Ernesto "Che" Guevara

I got rid of my "Live & Learn" category when I split up my blog earlier this year, but I thought I'd do an entry for it today anyway. The reason I've decided to write an entry about Che is that I'm a big fan and have often been asked who the fuck that guy is (especially in this country), and the reason I am writing now is this article about Walter Salles' homage to Che and its success in Cannes.

The article complains about the commercialisation of Che's image - how his face (well, really only "that" photograph by Alberto Korda) is being abused by pop culture and shoved in everyone's faces when most people have no frigging clue what his ideals were.

Some of you may know the pic from Rage Against The Machine merchandise. I never actually bothered to find out why they used him, but as far as I can see they were interested in what he stood for. Most of their fans are not, and most people in general are most likely to associate the pic only with RATM (or with Andy Warhol).

So who was Che Guevara? Very short version: a South American revolutionary, close friend of Fidel Castro (and instrumental in the Cuban revolution), who was executed in Bolivia in 1967 while trying to liberate the country (and in fact the whole continent, lol) using Guerilla tactics. He was an idealist - and a Communist of course (should that have escaped you).

No point giving you a full biography - if you're interested, go here (short) or here (long). Also interesting: Che @ Wikipedia. That's all.