Line #52 UsefulNotes/CheGuevara


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1024px_chehigh_4.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:This face is one of the world's [[MisaimedFandom best selling]] [[MemeticMutation t-shirts]].]]
3	->''"It would take a thousand years and a million pages to write Che's biography."''
4	-->-- '''Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez'''
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6	%%NOTE: Che Guevara is a very controversial historical figure that has strong supporters and opponents from all sides. Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgement is strongly applied in this page. YMMV tropes should NOT be placed in this page and should be kept in a neutral point of view.
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8	Ernesto Guevara (14 June 1928 – 9 October 1967), better known by his nickname ''"Che"'', [[note]] An informal Argentinian interjection equivalent to "hey", used to call other's people attention. His Cuban friends heard him use it a lot and the name stuck. So "Che Guevara" is basically "Hey, Guevara". [[/note]] was an [[{{UsefulNotes/Argentina}} Argentinian]] [[Creator/KarlMarx Marxist]] revolutionary who attained fame for his active role as a guerrilla leader and strategist in the Cuban Revolution (in which he helped UsefulNotes/FidelCastro to seize power from its dictator UsefulNotes/FulgencioBatista) and then later, his death in Bolivia, where he was arrested and executed by the Bolivian military with the aid of the CIA. He also ran Castro's most infamous prison, La Cabaña, and oversaw [[KangarooCourt Revolutionary Tribunals]] and [[ShotAtDawn summary executions]], for which Cuban exiles would call him "El Carnicero de La Cabaña" (or "TheButcher of La Cabaña"). After that he worked as a government bureaucrat and took a lead in introducing literacy measures. Eventually he became restless and decided to engage in revolutionary causes again. He later took part in the Congo revolution, but it wasn't successful. Then he conducted a complicated scheme in Bolivia that eventually led to his capture and execution.
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10	Defending a socialist cause and being executed at a young age, Che Guevara evolved into a symbol that represents both ''"civil disobedience"'' and ''"political awareness"'' (Website/TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara several]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_Che_Guevara articles]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_in_popular_culture about him]]). [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrillero_Heroico A photograph of Che by Alberto Korda]][[note]]Did we say "several articles?" Make that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Che_Guevara a whole category]].[[/note]] became one of the most famous photographs during TheSixties, which thanks its subject's youth, good looks, and intense gaze, made him an IconOfRebellion well into the 21st Century. More often than not, he is also used as the "Romantic Expression" of guerrilla warfare: a tough but well-intentioned guy, willing to fight injustice and American imperialism over everything. [[TheThemeParkVersion Che is often treated as a hero figure in many books, film, and TV shows alike,]] and he remains a popular icon in much of the Global South.
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12	According to Guevara's detractors, these aforementioned portrayals also gloss over the fact that Guevara openly admitted to revolutionary violence (as means for establishing a firm government in times of war), including executing perceived traitors during the Cuban Revolution and famously admitting in his speech at the UN that his administration [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized executed political prisoners]] who were integral to Batista's dictatorship. Supposedly, he even [[NukeEm openly advocated for war with the United States]] during the Cuban Missile Crisis and after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion the US-backed invasion of Cuba]]. According to other detractors, he also held a low opinion of the guerrillas he fought with in the Congo, which some argue was due to Che being racist, even though there's no clear evidence to support that theory, which blatantly ignores that Guevara's personal assistant/driver and friend was in fact a black man.
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14	All of this being said, an oversimplified and arguably sanitized portrayal of Che Guevara is necessary for his commodification in the West into a mass-market consumerist image providing money that mostly goes to western capitalist nations, so it's unlikely to change as long as Che continues to be in demand.
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16	Lots of books, quite a few movies, and even an SNK ''VideoGame/IkariWarriors''-ish videogame called ''"Guevara"'' ([[DolledUpInstallment dolled up]] in the USA as ''VideoGame/GuerrillaWar'') have been done about him.
17	----
18	!!Tropes as portrayed in fiction:
19	* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: Had an iconic real-life example which is constantly invoked in many fictional portrayals (such as ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker''):
20	--> '''Che Guevara''': "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, [[YouCannotKillAnIdea you are only going to kill a man]]."
21	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: He appears on T-Shirts, is commonly invoked as an IconOfRebellion and has many fictional depictions, though ironically, he usually gets HistoricalHeroUpgrade, even, or especially, in American portrayals.
22	* ShoutOut:
23	** "Indian Girl" by Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} from ''Music/EmotionalRescue'':
24	--> ''Mr. gringo, my father, he ain't no Che Guevara'' \
25	''And he's fighting the war on the streets of Masaya'' \
26	''Little Indian girl, where's your father?'' \
27	''Little Indian girl, where is your momma?'' \
28	''They're fighting for [[UsefulNotes/FidelCastro Mr. Castro]] in the streets of Angola.''
