While I was on holiday recently, I found that there seems to be a renewed interest in the life of Ernesto "Che" Guavara. Before I left for my uncle's funeral and my subsequent vacation, I went to go see the film The Motorcycle Diaries. The film was a decent one. Having traveled there once on holiday, it was especially nice to see the stunning natural beauty of South America on film.
As always, when watching a film based on someone's life (or on a book for that matter), you have to wonder what is really going on. While on holiday, it seemed to me that Che t-shirts and clothes were being sold everywhere. I also found "The Motorcycle Diaries" in its book form in the San Francisco airport while waiting to travel to Asia. I was tempted to buy it, but I also saw Karen Armstrong's "Buddha" and decided to buy Armstrong's book instead as I only had room for one more book. I may yet get around to reading Guavara's story as I love reading books from which movies are made.
It is clear that there is a certain romance that has somehow been attached to Che and his life to which people really need to examine more closely. I should defer here to this article in the New Criteron written by Anthony Daniels that would do more to explain the phenemon than anything I could write. I was not so much struck by Daniels' contrasts of the book verses the film as I was concerning the idea that Guavara and (older road trip companion) Alberto Granado's attitudes towards life and their professional occupations. Daniels quotes Granado from The Motorcycle Diaries saying:
[Guevara] and I remarked that this was pretty much what our futures would have been—me a small town pharmacist, he a doctor treating the allergies of wealthy ladies—if it weren’t for that certain something that made us rebel.
And so it is. Were Granado and Guevara nothing more than a bunch of rebels? If so, then that would explain much of their allure for many people. Indeed one has to wonder about the observed characteristics of the Al Queda movement, headed by figures like Osama Bin Laden (civil engineer by schooling if I remember correctly) and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (a doctor). Many have remarked that the 9-11 attackers were also educated, not desperate angry types with poor prospects. Bin Laden and his cohorts could have more in common with Guevara and Granado than one might think.
Ciao for now...