Che Guevara: The man vs. the icon
You cannot travel to Cuba without coming to face-to-face with him — on T-shirts, postcards, books, posters, paintings, hats, towels, even bikinis.
He gazes at you from the back of the Cuban 3 Peso bank note which you might use to tip your guide after visiting Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución where a towering steel facade of his face stares down at you from a government building. If you were to visit a school you would hear children begin the day by pledging: “We will be like Che.”
Of course, I am talking about Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who’s iconic image seems more like an Andy Warhol creation than a real person. (In fact Warhol did agree to take credit for a famous, but fake ‘Warhol Che Guevara’ poster created by Gerald Malanga, after the creator agreed to turn all the profits over to Warhol.)
During a recent trip to Cuba, my wife and I started to feel like Che was following us. Once you start looking, you see him everywhere. In the souvenir shop at our resort, boxes of Cuban cigars and bottles of Havana Club Rum competed for shelf space with Che books, memoirs, diaries, photo essays and hats.
On the day we toured Havana, I asked our guide what she thought of Che. She laughed and pointed to a building across the bay…
