Che myth at 40

A dozen workers manhandle a 4-metre statue of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara into position in La Higuera’s village square, a collective effort that sees his cigar-clenching hand rise in the sky to celebrate the 40th anniversary on October 9th of his death in this remote corner of Bolivia’s Santa Cruz department.

Hundreds of visitors from around the world have made their way to La Higuera, the site of Guevara’s execution, for a weekend of events that show the legend of the Argentine revolutionary is alive and well. But while President Evo Morales sees Guevara as a kindred spirit who fought for the rights of the poor, Bolivians harbour mixed feelings about him.

In La Higuera and nearby Vallegrande where his body was displayed to prove he was dead, people have ‘sanctified’ him and talk of Saint Ernesto. “Because Che was a doctor, people think he has miraculous powers and light votary candles to him,” says tour guide Gonzalo Flores.

Bolivia’s Marxists say Guevara is more important than ever as inequality among people grows. “Che is never going to die because he always promoted change,” says sculptor Rodolfo Aranibar who donated the statue. “Che is alive because there are children that go hungry and because man keeps exploiting man,” says Ivan Herrea, director of the Che Vive group.

Soldiers that battled with Guevara’s revolutionaries think it inappropriate to celebrate the man they pursued while they fight to obtain state pensions in recognition of their efforts to stop his insurgency. “The government is paying homage to a foreign invader and it is shameful that neither it nor the armed forces recognize those that died doing their duty,” says General (retired) Gary Prado, who as a Bolivian army captain, captured Guevara’s guerrilla force at Nancahuazú in 1967.

Guevara’s spirit persists within the younger generation as it does with teenagers across North America; with the Marxist dialectic watered-down into ‘revolution light’, a symbol of protest without the blood and bullets, achieved by wearing the iconic image created by Jim Fitzpatrick in 1968 that is based on a 1960 Alberto Korda photo. “Che is a mythical figure that represents questioning, rebellious youth rather than the Cuban revolution,” says historian Paula Peña, director of the history museum in Santa Cruz.

Fitzpatrick’s image is known the world over. In Santa Cruz, it can be found on the banners for the Blooming and Oriente Petrolero soccer teams. “Some people admire Che because he is in fashion but he means nothing to me. What Che did is not well-known but everyone knows the t-shirts,” says Amanecer Tedesqui, a young internet entrepreneur. The image has popular appeal which is why “in the elections for class president at public universities some candidates put the Che image against their names to show they are prepared to fight for their ideals,” says Roberto Aguirre, national editor at Santa Cruz newspaper El Deber.

Guevara’s message still resonates in some of the poorest parts of Bolivia, such as the impoverished Villa Primera de Mayo neighbourhood in Santa Cruz whose main street is Ernesto Che Guevara. “This is one of the few recognitions of Che, but he is already dead so he is not a political problem. Most people are worried about more basic things such as inflation,” says Aguirre.

For Gary Prado, Guevara is little more than a media creation. “If it wasn’t for the media, no one would remember him. I had Al Jazera asking me about Che. What on earth has Al Jazera got to de with Che?” he asks.

The Guevara story has captivated the West since the 1978 publication of Travelling with Che by his companion Alberto Granado, which spread to a new generation with the 1994 publication of Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries, turning him into a mythical figure, a beckon of hope. “The death of Che has been a permanent feed for [Castro’s] revolution,” says Peña. “This guerrilla was sent to Bolivia as a sacrifice as Castro did not want to deal with him in Cuba. There has been a concerted effort to create and develop the Che myth to compensate for Castro’s failure in Latin America,” says Prado.

Having had successive military and right-wing governments, interest in Guevara in Bolivia has been relatively recent. “Until five years ago, Che was just a fact on a page of history, but this began to change as people saw the economic potential of exploiting his history and death,” says Aguirre,

“Tourism,” is the succinct response about what Guevara means, says Carlos Vargas, manager of economic development in Vallegrande. “Most people were detractors of Che but now they see in him the opportunity to develop tourism in the region. We hope people will come for the Che Route and stay to do other tourism activities,” he says. It is a recipe for success as “everyone wants to get close to the Che myth and go to the places where he was,” says Peña.

Close up includes first-hand anecdotes from people present at the events such as farmer Manuel Cortes, who still lives 30 metres from the school where Guevara was executed: “At 11am, two soldiers walked past carrying rifles and two beers. They drank and talked about who should kill him. I heard shots. Two bursts. They killed [Simon Cuba] Willy and then Che,” he says.