Cubans Finally Sold on Idea of Commercializing Che

For those who live in the shadow of Cuba’s most important monument to Che Guevara, the image of the bearded revolutionary in a black beret long has been a part of daily life.

But as the 30th anniversary of his death approaches, Cubans are finally discovering what others already knew: Che sells.

Last summer, with more than 8,000 Che-crazy young people from around the world visiting for a youth festival, commercialization of the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary was in full swing. Guevara fans were snapping up everything from posters to wristwatches emblazoned with his image.

“What do you want? Calendars? Posters? A first edition of his Bolivian Diary? We have it all,” said a woman selling books and other items in the Plaza de las Armas in the Cuban capital of Havana.

“You people love Che. We love Che too,” said the woman, who was about 60 years old. At one point, she offered three-peso coins emblazoned with Guevara’s image for 50 cents--four times their worth.

When she found out her customer was a journalist, she became embarrassed about her scam and refused to give her name.

Even government stores are heavily stocked with Guevara items. T-shirts, posters and compact discs with a hymn to his memory are gaining new popularity.

“To your beloved presence, Commander Che Guevara,” thousands of youth festival participants sang with folk singer Silvio Rodriguez at one gathering while President Fidel Castro looked on.

Although Cubans welcome the new interest in Guevara, many worry that Guevara’s ideals could be lost through the commercialization.

“The foreign press paints him as a romantic, an adventurer. He was much more than that,” said Olvidio Diaz Rodriguez, who fought under Guevara during the last, decisive attack on the central city of Santa Clara, which led to the 1959 triumph of Castro’s revolution.

Diaz called him “a thinker, an integral revolutionary, a lover of liberation.”

Diaz, now 64, helps run the House of Combatants in Santa Clara, a social club for former revolutionaries now in their 60s and 70s.

In the house, which features a life-sized oil painting of Guevara in its foyer, the men gather to sip thick black coffee and sweet rum, play dominoes and chess and argue the details of past battles.

Born in Argentina and trained as a doctor, Ernesto “Che” Guevara linked up with Castro and other Cuban revolutionaries in Mexico in the mid-1950s, becoming Castro’s chief lieutenant in the final years before the rebel victory. Guevara, who was granted Cuban citizenship, assumed a lead role in transforming the nation’s economy after the revolution. He headed Cuba’s agrarian reform program, was president of the Bank of Cuba and Minister of Industry.

He also became a devoted Marxist, writing several books on guerrilla warfare and Communist theory.

In 1965, Guevara returned to the business of revolution, helping organize left-wing rebels in the Congo. The following year he traveled to Bolivia to work with leftist rebels there.

He was captured and killed by the Bolivian army on Oct. 8, 1967.

Guevara left an important mark on the 1960s, when his image and philosophy were embraced by university students worldwide. But the fascination eventually faded, especially after the Soviet Union collapsed.

But Guevara never went out of fashion in Cuba.

Guevara smiles down from billboards on the main highway crossing the island. His image adorns T-shirts handed out by the government. His writings are required reading in school. Children begin their classes each day by declaring: “We will be like Che.”

Interest in Guevara had perked up even before the recent discovery in Bolivia of his remains, which were returned to Cuba on July 12.

Three new biographies have been released in the last two years and Warner Bros. is making a movie about a romance between Guevara and an East German agent.

His image is on the cover of latest CD by the rock band Rage Against the Machine, and a new watch by Swatch. Fischer is promoting its “revolution” skis with an advertisement that shows Guevara’s face carved into the side of a snow-covered mountain.

In Santa Clara, 275 miles southeast of Havana, the monument is on a more humble scale. Work crews are building a mausoleum below the towering statue to house Guevara’s remains after they are brought here on the anniversary of his death next Wednesday.

“At first I was of the opinion that my papa should stay where he fought,” Guevara’s daughter Aleida said. “But I think now that the Cuban people have a greater right.”