Festive Left Friday Blogging: Che Guevara remembered

“Aprendimos a quererte desde la historica altura…”

–Carlos Puebla, “Hasta Siempre Comandante”

The statue to Che at Santa Clara, Cuba–the scene of a decisive battle in the Cuban Revolution, which was won by Che’s column.

This week marks the 82nd anniversary of Che Guevara’s official birthday. I say “official” because the date is given on his birth certificate as June 14, 1928, but was actually one month earlier. According to Jon Lee Anderson’s bio, Che’s parents changed the date because he was conceived three months before their marriage, and they had to pretend he was premature. A not uncommon trick, used wherever there is a stigma on children conceived out of wedlock to make sure they don’t bring down malicious gossip on their families.

But regardless of his actual birthday, Che got his due honors on VTV this week, as several documentaries on his life and his far-reaching influence were aired. Here are the links to them (all videos in Spanish):

“When I think of Che”–Fidel Castro’s reminiscences on his friend and revolutionary comrade.

“Che, the man without a death”

“Che everywhere, forty years after his death”

As you can grasp by the tone of the documentaries, Che is more alive now than ever. Surely the last thing his enemies wanted when they killed him at La Higuera and posed for photos with his corpse in the laundry-house at the Vallegrande hospital, before scratching him an unmarked grave and building an airstrip over top of it. The ruse, as we all now know, was an epic fail. And his killers, who thought they would go down in history as heroes–where are they today? And why are none of their faces on t-shirts?

Rhetorical question. We all know the answer.

Happy 82nd, Che…the immortal who is everywhere.

“Aquí se queda la clara

La entrañable transparencia

De tú querida presencia,

Comandante Che Guevara…”