Ernesto Che Guevara

Times magazine hailed him amongst the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. One of his photographs was declared, in a survey, to be the most famous photograph in the world. Everywhere, from t-shirts to posters, a high contrast graphic monochrome of his face is picturing the words ‘rebellion’ and ‘revolutionary’ to the masses. It is hence not surprising to see life of Ernesto Che Guevara as a big inspiration for many teenagers, me included. I must clarify one thing though: Che’s Marxist ideas have never held much appeal for me. Instead it is the basic message of his struggle which caught my attention: elimination of poverty and creating equality in society.
I was introduced to this legendary rebel when I saw a friend wearing a shirt with Che’s monochrome. I was intrigued as this was the first time I had seen any teenager go beyond wearing a wrestling or singing icon. It was explained to me that this guy was “awesome Cuban revolutionary”. Knowing my friend’s habit of believing in street gossip, I decided to do some research myself to find out who Che Guevara was. I went to my history teacher the next day and was told that Guevara was “a terrorist cum politician”. Now although I considered the teacher to be more authentic in this regard, I was still surprised by the polarity of images that these two people had portrayed; one depicting Guevara as hero, the other as villain. I asked my teacher that why was he being worshipped in the popular culture if he was so nefarious? This question was answered by a blank expression on my teacher’s face and I knew then that history certainly was a matter of interpretation. So I searched the internet for articles of all types on Guevara’s life; his early life and affinity for the poor, his asthma problem that he bravely fought, admission into University of Buenos Aires for medical, his athletic interests and aptly given nicknames like El Furibundo(raging) to describe his playing style. The articles showed a contrasting spectrum of opinions. Some, like my friend and prominent people like Nelson Mandela, portrayed him as “an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom”. Others would use words like ‘cold-blooded killing machine’ and ‘Marxist puritan’.
But in all these articles, one thing came out very prominently. In the start of post-colonial era, societies were succumbing to all sorts of social evils and disparity. Corruption, apartheid, lawlessness, poverty. It would seem that freedom from the colonial era was about to become a big curse for places like Latin America. And certainly social degeneration was an imminent possibility in such societies. But at this point, there came people, Ernesto Che Guevara being an excellent example, who rebelled not against a political ideology but against social evils at large. The means by which Che Guevara tried to achieve his aims might be controversial but the ultimate goal was nothing more than a world full of peace; a world where there would be no racial or status based discrimination, where all humans were equal and were treated thus. And this message, every sane human acquiesces to.