Che! Pop Hero! Martyr! Icon of the Revolution!

On July 28, 1997 the skeletal remains of Ernesto "Che" Guevara were found in a common grave in Bolivia. This discovery has rekindled public interest in one of the most important, if not the most romanticized, revolutionary figures of this century.

After his death, Fidel Castro labeled Guevara the 'new man' of the future; a role model for Cuba's youth. In the 60s and 70s his name and banner became a symbol to activists, civil rights and student movements, the black power movement, and countless revolutionaries. At the opening of an art exhibition, on July 29, 1997 in Havana, dedicated to the 'image of Che' the Cuban Minister of Culture, Abel Prieto, spoke of the continued importance of Guevara's image: "Che's likeness continues to accompany progressive forces around the world with mysterious tenacity." His image, Prieto explains "survives, bearing powerful ethical and revolutionary strength."

Guevara has become a pop hero, whose image has been emblazoned on posters, T-shirts, towels, and buttons. His life has been documented in countless books, articles, and films. And like all heroes, Guevara's virtues have been upheld and his weaknesses overlooked. Since his death, Che has become, literally, larger than life: a martyr, and to some a demigod.

An Argentine by birth, Guevara was trained as a doctor. Following his graduation, he spent several years riding a motorcycle and hitch-hiking through Latin America. It was during this period that Guevara's political awareness began to develop. In 1953 he became involved with the leftist regime of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala. In 1954 Arbenz was overthrown by a C.I.A. sponsored uprising. Soon after, Guevara went to Mexico where he met up with Fidel Castro. From there he went on to fight in the Cuban Revolution.

Following Batista's fall in 1959, Guevara went on to hold various positions in the new Cuban government, including Minister of Industry and President of the National Bank of Cuba. In 1965 he resigned from his government positions and set out to forward an anti-capitalist revolution in the Congo (now Zaire or People's Republic of Congo) and then in Bolivia. On October 7, 1967, after leading a guerrilla organization in Bolivia for almost one year, Che Guevara was captured by the Bolivian military. The next day he was executed.

In his book "Guerrilla Warfare" Guevara outlines a theory of revolutionary guerrilla warfare based on his experiences in Cuba. It is in this book that he explains three important lessons of the Cuban Revolution.

1. Using Cuba as his basis, Guevara claimed that popular revolutionary forces were capable of achieving military victory over professional armies.

2. The guerrilla foco (foco is the Spanish word for 'the centre of guerrilla operations') can create the necessary conditions for revolution.

3.The revolutionary struggle should take place in rural areas.

Che believed a revolutionary foco could instigate change in any Latin American country. Once the foco developed an understanding of the terrain and cultivated the cooperation of the peasantry, a revolutionary movement could have good chances of success. The role of the revolutionary foco was to 'spark the revolutionary masses', to lead the guerrilla warfare, move to conventional warfare and to eventually seize power in the name of the people.

But as Che learned in Bolivia, it takes more than a handful of dedicated revolutionaries to start a revolution. As a quote from Guevara's Bolivian Diary shows: "The peasant base is still not developing, although it seems that by means of systematic terror we will obtain the neutrality of most of them, support will come latter." This is in stark comparison to a letter written to his children where he wrote: "Above all, always be capable of feeling deep inside any injustice committed against anyone anywhere in the world. It is the finest quality of a revolutionary." In Bolivia, Guevara tried to follow the lessons of the Cuban Revolution. These lessons, however, did not apply to the reality in Bolivia. For a number of reasons, Guevara was not able to acquire popular rural or urban support for the movement. As a result, the guerrilla operation was crushed before it could even develop.

Guevara firmly believed that "the armed struggle is the only way for Latin America." This in part, as Daniel James claims, is part of Guevara's appeal: "Che moves us because Che is violence." His goal was the liberation of people living under the tyranny of exploitative governments. The immediacy of direct violent action has appealed to many who felt that the democratic structures necessary to bring about change were either non-existent, ineffective, or to slow.

While many of Guevara's fans criticize 'armchair revolutionaries', who are unwilling to act forcefully in the name of change, others question not only the legitimacy, but also the practicality of political violence. Many claim that a Guevara-style revolutionary force has little chance of success when facing a modern army trained in counter- insurgency tactics and armed with the latest weapons and technology. Others maintain that once a Guevara-style vanguard succeeded in overthrowing its enemy, the new government could potentially become as coercive and authoritarian as the last.

Recent events show that Latin American revolutionaries have diverged from the tactics of Guevarismo. The Guatemalan UNRG, after 30 years of armed struggle, has laid down their arms in hopes of achieving concessions through negotiations with the Guatemalan government. Mexico's Zapatistas, while maintaining that armed struggle may still be necessary, have no intentions to seize state power

, and claim that invigorating civil society is a precondition to achieve other political, social, economic, and cultural changes. The Zapatistas have created a grassroots movement with the bottom in control rather than an armed vanguard imposing its policies from the top, avoiding the authoritarian tendencies often associated with Guevarismo.

Whether or not you agree with Guevara's ideology or particular brand of revolutionary idealism, it becomes evident that much of the myth surrounding Che has been born out of his self-sacrificing personality. His propensity to always be a foreigner attempting to make revolution in someone else's land: "regarding all Latin America and all the world as his country in the true spirit of revolutionary internationalism." His tendency to reject material comfort and wholeheartedly pursue an idealistic conception of revolution for the betterment of humankind. For Che, revolution was his life and his passion: "the revolutionary sacrifices all for the revolution."

Alberto Ciria, Political Science professor at SFU, commented on the media's role in the commercialization of Che Guevara: "Che had the bad luck of becoming involved with the mass media which tend to only produce and reproduce images. Because of this, Che's image has often been used as an aesthetic symbol rather than a political symbol. People wear T-shirts with the image of his face. They'd rather do that than read about Che Guevara. The clash with Fidel Castro. The road to revolution that never materialized. These are important things. Even now books are appearing-- diaries of Che Guevara. He is still a figure who needs to be re-analyzed." In the book, Death of a Revolutionary Richard Harris confirms this statement: "because he has become a popular myth and a revolutionary symbol, those who admire his example as well as those who abhor what he represents possess a greatly distorted conception of the man who was Che Guevara."

Thirty years after his death, most people still recognize the image of Che Guevara, but few remember the dictum : "the duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution." Or simply put, change, be it social, political, or environmental, is made by those willing to act rather than by those waiting for it to be served to them on a silver platter. Sometimes the most simple and common sense statements are the most revolutionary.

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