Che - A Communist Who Sold A Thousand T-shirts

A communist who launched a thousand T-shirts

For many of us, Argentina is the land of Diego Maradona who created a revolution in soccer and ruled the normally anarchist world of football.
But during the 50s and 60s youngsters all around the world adored another Argentine: Che Guevara. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna commonly known as Che Guevara or El Che, was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, medic, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas . His life was a stuff of fairy tales. Growing up in a left-leaning family of aristocratic lineage, he showed signs of his dynamic personality and radical perspective even as a boy. He was an avid reader, especially the works of Marx, Bertrand Russell and Pablo Neruda. He was a chess enthusiast and an attacking rugby player, despite a recurrent asthma that troubled him throughout his life.
Che Guevara graduated in medicine from University of Buenos Aires, and during this time he was deeply hurt by the socio-economic inequalities in the society at that time. While a student, he spent long periods traveling around Latin American country sides, and his eyes were opened to harsh realities and inequalities in the society (memoirs of this trip was later published as "motorcycle diaries").

Witnessing widespread poverty and oppression in the Latin American society and influenced by his readings of Marxist literature, he found that the only solution for this problem was an armed revolution. So he decided to put down the stethoscope and instead take the gun : a decision that changed the course of Latin American history. Che was in the front line in the revolutions of Guatemala and Cuba. He considered United States as an imperialist power that would crush any attempt of rectifying the socio economic inequalities in Latin America. Che was greatly influenced by Fidel Castro's revolutionary works in Cuba. Che and Castro together led the great 26th June revolution. After the triumph of the revolution, Che was given Cuban citizenship and he was appointed as the industries minister of Cuba. Che Guevara's revolutionary movements were not confined to Cuba alone. He wanted to spread the revolution to other struggling countries. So he resigned from the government and went Bolivia. He Guevara initiated the guerrilla warfare against the CIA supported Bolivian army. Unfortunately Che was betrayed by an informer and was captured and executed by the US sponsored Bolivian army. It marked the end of the life of one of the most luminous characters of revolutionary history of Latin America.
But after his death, a new Che was born in the minds of people all over the world. He was glamorous, fought bravely in many guerrilla warfare, gave his life for the cause he strongly believed in, stood up and spoke against one of the greatest superpowers, all of which gave him an aura of a romantic hero that even Sylvester Stallone would love to play. He was eulogized in newspapers and magazines around the world. Even in remote villages in Kerala, one can find photographs of Che in tea shops and communist party offices. A photograph of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda was considered as the "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century." However, Che Guevara's image gained or rather suffered (whichever way you look at it) another transformation, as this image was used for selling products, from T-shirts to shaving lotions. This was a transformation which bewildered many die-hard Che-maniacs. But the consumers of the capitalistic world found Che Guevara's image attractive and fashionable, much like a David Beckham with Das Capital. So now Che Guevara intentionally or unintentionally gets the best of both worlds. The left adore him for his brand of courageous revolution, while the right love him for his macho, sexy image that sells a zillion products.