Lucia

de Vernai

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October 8, 2007

‘I Have a Che Shirt and I Don’t Know Why’

In the 40 years following his death, Che Guevara has become a household name. Well, his image has. You may have no idea what he did to deserve a prominent spot on your college-bound son’s wall or its own “Family Guy” parody t-shirt. Still, the deep-set eyes and one-star beret are unmistakably present in popular culture.

Why? If you ask your son, he may tell you about the struggle for indigenous rights and throw in a “power to the people” in Mountain Dew-powered confusion. The creative team at Fox piggy-backed off that slightly self-righteous confusion and created an image of Peter, Family Guy’s main character, sporting the black beret over a messy mop of hair. It’s his confused look and pudgy cheeks that contrast with the original’s intense gaze and strong jaw line and gives those “in the know” the right to smirk. I think.

It used to be that the image annoyed me. Now it’s the people who sport it and can neither define Marxist humanism nor place Bolivia on the map. Those who support the Argentine-born revolutionary’s practices and genuinely believe that socialist planning is the best method of social change are usually not fans of capitalism or the child-labor-constructed merchandise it peddles, even if it has Che on it.

Those who jumped on the bandwagon to be alternative or to cover up their latte liberal roots are a disgrace to Che’s cause and those who have adopted him as a patron since. Though it is debatable whether it is because or in spite of the capitalist adoption of the image, the iconoclast has become a symbol of unrelenting struggle as far as the Middle East.

Perhaps there is something wonderfully postmodern about the different uses of Jim Fitzpatrick’s drawing, based on the photograph by Alberto Korda. Neither artist requires payment for non-commercial use of the image, adding to its quick proliferation. At the same time, its use on all ends of the advertising spectrum – ice cream to living wage – cheapens the original and with time loses its potency.

The image is disassociated from its original importance, the lack of understanding of Che’s mission is a testament to this. Promoting a product giving with regard to nothing other than the bottom line is unethical to say the least. The fault is not all with the manufacturers and distributors. The public that so eagerly buys without question is equally as guilty. And what they don’t know may hurt them.

Although Guevara is undeniably responsible for positive social change in Bolivia, Cuba and other parts of the world, he has a much less discussed dark side. Perhaps as his final project, your son can look into Che’s 1957 shooting of a man he suspected of passing on information. If the kid in the front row takes the topic first, the executions at La Cabaña prison offer a wide variety of research topics.

To be fair, there are pockets of capitalism that are standing up to the Che trend. In Argentina this winter, I found t-shirts that said, “I have a Che shirt and I don’t know why.” It rhymes in Spanish and I thought they would make great conversation starters, but didn’t get one. They were $50 a piece.

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