Ernesto Guevara (1928-1967), 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 basicly "Hey, Guevara". was an Argentinian Marxist revolutionary who attained fame for his active role as a guerrilla leader and strategist in the Cuban Revolution (in which he helped Fidel Castro to seize power from the United States-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista) 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 Cabana, and oversaw Revolutionary Tribunals and summary executions. After that he worked as a government bureaucrat and took a lead in introducing literary 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.

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" (The Other Wiki has several articles about him). A photograph of Che by Alberto Korda became one of the most famous photographs during The '60s, which thanks to the intense gaze of its subject along with his youth and good looks made him an Icon of Rebellion well into the 21st Century, reprints of said image created a profitable market or T-shirts with his face on it. More often than not, he is also used as the "Romantic Expression" of Guerilla Warfare: a tough but well-intentioned guy, willing to fight injustice (and American imperialism) over everything. Often treated as a hero figure in many books, film, and TV shows alike while also glossing over the fact that Guevara openly admitted to revolutionary violence, famously admitting in his speech at the UN that his administration executed political prisoners, or that he openly advocated nuclear holocaust against the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This sanitized portrayal of Che Guevara is however 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.

Lots of books, quite a few movies, and even an SNK Metal Slug-ish videogame called "Guevara" (dolled up in the USA as Guerrilla War) have been done about him.

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Tropes as portrayed in fiction:

• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Had an iconic real-life example which is constantly invoked in many fictional films ( such as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker):
  Che Guevara: "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man."
• Historical-Domain Character: He appears on T-Shirts, is commonly invoked as an Icon of Rebellion and has many fictional depictions, though ironically, he usually gets Historical Hero Upgrade, even, or especially, in American portrayals.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Indian Girl" by The Rolling Stones from Emotional Rescue:
  Mr. gringo, my father, he ain't no Che Guevara
  And he's fighting the war on the streets of Masaya
  Little Indian girl, where's your father?
  Little Indian girl, where is your momma?
  They're fighting for Mr. Castro in the streets of Angola.
  • Madonna mimicks the world famous photograph of Che Guevara on the album cover of American Life.
• Young Future Famous People: The book The Motorcycle Diaries, Guevara's memoir about his early life, made in a movie.

Appears in the following works:

• He appears alongside Castro in Stock Footage in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz
• Richard Fleischer's 1969 Che starring Omar Sharif. It was not very successful.
• Antonio Banderas' character in Evita is meant to be a young Che.
• 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.
• Gael Garcia Bernal played Che in The Motorcycle Diaries. Notably, the first film on Che in the Spanish Language to be internationally successful.
• Benicio del Toro played him in Steven Soderbergh's two-part Biopic, Che. Also shot in the Spanish language but more of an Acclaimed Flop.
• Underground Comics artist Spain Rodriquez published in 2007, a Graphic Novel called Che: A Graphic Biography. Rodriquez always identified himself as a Marxist so his depiction of Che is positive.

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Hasta la victoria siempre

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