Che Guevara - The Symbol of Rebellious Youth

The only one photograph made this person known worldwide

Seventy-five years ago, on June 14th, 1928, a man was born in the Argentine town of Rosario. A lot of people still call this man the last revolutionary of the 20th century - "Che" Ernesto Guevara de la Serna. Young doctor Ernesto Guevara was nicknamed as Che right after he met Fidel Castro. After that, Ernesto Guevara became known as Che Guevara worldwide.

Probably, there is nothing paradoxical about the fact that Che Guevara became a revolutionary. He was born in a well-to-do family, but that was not enough for Che to live his life quietly. In fact, the appearance of such people as him was programmed by the economic, social, political life of Latin America. A very strong differentiation between the poor and the rich, blatant injustice and violence could not leave honest and conscientious people indifferent. It goes without saying that all those people did not become revolutionaries.

Che Guevara devoted his entire life to the struggle with corrupted ruling regimes. Che quickly became known in Fidel Castro's army as the smartest officer. On the other hand, he struck people with his aggressiveness, determination to achieve his goals, intolerance to manifestations of weakness. Cowardice  was the biggest sin for Che Guevara, he did his best to fight with this sin, ordering to shoot deserters at the scene. Until his dying day, he believed that communism could be built by means of armed struggle, at times he created the conditions that never existed before. A small armed group devoted to the revolution was enough for Che Guevara to arouse the passion of revolutionary struggle. That romanticism had nothing in common with reality, which eventually played a bad trick on Che. He  hoped very much on the support from Bolivian peasants, but they informed governmental troops on the whereabouts of his group.  Even in jail, Che Guevara never said a bad word about the people that had betrayed him.

Che Guevara's unrestrained energy and determination to struggle made a lot of his friends and even enemies respect him. Gary Prado, captain of the Bolivian army, commanded the operation to destroy Che Guevara's armed group. Prado sincerely admired his courage and confidence. However, these qualities eventually started oppressing Guevara's former companions-in-arms. It was rumored that the relations between Che Guevara and Fidel Castro started worsening very quickly. As during the guerrilla warfare, Che wanted to have everything in a fast way, the quiet life of a minister in Fidel Castro's government was certainly not for him. In addition to it, Che Guevara was not a follower of Castro's closest political ally - the USSR. On the contrary, he had a rather negative attitude to Soviet leaders, accusing them of pandering imperialism.  Che did not like the fact that the Soviet Union helped friendly countries on a self-interested basis only.

There were a lot of other countries in the world, where Che Guevara could struggle against imperialists and colonizers. He waged war in Africa, in 1967 he set for his latest campaign to Bolivia, but never came back. Probably, no one was waiting for him to return, but his family - he was too unpredictable.

People did not forget Che Guevara after his death. On the contrary, his image turned out to be very good both ideologically and commercially. In fact, Che Guevara's image became known worldwide with the help of one photograph that had been taken by Alberto Korda on March 5th, 1960. The photo became famous in 1968, when it became the visual symbol for rebellious students in France. Since that time, the photo became the permanent symbol of the so-called rebellious youth.

This "rebellion" has already brought millions of dollars to a lot of businessmen all around the world. Che Guevara's image can be seen on T-shirts, beer cans, posters, CDs - the list goes on and on. However, what is the point of that? Che devoted his whole life to the struggle against the capitalist society, but he has already become a symbol of that society, a source of income. If he dreamed of being remembered after his death, he probably did not suppose that it would be like this.

On the other hand, one can not do anything about it. If someone wants to hang a poster of Che Guevara in their room or put on a T-shirt with his image on the front - it is their own business. There is absolutely no point of trying to do anything to stop it. Since there is a demand, there is a supply. To crown it all, Ernesto Che Guevara never needed anyone's compassion.