A Revolutionary Icon, And Now, A Bikini

Forty years after his death, Che — born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, is as much a marketing tool as an international revolutionary icon. This raises the question of what exactly does the sheer proliferation of his image, the distant gaze, the scraggly beard and the beret adorned with a star, mean in a decidedly capitalist world?

Recently in Santa Clara, Cuba, Aleida Guevara March, the 46-year-old daughter of Che Guevara, says she can bear the Che T-shirts, the Che keychains, the Che postcards and Che paintings sold all over Cuba, not to mention the world. At least some of the purchasers truly cherish Che, she says. On Monday she was surrounded by thousands of Che fans wearing his image here in Santa Clara, where her father’s remains are kept, and where she sat in the front row of a ceremony to observe the 40th anniversary of his death. But amid all the ceremony, what really gets to Ms. Guevara is the use of the man she calls Papi in ways that she says are completely removed from his revolutionary ideals, like when a designer recently put Che on a bikini. Even in Cuba, one of the world’s last Communist bastions, Che is used both to make a buck and to make a point.

There’s no doubt that when Fidel dies someday, his image will be just like Che’s,” said Enrique Oltuski, the vice minister of fishing and a contemporary of both men. But Che’s mythic status as a homegrown revolutionary does not extend everywhere, even if his image does. When Target stores in the United States put his image on a CD carrying case last year, critics who consider him a murderer and symbol of totalitarianism pressed the retailer to pull the item.

What is with this phenomenoum of putting murder's faces on clothing, as a way for us to be inspired by them? What is the world coming down to in Cuba and even in our state, the United States. I do not doubt that by next week the biggest thing will be Hitler's face on binders and as book coverings. I really do not think this type of advertising is a good idea, especially where I can imagine teenagers buying a shirt with Hitler's face on it and thinking it is cool!

More to this article can be found at; A Revolutionary Icon, And Now, A Bikini.