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Germanic Collections
"Cuba's face"
Osvaldo C. del Valle (1973)
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In Havana, Cuba, a four story mural of Ernesto "Che" Guevara dominates the Plaza de la Revolucion, the Revolution Plaza where President Fidel Castro has made and continues to make his most important speeches to the Cuban people. School children even today are taught to venerate him and recite in school "Seremos como el Che." (We will be like Che.) The image of Che Guevara continues to be used by socialist and communist organizations in marches and protests throughout Latin America. In the Vietnam War era, his image was held up by the youth of Europe and the United States in protest marches against the war. He is a symbol of a revolutionary sentiment. He even appears in East German posters and artwork: either his easy-to-recognize profile, his beard, his eternal black hat with its five-pointed star, or a quotation from him appear in many posters.
Che Guevara, born in Argentina in 1928, met Fidel Castro in Mexico in the early 1950s, after having participated in revolutionary activities throughout Central and South America. Together they, along with Castro's brother Raul, planned the Cuban Revolution, completed in 1959 with the overthrow of the dictatorial and pro-United States Batista regime. Che was one of the most influential leaders of revolutionary Cuba; he became the symbol of a man who found the seeds of revolution within himself, and who wished to spread it to others. After the Cuban revolution, Che Guevara led the effort to spread communism around Latin America. He wanted to export the revolution to other countries of Latin America and the world. He even traveled to Africa in 1965, where he established contacts with guerrilla groups fighting for the liberation of Angola. He is known for his famous comment declaring his wish to create "one, two, many Vietnams" in the Americas. To do so, at age 36 he abandoned his wife, kids, honorary citizenship, title of commander and position of minister in Cuba and went first to Bolivia. Unfortunately for Che, he chose Bolivia first, where U.S. trained and CIA backed Bolivian soldiers captured and killed him in 1967.
Che Guevara is also recognized and admired for his motorcycle journey around South and Central America. Abandoning all material interests he sought to understand the peoples of America and their popular struggles against authoritarian governments. Educated to be a doctor, he was renouncing his social class and potential economic success to achieve his revolutionary goals.
Untitled
artist unknown
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"Vor allem bewahrt Euch
stats die Fahigkeit,
jede Ungerechtigkeit
die irgendwo auf der Welt begangen wird,
aufs tiefste qu empginden
Das ist der schoenste Charakterzug eines Revolutionaers" - Che Guevara
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"Che--Anti-Imperialist Solidarity"
artist unknown
Untitled
Cuban poster artist
"The heroic guerilla"
Rene Mederos (1971)
"Hic Rhodos, hic Salta"
Hans Joachim Eggstein
His grave was kept a secret until 1995, to avoid becoming a place for public homage. But after his death, the myth of Che became even stronger. Poets wrote elegies; painters and musicians commemorated him through their work as well. Why was it his image, and not Castro's that became so famous. Castro had also traveled around Latin America after graduation from law school, gaining an awareness of other people and nations, and meeting other radicals and leftist thinkers. So why Che? Andres Oppenheimer, in La Hora Final del Che, provides a likely explanation; he informs us that Fidel Castro promoted the image of Che, rather than his own, to such a degree as to cultivate a cult of personality greater than his own, in part because he needed a kind of deity to cement the mysticism of his revolution, and in part because a dead rebel leader posed no threat to his power.
Untitled
Chilean poster artist
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Here Che Guevara is shown as the icon and spirit motivating other revolutionaries throughout the world. This poster was made in Chile, and it is included here to show the widespread production of his image.
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Last modified:
June 27, 2005
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