Why Che's daughter fights to preserve his image as idealistic revolutionary

[dipsydoodle]

Forty-five years after Che Guevara's death, his daughter, Aleida, talks about growing up in the shadow of a world-famed leader.



She has the eyes of her father, a gaze that became an emblem for the 20th century. She also has his deep sense of social injustice, but Dr Aleida Guevara has always had to share her "papi" with the world.

While she doesn't mind the posters, the flags, the postcards, graffiti paintings and T-shirts, Dr Guevara and her family are trying to clamp down on "disrespectful" uses of her father's famous photo, taken by Alberto Korda in 1960. Not easy when it is the most reproduced image in the world.

"It's not so easy, we do not want to control the image or make money from it, but it is hard when it's exploited," Dr Guevara smiles. "Sometimes people know what he stands for, sometimes not. Mostly I think it is used well, as a symbol for resistance, against repression."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/08/che-guevara-daughter-aleida

[flamingdem]

1. Such a cherubic shot of Fidel

Never seen him look like that

[msongs]

2. che was a sociopathic serial killer. he WAS repression. nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. But don't forget that in death he is a real money maker...

[Th1onein]

4. Meh...I disagree.

He grew hardened, yes, but he didn't start out that way. He was a great man who did great things, for a very long time.

[dipsydoodle]

7. In response to your comments.

It is indisputable that Guevara personally shot individuals during wartime and a "revolution". Jon Lee Anderson, the author of the definitive 800 + page biography "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life" notes several (around 10) documented examples of men who were shot personally by Guevara or on his command for a number of "crimes" during the guerrilla phase in Cuba - including desertion, stealing rations, raping a peasant, being an informer (chivato) etc. Anderson also notes the 55 executions at La Cabana that were carried out in instances where Guevara had the final appellate say on whether to suspend or lessen the death sentences handed down by the 3 man revolutionary tribunals (whether Che personally "killed" these he refused to pardon I guess could be a matter of debate).

So the answer is probably close to 10 personally during war time (not including battles which would probably be another 10-20 in an array of battles). As for those killed on his orders - after the Cuban revolution between 55 (Anderson) and several hundred (other biographers) War Criminals were executed at La Cabana in cases where Che had the final say on whether to pardon them.

As for whether the death penalty was justified, remember that 20,000 Cubans had been killed with many more tortured during the former U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, and Che was in charge of exacting "revolutionary justice" for the victorious side in a revolution.

Biographer Jon Lee Anderson, (who spent 5 years studying the topic) has addressed this matter in a PBS forum stating ...

"I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed an innocent. Those persons executed by Guevara or on his orders were condemned for the usual crimes punishable by death at times of war or in its aftermath: desertion, treason or crimes such as rape, torture or murder."

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091230060828AACW1gh

With regard to "repression" - how do you reconcile that with his popularity in Cuba which remains exceptionally high ? Surely you must have found that odd on the occasions you've visited the island.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Thanks for the info. I have never heard the U.S. never delivered justice

to former government torturers, and death squad members, like the ones U.S.-supported Fulgencio used, have you?

In the case of Batista, the C.I.A. was the group which helped Batista build that big white building in Havana the call the
"White Castle" or something similar, where they took Cuban men and women to interrogate and torture, and sometimes dismember.

Rolando Masferrer, friend of Batista, publisher, Senator, ran a death squad of thousands of sadists who grabbed people off the street, killed them, threw them out on the sidewalk, or hanged them from lightposts in towns, or hacked apart
and left hanging in pieces in trees. (Someone bombed Masferrer's grimey ass when he fled to South Florida to escape retribution after the revolution.)

Another of their tricks, apart from digging their own graves before being shot and buried, was the monstrous choice of
putting the prisoners in large cloth bags, like seed bags, feed bags, gunny sacks, drenching them with gasoline and burning them alive.

These idle, pompous, and hypocritical charges, thrown around at people trying to reclaim their country from a monster who had used his own airforce with ammunition supplied by the U.S. government to BOMB the stuffings out of areas where he imagined revolutionaries and those sympathetic to them might be living, would gag a righteous maggot.

[SunSeeker]

5. I just had to Google her to see what she looked like.

And the article is right, she does have Che's eyes. She's also quite an eloquent advocate for universal healthcare, the environment and education, as this interview with Michael Moore shows.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's a photo of Aleida when she was younger, and the similarity clearer:

[center]



Che and wife Aleida, children, from left,
Ernesto, Camilo (named after Che's friend,
Camilo Cienfuego, Aledita (Aleida) and
Celia, no doubt named for dynamic fighter,
Celia Sanchez, who worked side-by-side in
the Sierra Maestra, and the beginning of
the revolutionary government.



Aleida's brother, Camilo.



Camilo Cienfuegos, revolutionary hero.




Celia Sanchez, revolutionary heroine.[/center]