History Extension

Is Ernesto ‘’Che’’ Guevara’s legacy one of a true revolutionary or a meaningless popular icon? Evaluate how this has changed over time and why.
The project arose with a curiosity into the life of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, one of the most universally recognisable faces in the world. As such, the perception of him as a revolutionary, and the iconography of Che have changed considerably overtime. I became engrossed in this further when Spain Rodriguez’s: ‘Che: A graphic Biography’, depicts Che as both a revolutionary personality and materialistic icon. A considerable amount of information on the ‘popular icon’ and ‘revolutionary’ are obtained from the afterword essay ‘Che Guevara, Image and Reality’ by Sarah Seidman and Paul Buhle. Additional analysis in this essay has been extrapolated from the book: ‘Death of a Revolutionary: Che Guevara’s Last Mission’ by Richard L. Harris, which provides a ‘pro – revolutionary’ and romanticised historical perspective on the life and death of Che. These analyses focus on the historical debate surrounding his legacy. The objective of this essay is to examine the changing interpretations of Che’s lasting legacy from one of being a self- confessed Marxist revolutionary and to his image being hijacked by commercial interests to sell products. The underlying aim is to respond to the core questions of the construction and recording of history over time, along with understanding the changing attitudes toward the personality over time.
T
he life of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara is often described as heroic; the Guerrilla fighter assisting in the expulsion of societal injustice and economic inequality from capitalist supremacies, through revolutionary means. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (commonly known as Che Guevara) was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina in a middle class family. From his middle class origins he studied Medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. Guevara and his close companion Alberto Granado travelled on a motorcycle

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