I've written a lot about Che Guevara, virtually all of it fiction, although I try mightly to approach the man's spirit. I was barely out of high school in Texas when Che was killed in Bolivia. That was 1967 and Che was high-regarded in our culture. He was, of course, just as widely feared; and more significantly, hated. The feeling that the world would become (in his words) "many Vietnams" fed that fear of men like Guevara.
It's a great irony that such a sensitive and caring physician became such a violent and ruthless man; and that he accomplished with his cruel death what he could not bring forth in life - the beginnings of world revolution. (It's an ongoing, back-and-forth struggle where technology, as where as the players, goals, and rules change constantly. Let's go with this, for now.)
In Feb-Mar of 1960 (about a month's visit, in all), Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir traveled through Cuba and talked with people. This was about a year after Castro has taken power, and the French philosophers and politicos were asked not to describe Cuba as an emerging socialist society; Castro had not (as it was later described) yet "discovered" he was a Communist: that came in a vision, after the Bay of Pigs and the U.S. economic boycott, which forced Castro to turn to the U.S.S.R. for aid. (Makes you wonder why our government never seems to be able to recognize a potential friend, or is so quick to make eternal enemies?)
The philosophers spoke extensively with Che, who was fluent in French. Later Sartre, an accomplished critic, novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and existentialist philosopher, called Che "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our era."
While I admire Che very much, I'm going to ponder that statement for while. We'll talk later. I once traveled to Paraguay and Bolivia on a medical mission, but took time to explore some Che issues myself.
Anyway, here's Che, with a video and song I really enjoyed.
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