29	** Music/{{Madonna}} mimics the world famous photograph of Che Guevara on the album cover of ''Music/AmericanLife''.
30	** Music/WeirdAl also adopts the pose in the liner notes of ''Music/MandatoryFun''
31	* SignatureHeadgear: His iconic military beret with a five-pointed star.
32	* YoungFutureFamousPeople: The book ''The Motorcycle Diaries'', Guevara's memoir about his early life, made into a [[Film/TheMotorcycleDiaries movie]].
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34	!Appears in the following works:
35	* He appears alongside Castro in StockFootage in Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Topaz}}''
36	* Richard Fleischer's 1969 ''Che'' starring Omar Sharif. It was not very successful.
37	* Andy Garcia's ''The Lost City'', a loose adaptation of Gulliermo Cabrera Infante's ''Three Trapped Tigers'', has one of the few negative depictions of Che.
38	* His ghost is present in ''Literature/GenerationP'' by Creator/VictorPelevin. He is summoned by the main character and expresses his thoughts on depravity of the consumerism and of the contemporary humanity in general.
39	* Gael Garcia Bernal played Che in ''Film/TheMotorcycleDiaries''. Notably, the first film on Che in the Spanish language to be internationally successful.
40	* Creator/BenicioDelToro played him in Creator/StevenSoderbergh's two-part {{Biopic}}, ''Film/{{Che}}''. Also shot in the Spanish language, but more of an AcclaimedFlop.
41	* UndergroundComics artist Spain Rodriquez published a graphic novel in 2007 called ''Che: A Graphic Biography''. Rodriquez always identified himself as a Marxist, so his depiction of Che is positive.
42	* A playable character in the game ''VideoGame/GuerrillaWar''. The North American version downplays this a lot, but the original Japanese version is even named after him.
43	* Appears in the [[CrapsackWorld hellishly dystopian]] AlternateHistory tale ''Literature/ForAllTime'', where he leads a revolution in Argentina alongside Leopold Galtieri in 1960. He eventually takes power himself, establishing the Democratic Republic of Argentina, forging close ties with the People's Republic of China, and [[spoiler: launching an invasion of Chile on December 2, 1966, complete with [[NukeEm nuclear bombings]] in Santiago and Valparaíso. He pulls out of Buneos Aires just before the Americas nuke it out of existence and occupy Argentina, and continues encouraging a communist revolutions through radio and media.]]
44	* Season 6 of ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'' features Guevara facing off against UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes, who was the most famous figure of the Gunpowder Plot.
45	* Features as the narrator of ''{{Music/Evita}}'', sort of. The original stage musical was explicitly him, but later versions erased the lines that identify him and just made him a narrator (who's still credited as Che).
46	* Another AlternateHistory, ''Literature/NewDealCoalitionRetained'', sees Che [[TheCoup seizing power]] from UsefulNotes/FidelCastro after the latter has a nervous breakdown in light of a more successful US-backed counterrevolution.
47	* He makes an appearance in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', in a game show with several other famous communists, UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong, and Creator/KarlMarx. Sadly, all the questions on the show are not ones relating to communism, so apart from Mao, and, briefly, Marx, none of the contestants get any of the correct answers. [[spoiler:Later on in the same episode, Guevara and Marx end up having sex.]]
48	* In ''Anime/HeatGuyJ'', he appears as a poster in [[TheProtagonist Daisuke's]] apartment. What's really striking about this particular example is that the series takes place TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, AfterTheEnd.
49	* He also appears in ''Website/CollegeHumor'''s "[[MenCantKeepHouse Be Our Bachelor]]" parody. The young man is microwaving a mug of instant soup or something, that has Guevara's picture on it...and has left his spoon inside. The Che Guevara picture sings "I think you've left your spoon inside and it's metal" before [[LethalChef the microwave explodes]].
50	* The liner notes for Music/WeirdAl's album ''Music/MandatoryFun'' include Al's recreation of the famous photograph.
51	* He is referenced in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' where the Sadinistas fondly compare Big Boss to El Che (to the point that he is called Vic Boss out of respect). Numerous MSF characters also voice nothing but praise for him. This unconditional praise is quite ironic, given ''Metal Gear's'' anti-nuke, and anti-war themes (see the description above).
52	* He appears in ''VideoGame/Persona5Tactica'' as [[spoiler:Toshiro's Persona Ernesto]].
53	----
54	''Hasta la victoria siempre / Ever onward to victory''

Context UsefulNotes / CheGuevara