Che Guevara was an arrogant killer who enjoyed executing prisoners. After his first execution, he excitedly wrote to his father: “Papa, I have killed a man for the first time, and I must admit that I like it very much….” However, no matter how strong his passion for killing was, he was an utterly incompetent soldier. During the U.S. invasion of the Bay of Pigs, Che managed to shoot himself in the face. Castro realized that Che was a useless fighter and decided to make him chief executioner. In 1959 Che was put in charge of the La Cabaña prison. During Che’s time there, he personally executed between 500 and 1,000 people. There are many accounts of his psychopathic sadism, one of which includes a story of him decapitating a 14-year-old boy.
It is hard to believe that Che Guevara should be hailed as a cultural hero after committing such atrocities. In popular culture of the US, he enjoys a cult-like status, yet few people know who he truly is or what he stands for. The popularity of his image is understandable. The famous portrait of Che is quite appealing to the eye, the bold lines of his face with his solid features contrasting beautifully against the deep crimson background. The quotation “Hasta la victoria, siempre!”(Translated: “Until victory, always!”) often appears in a bold font along side his face. This image is sported on T-shirts across the country, yet few people know who this mysterious man is. The few who do are often terribly misinformed. When confronted, many say that they only celebrate him for his revolutionary ideals. However, there is another, less common quotation from Che that I feel those who wear these shirts should hear:
“To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine—this is what our soldiers must become…”
These are the beliefs of Che: they sound more like a quotation from Big Brother than the words of a freedom fighter. Widely agreed-upon morals go against his beliefs, but thousands still celebrate him by wearing his shirts. As well as being fascinated with killing, Che was an avid supporter of nuclear war. He strongly believed that a better society could be built from the ashes. Most people are simply not aware of the ideology their T-shirts trumpet, and I think and hope that ignorance rather than “unbending hatred” drives people to declare Che a personal hero. Sporting a Che T-shirt to support political revolution is like wearing a swastika to celebrate economic reform and a dedicated highway system—it just doesn’t correctly reflect the symbol or the movement.
It is for these reasons that people are offended when his shirt is worn. Why do people wear his shirt? It seems more an ironic testament to ignorance than anything else.
