“Che Guevara, Exaggerated Legend”

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Guerrillero Heroico, the well-recognized image that would be placed ironically on millions of t-shirts and posters and sold to those who believed Guevara to be a hero. Guevara was popularized due to his attempts of exporting revolution. His motives for revolution were to overthrow capitalist governments; he believed that they were responsible for “corruption and tyranny”. (1) Guevara would be remembered as a revolutionary and as a hero to the Cuban people. He would overthrow the Batista government and improve the way of life of the poor. During this process Guevara would end up executing 216 people on his own. (2) Some might even argue that Guevara was evil, or a terrorist; “We don't need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it's necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate”. (3) Nevertheless Che Guevara is not the same noble hero that has been embraced by the Cubans, and popularized throughout the world, he blurs the lines between hero and terrorist. Since his death, his flaws have been hidden and his image as a revolutionary hero, exaggerated.

Che Guevara had developed an “affinity for the poor” from a very young age. (4) During his medical studies he made two motorcycle trips, and wrote an account called The Motorcycle Diaries which would become a The New York Times best-seller. During this time he witnessed vast poverty, and especially in Chile he became enraged at the working conditions of the miners describing them as “the shivering flesh-and-blood victims of capitalist exploitation”. (5) When Guevara began working in a general hospital in Mexico his first wife Hilda noted that he considered going to work as a doctor in Africa and that he continued to be de...

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... York: Knopf, 1997.
Corzo, Humberto. "Cuba: Che Guevara: The Fish Die by the Mouth." Cuba: Che Guevara: The Fish Die by the Mouth. http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y09/enero09/23_O_3.html (accessed February 17, 2014).
Fontova, Humberto. Fidel: Hollywood's favorite tyrant. Washington, DC: Regnery ;, 2005.
Gadea, Hilda. My life with Che: the making of a revolutionary. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Grant, Will. "CIA man recounts Che Guevara's death." BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7027619.stm (accessed February 16, 2014).
Kellner, Douglas. Ernesto "Che" Guevara. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.
Minster, Christopher. "Biography of Fidel Castro." About.com Latin American History. http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08fidelcastro.htm (accessed February 15, 2014).
Spider-Man: amazing fantasy.. New York, NY: Marvel Comics, 2005.

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