The Death of Che, 40 Years Later

Greg Grandin, a history professor at New York University, is the author of several books on American influence in Latin America, most recently last year's Empire's Workshop. This interview was edited for length.

Bernie Becker: How is Che currently viewed in Latin America and how different is his image there than it is here?

Greg Grandin: There are those in the U.S. who see Che as a generic symbol of rebellion against power and some who even think seriously about his political legacy, but he is more readily available as a pop and commercial icon. His image has been co-opted, following in the tradition of Warhol's silk-screened Mao. In Latin America, some of this banalization exists, but the popularity and understanding of Che goes well beyond that. I was living in Guatemala a decade ago when peace accords ended that country's 36-year civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians died. Suddenly Che's image was everywhere. One street vendor told me that during the first three months after the war ended she sold more images of Che than she did of pop stars or the Virgin Mary. So Che-who was no fan of free speech-became a symbol of exactly that in a country long repressed. Throughout the region, Che remains a multifaceted symbol of reform, embodying anything from anti-imperialist resistance to revolutionary purity. And of course it doesn't hurt that he is so good looking--I.F. Stone said that he was the first man he had ever met who he thought not just handsome but beautiful. In recent years, a number of admirers have been elected leaders of a number of countries: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, and Argentina's Nestor Kirchner all have embraced Che. Even more cautious reformers like Brazil's Lula feel compelled to pay homage to his legacy.

Becker: How has his image evolved over the last four decades in Latin America?

Grandin:His popularity has increased since his death. When he was alive, the Cuban Revolution, of which he was one of the most visible spokesmen, represented a divide between Latin America's old, reformist, Communist Party Left, and a new, insurgent left. Today, those debates are largely the stuff of history and his appeal is practically universal save among the most hidebound. Look at Bolivia to get a sense of just how much his reputation has evolved-it was there, in the remote village called La Higuera, that Bolivian forces, aided by CIA agents, executed Che. His Bolivian expedition was a complete failure and his capture had much to do with the fact that he didn't receive much support from either the Bolivian Communist Party nor from peasants. But today Che's image is everywhere in Bolivia and he is particularly esteemed by that country's powerful peasant and indigenous movement. President Morales is reported to keep a picture of him in his wallet and just last year, upon winning the presidency, he participated in an unofficial inauguration, where he claimed Che as a patron saint of indigenous rights, saying, "The struggle that Che Guevara left uncompleted, we shall complete."

Becker: What do you say to those who object to this canonization of Che, claiming that he's nothing more than a totalitarian murderer?

Grandin: I'd say tell it to the millions of Latin Americans, many of them at the margins of society, fighting for a just, truly democratic world, who still find inspiration in his struggle and image. To them, there is no confusion. Do our political commissars, always on the hunt for any whiff of residual sympathy for the militant New Left, really want to dismiss those people out of hand as irrelevant or misguided? Over the last two decades, social movements inspired by Che have fought against free-market orthodoxy. Those movements are bearers of the social-democratic tradition and are seeking to advance democracy.