A true picture of Che is not that of the flamboyant posters, nor the hagiography of both Hollywood and Stalinism, but of a man dedicated to the poor internationally, trying with a small band of guerrillas to spark a revolutionary uprising of peasants and workers to create a better life for themselves, and meeting frustration after frustration, with only some small successes apart from the tremendous victory of the Cuban revolution itself.
The Bolivian peasants who are still alive and living in the areas in which Che and his guerrilla band were operating were clearly touched by the brush of history. In the film "Ernesto Che Guevara: The Bolivian Diary," the filmmakers found that many of them were still alive, and interviewed them. They movingly recounted that one world-historic experience of their lives, their encounter with Che. Some remembered his kindness towards them. One peasant woman was an apolitical young teenager in 1967 and had risked her life to bring Che food and look after him in his last hours. Now around 50 years old, she remembers Che's kindness towards her, and how this profoundly affected her life. Although no one in the film says it in so many words, clearly Che was something of a Christ figure to them, even to those who betrayed him or fired on him. It's quite a comment on our present condition that human touches that were once quite ordinary seem, in today's world, exceptional. As Che put it, in his most famous quote: "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that a true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love."
Che was captured, tortured and murdered in Bolivia under the direction of the CIA on October 9, 1967. Thirty-six years have passed. Still Che is remembered, not as some ancient and barely remembered patriarch, but as one who exemplifying the spirit of the times. He inspired so many ordinary people to commit themselves to their vision of a different world, even in the face of bureaucratic intransigence and the enormous power of US imperialism, against all odds.
That such a vision seems extraordinary today, that acting out of one's love for humanity is almost inconceivable in the US today only makes yesterday's commonplace behavior seem beyond comprehension. And yet, people act in such ways ALL THE TIME. We just don't see it, or report it. It's what makes us human in an era of robots. It's what enabled the new Bolivian revolution to actually win state power, much to the chagrin of the US government. That, too, is part of Che's legacy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cohen01032004.html
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