Discussion on another message board I'm involved with, regarding Che Guevera.

[Archae]

Was a hero?

Revolutionary for hire?

Racist swine?

Coward?

At the message board people have posted evidence of all four.
Some of that evidence is just hearsay, of course.

[Warpy]

1. Mostly, he was an exporter of revolution

who badly misjudged his time and place.

[dionysus]

2. probably all, to wildly varying degrees.

[JI7]

3. the racist stuff was when the US had segregation, i believe he changed his views in that area

over time .

some wingnuts brought up the same thing to me before .

[Archae]

10. This was what was posted about Che's racism.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3657/che_guevara_was_no_hero_he_was_a_racist

[JI7]

12. i saw the same thing , his comments were made in the early 50s

a time when black people did not have rights in the united states .

what is important is when he became a revolutionary he went to africa to support the africans against colonists.

the right wingers who would attack him for those comments are the same ones who defend legal discimination against people based on things like race.

[AgingAmerican]

4. There is a book

...that is required reading for all school kids in Latin America. It is called, "Open Veins of Latin America". Read that book and you will understand Che AND Fidel.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

5. On Che

Che was hero in his time to exploited Latin American, and African countries and also Ireland. It was after his death that he became a world wide symbol of anti-capitalism, and resistance. Che was a humanist, and had strong convictions of social justice and moral justice. He was a man of action, and often Fidel had to talk him out of risky missions that could jeopardize their movement.

Revolutionary for hire: Certainly not.

Racist Swine: Nope Che worked with and had close friendships with Cuba's Afro-Cuban community. If he were a racist he would not have traveled to the Congo to try and aid leftist rebels there, as well as poor indigenous peoples in Bolivia. Moreover, Cuba's later successful involvement with Angolan war was a proxy victory against South Africa's apartheid.

Coward: I cannot imagine a more adventurous character, with a curious mind, and iron will who pushed his asthmatic body around the world trying to teach people to liberate themselves. He broke ranks with Castro by criticizing Moscow's industrial policy in preference for Mao's local initiatives, (he was grass roots guy). He was also shot about 5 different times in different theaters of combat.

[polly7]

9. +1000. nt

[Recursion]

6. A complex guy

I don't like the simplification of his story.

I especially don't like his image being put on tshirts by child labor in sweatshops to be sold to bourgeois teenagers.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Jon Lee Anderson's Che Guevara :A Revolutionary Life

is regarded as being the most accurate definitive biography of his life and times.

I would say that what matters most is that he remains a hero to the Cuban people in Cuba as opposed to Miami for example.

For those who don't know - his original presence in Cuba was due to a simple twist of fate. He'd left Guatemala at the time the US deposed Arbenz in 1954 and went to Mexico. It was in Mexico that the Castro brothers found him a few years later following their fund gathering exercise in the USA.

[a la izquierda]

8. One man's terrorist is another man's...

Freedom fighter.

My Life with Che is great, and The Motorcycle Diaries explains how he became what he became. Open Veins is good, but it's quite biased and inaccurate in spots (I'm a LatAm history professor).

[quinnox]

11. I don't know about him at all

I know he is considered a "darling" of some progressives, but personally I never looked into the guy.