Ernesto Che Guevara: how the icon of the revolution became a brand

As we know Che

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born into a wealthy aristocratic Argentine family. But luxuries did not attract him, and fate prepared another way for him.

Defender of the Oppressed

From a young age, Ernesto read books about the hard life of Indians and plantation workers. His parents allowed him to interact with children from a wide variety of families, both rich and poor. Perhaps that is why he wanted to treat people and decided to study to be a doctor.

After graduating from university, Guevara traveled as a savage throughout Latin America. In his trips, he saw enough of poverty, unsanitary conditions and lawlessness, and also healed the disadvantaged for leprosy. This is how his idealism and thirst for justice, passion for travel and adventure were forged.

In the mid-1950s, he ended up in Guatemala, where a military junta ousted democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz. Guevara supported him, and after the victory of the juntists, he was even forced to hide in the Argentine embassy until he fled to Mexico. There he met Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolutionaries and the future leader of Cuba. This meeting made a great impression on Guevara and inspired him to join Castro's squad.

Comandante

Ernesto Che Guevara and Raul Castro in Cuba, 1958

Then there was a desperate landing in Cuba in 1956 and a guerrilla war in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra. Guevara was twice wounded, received the nickname Che and became a commandant - this rank was equivalent to a major and was the highest in the revolutionary army.

Che is a common Argentinean interjection, analogous to the Russian "hey" or "dude". Initially, the nickname, emphasizing the Argentine origin, was firmly attached to the name of Guevara.

In an incredible guerrilla war, the defenders of justice managed to win. How difficult it was for Che's asthma in the Cuban mountains, he himself told in his book Episodes of the Revolutionary War. When Guevara did not have the strength to further climb up, his comrade Crespo threatened to "beat the butt" of the future commander and covered him with selective abuse. In the end, they still went up to their own.

The last romantic of the revolution

After the victory, Che Guevara became the Minister of Industry of Cuba. But he could not trade the romance of the revolution and a life full of dangers for a personal office and diplomatic visits. Therefore, Guevara refused all posts in Cuba, recruited supporters and went to S. V. Istomin, N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev. 100 great rebels and insurgents foment "hotbeds of revolution" in Congo and Bolivia. Che wholeheartedly believed in the correctness of his cause and was ready to die for it. And he could not live otherwise.

How one photo can change everything

On March 5, 1960, after the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Che took part in a memorial meeting dedicated to the victims of the explosion of a ship with weapons in the port of Havana. There he was photographed by Cuban journalist Alberto Corda. Later, the picture of Che standing alone on the side became known all over the world. It was on the basis of this image that Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick made the famous red and black portrait.

The famous photo "Heroic Partisan" by Alberto Corda. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Original. Photo: Museo Che Guevara / Wikimedia Commons

Red and black portrait of Che Guevara by Jim Fitzpatrick, 1968. Image: Jgaray / Wikimedia Commons

The photo remained unknown to the general public for a long time, until seven years after the shooting it was seen by the Italian left-wing activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. He asked Korda for a copy of the photograph, and he willingly took several. The photographer never fought for the copyright of this image and allowed it to be freely redistributed.

It so happened that just then 39-year-old Guevara during the war in Bolivia was S. V. Istomin, N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev. 100 great rebels and rebels are wounded, captured, secretly executed and buried in an unknown place. The astute businessman Feltrinelli, without hesitation, launched the sale of posters from a photograph of Korda. Six months later, he sold more than two million of them.

Soon, Che's snapshot became one of the most recognizable images in the world, along with the Nike logo and McDonald's gold arches.

How is it that they make money on the portraits of an ardent anti-capitalist today?

The martyrdom of a man who was devoted to his cause to the end and eventually fell for it excited many. After all, there were legends about the Commander during his lifetime.

All over the world rallies were held in memory of Che, in some cities it came to riots. T-shirts with the same portrait of the Comandante could be seen at rock festivals and hippie demonstrations. And the protest movement of 1968 unfolded largely with the name Che on its lips and his face on banners.

It was the student demonstrations of those years that popularized Che. His image began to inspire completely different people, and the Argentine himself turned almost into a religious idol. This is not surprising, because the whole world then went around the photographs of a dead revolutionary, similar to Christ. In some areas of Latin America, the commander, a staunch atheist, is still considered a saint.

Photo of the dead Che Guevara taken by a CIA officer

View photos of the deceased Che Hide

This is largely why today Che Guevara is a symbol of a romantic revolutionary, fearless idealist and fighter for freedom and justice. His image embodies the qualities that many would like to have. And people strive to get closer to this ideal. Che's portrait has become an element of culture, fashion and has long been associated not only with the Cuban Revolution.

Memorial at the site of Che's death. La Higuera, Bolivia. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Portrait of Che Guevara on the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Cuba. Photo: Mark Scott Johnson / Wikimedia Commons

Flag "Che is alive!" Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This is actually a natural process. In modern society, the principle of "judging by clothes" is becoming more and more important. And if a person wants to feel like a rebel, he will try to show it. For example, wearing that very red T-shirt.

Why Che would hardly have been delighted with such popularity

A real person stood behind the beautiful image of an idealist and freedom fighter. And it had little to do with portraits on T-shirts and badges.

The real Che smoked a cigar to scare away midges, and did not wash for a long time, since the cold water caused him asthma attacks. He was a man of firm convictions and a stern character, ready, for example, to abandon his wife and five children for the sake of the revolution in Bolivia. Guevara believed that the end justifies even the most cruel means. He was an intellectual but did not tolerate dissent.

For example, Che took a direct part in the repression of Fidel Castro, who, after the victory of the revolution, began to fight against political opponents. Several thousand people became victims of persecution. The commander admitted his participation in these "trials" and was not ashamed of it, declaring from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly that "traitors" are being shot and will be shot in Cuba. Also, for the sake of the victory of the world revolution, Che was ready for E. Guevara. Articles, speeches, letters to start a nuclear war. All this does not really fit in with the image of an idealist, almost a holy person.

Che was also a staunch critic of the consumer society. He advocated equality, not the ability to demonstrate higher status by buying something. Che Guevara was a fierce critic of capitalism, considered the free market system to be false and discriminatory, and advocated that rich countries help the poor free of charge. The Comandante himself went to public works, even when he became a minister.

The knowledge that his portraits have turned into a way of earning money for those who really know nothing about the revolution or about Che himself would hardly have made the famous Cuban happy. It is no coincidence that his descendants are still trying to fight the commercialization of the revolutionary image.

However, from the moment a palm tree and another person disappeared from the 1960 photo of Korda, it actually ceased to carry political overtones and turned into a fashionable image. And now, even in the socialist state of Cuba, portraits of Guevara are sold as postcards and souvenirs.