Planet Che

Che Guevara is Cuba's Nike, Coke, James Dean and John Wayne all rolled

into one: Drink Coke, Be like Che. Just do it, just be like Che!

His image in everywhere in Cuba: on goverment office's, the three peso

note (and now coin), even a huge metal outline of his face covers the outside

of the Ministery of the Interior on the Plaza De La Revolution in Havana. And

recently, the Cuban government opened a museum in his honor in Santa Clara. With

time to kill before my train to Santiago de Cuba, I decided to take a look at the

life of the man that after his death, and because of his ideas and achievements

had been elevated to cult status in Cuba.

When you approach the square in front of the memorial, martial music is

playing from scratchy speakers hidden in the bushes. It reminds you of the cheerful

music piped throughout Disneyland to help lighten the mood.

As you climb the stairs, a rare sight in Cuba greets you: a security camera

follows your every move as you reach the top. A delegation of Cubans from Cienfuegos

was placing a wreath at the foot of a huge mural of Che standing with Fidel. Quotes

from Che are stencilled into the yellowed concrete, and a huge statue of a defiant Che

stands in the middle of the marble platform. Three soldiers with AK-47's stand guard, and

when their compatriots are not looking, whisper, 'A quel pais?' When they hear

Estados Unidos, they suck in their breaths in amazement.

Behind the statue is the entrance to the Che museum, adjacent to a mauseleum

for Cubans who died in the struggle against Batista. A stern guard will not

let you walk anywhere near the museum with a bag (whos going to bomb Che Guevara with

all those cameras around?) and orders you to surrender it at a cabana not unlike a

holiday resort, where a cheerful Cubana gives you a rainbow colored number to claim

your baggage (What, no Club Med beads?) An eternal flame flickers outside the entrance

as you enter the spare museum (although video cameras are everywhere) that explain

Che's life: baby pictures in Argentina, where he was born, photos of him in Africa,

photos of him with his kids, the perfect family man, and the circumstances

surrounding his death in Bolivia.

And all around you, in glass cases, are things belonging to Che, his gun,

his water bottle, his original diary, even his olive green motorcycle jacket,

with whose elasticized sides could have easily come from the Dolce and

Gabbana 2001 Winter Collection....

The personality cult surrounding Che is difficult to miss in Cuba; t-shirts,

postcards of him puffing on cigars, paintings on buses, and his face on Cuba's

money make his famous image, snapped by Korda the photographer, at a funeral for some

revolutiaries killed in a raid. It is all part of Fidel's 'New Man,' the object of

which was to create a new society where machismo was promoted along side

guidelines for husbands and their duties in sharing the housework 50/50. He took Che's

face and used a Hollywood style publicity machine to promote it as THE image of

the revolution that started in the 1950's and is still used today; like James Dean,

whose face will never age after his early death, Che's handsome defiant face

was the perfect image to attract Cuban youth to Fidel's revolution; and despite the

liver spots and wrinkled skin on Fidel's face, Che's will never get old.

Who is Che, and what do Cubans think of him? Most people seem to be indifferent

to the man who personifies the 'new man' that Castro tried to create after he won the

revolution in 1959. One Cuban man muttered 'Rambo,' when he saw Che's photo on a bus,

although I never saw any photos defaced anywhere in Cuba. Others call him a butcher

for his involvement in the assassinations of pro-Batista rebels after the revolution.

And although Che supported Fidel in the early years after the revolution, he left

his adopted home for other revolutions when he witnessed the persecution of artists,

writers and critics of Fidel. This split is never mentioned in Cuba and Che will always

forever frozen in that photograph.

The famous photo from Korda that is by far the most overused image of Che,

so much so that it is an icon like the Nike Swoosh in the USA.... I met a man in the

Plaza Des Armas in Havana, a communist party member who knew Che while fighting along

side him in the battles of the revolution.... 'A good man,' he said, his eyes

shining from the memories of the time spent with him. 'He was not Cuban but he is

exactly the image of a Cuban man: strong, rebellious, and handsome.'

He then smiled at me, and pulled out a box. Out came a copy of that famous photo,

printed from the original slide, he promised, and autographed by Korda himself

(Who was also a close friend and still lived in Havana with his Cuban model girlfriend)

'$250,' he said expectantly, and handed the photo to me. Even communist party members,

it seemed, knew the value of marketing in promoting their revolution.