dinners while children suffer and die everyday. the people need to stop thinking about GREED! no one is better then the person next to them. please do not hate me, for believing what i believe. i do not like castro i wish him the worst. but che if he was alive would have taken care of the cuban people. im positive. thank you
natalie
Che was a saint who dedicated (and ultimately gave) his life to creating a better world.
Read his own words and you will see.
Don’t be misled by a small group of bitter extremists in South Florida.
Saints don’t have Firing Squads as part of their tools to spread their angelic words. Saints don’t use hatred to fuel wars or advocate similar ideas.
The irony alone that Che stood against everything this country (U.S) represents should be enough for any american to not wear his shirts, hats, dipers or whatever other nonsense they want to slap his face on.
If they had a shirt with Antonio Maceo I would wear it, thats a true Cuban hero.
Actually, saints do tend to use hatred to start wars…look at the crusades, muslim extremists, the far reaches of any religion really. I, personally, wear Che apparel because I respect a man who could dedicate a life to uprising and revolution. Obviously, it’s easier to relate to another person who feels slighted by the government, and so I find it a lot more convenient to wear a shirt with the image of a person who embodied the idea of revolution, something I, unfortunately, cannot embrace fully yet in my life.
Well I’m not cuban. I don’t wish to offend anyone. I’m 50% mexican and 50% native american and I live in San diego. One of my Aunts told me everything about Che. I think if he was to me a life right now he would not like to see people wearing his face on a shirt and not knowing who he is. I respect and Admire Che for what he did. For the people who don’t think the same way I do I’m sorry…
I just wish I had the plessure to meet Che.
Well, I am reading a book by a man who escaped Che’s era when he was a child. His name is Humberto Fontova. The book is “Exposing the Real Che Guervara: and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him”.
Reading this it is clear that people like Jessee Jackson and Jay-Z should not be sporting Che wear and exalting him since his own diaries called black people “indolent and fanciful, spending thier money on frivolity and drink”. Jackson against the death penalty should know that Che had over 14,000 people executed. His plot to blow up several American sites should be noted and the fact he wanted to use atomic weapons against Americans: “If the nuclear missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of America, including NYC” and “We will march the path of victory even if it costs millions of atomic victims…we must keep hatred alive adn fan it to paroxysm” sourche London Daily Worker 1962 (Nov)
You CAN get anti-che shirts—google them. I wear one proudly!
natalie you are so right man u should give me your number so we can meet or something but thats what i always thought.i hate that the call me a communist well not really but im not che just wanted what was good for the people and that lead him to his execution. i just say sometimes you gotta do bad to get the good and thats what che did take for example the atom bomb it was bad it killed millions of innocent people but at the end ended world war 2, thats what che did if he had how many people that girl said he killed it was for a good reason. HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE
Ok, Che was a bad man. He may have had great ideals, but tourturing peolpe to realise his utopia was stupid. Stooping to the level of the American administration, then and now. I am a socialist, but I resent being associated with bourgious idiots wearing Che tops because of this. They do not understand the full horrors of the Che era in Cuba, and if they do, they actively support a mass murder. Just because he labeled himself a Communist Revolutionary does not mean you yourself have to support his ideals if your a leftie. I wanna know how totti can say people’s deaths are a good thing… thats messed up.
So should I go around wearing a Hitler t-shirt because he was a revolutionary? I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Hitler shirt because he slaughtered people. Guess what, so did Che. Revolutionaries do not slaughter, they lead. Did our founding fathers slaughter? No, they fought like hell but they didn’t line people up and shoot them at point blank range…
A truly great man, he did conduct the trials and executed some of the secret police from Batista’s era. Plenty of people got off and only those found guilty got what they deserved.
These people were the usual CIA backed vermin. Bush is responsible for murdering thousands of children, do you think because you kill a child by dropping a bomb on him from 20,000 ft, it makes it ok?
How many inocents have USA presidents murdered since 1945?
Think the truth is somewhere between both justin’s and craigs positions.
Am sure lots of people lost their lives or livelihoods through Che and otehrs that were not just bad bad guys. At teh same time I wouldnt use Che and Hitler as similar figures by a long shot.
Guevara was a murderer. Yes! I´m a Brazilian boy and, around here, others marxists killers ARE in power. I suspect that if somebody would sell hitler t-shirts everyoune would be angry. Now the facts, Communism around the world killed even more than nazism, but it seems that no one cares. Both ideologies should be prohibited( By the way, in Uraine, it IS prohibited, cos´ millions of people have died by starvation under the hands of Stalin) for the evolution of democracy.
The comparison of Che & George W. Bush is ridiculous. Each man should be judged individually and in context of their goals.
Bush ordered an offensive to destroy terrorist groups in defense of the country he swore to protect. Regretfully, as in all wars, innocent people died. The end result of his actions: The USA has not been attacked since 911 and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are free to prosper and control their own destiny.
Che Guevara with his altruistic ideology murdered all who disagreed with him only to serve his own ambition. The end result of his actions: The Cuban people have suffered for the last 50 years, the war in the Congo still rages, the Soviet Union collapsed under its own oppressive weight, and to avoid the fate of the USSR “The People’s Oppressor that is China”, which Che admired, is slowly becoming capitalist to survive. This is good for the Chinese people!
In the end Che is a failure just like the ideology he professed. Communism equals death. It contradicts human nature and Che understood this. That’s why he aimed for a “new man” that acts on moral obligation and not economic incentive. This ideal would be great if it were achievable, but history has shown it to fail every time it is tried. Especially when tried through force.
Democracy and a respect for the rule of law is freedom, and capitalism is the cure for poverty. So go buy your stupid T-Shirt with the murderer on it. Don’t forget your O.J. Simpson shirt while you’re at it!
