From: Scott Chase (osteopilus@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun 20 Feb 2005 - 13:13:03 GMT
--- Douglas Brooker <d.brooker@laposte.net> wrote:
> Scott Chase wrote:
>
> >Che merchandise is out there. Go to your local mall
> >and if you find a store with Che icon t-shirts, ask
> >the person (teenager?) buying the shirt if they
> know
> >who Che was or what happened in Bolivia. Wearing
> the
> >Che icon might be trendy in some contexts, but
> >politically incorrect in the midst of Cuban
> Americans
> >in Little Havana in Miami.
> >
> Yesterday I saw a doormat with "the" classic image
> of Che on it. It was
> the kind of doormat with heavy brown natural
> bristles, the kind you wipe
> your feet on when coming from a muddy or snowy
> street.
>
> It was in a part of London known to be left wing,
> but the idea of the
> image on the doormat is ambiguous.
>
Wiping mud on an image of Che would be a sort of
negative appraisal of his place in history I'd think.
A Che doormat would be the sort of product that might
be acceptable on Calle Ocho in Miami perhaps.
Jay Nordlinger's National Review essay is a rather
biased account, but he does point out some anti-Che
merchandise that's available and one shirt is a propos
with the following under Che's mug: "I have no idea
who this is!". I love that one the most :-)
As Nordlinger noticed and so did I at my local
Blockbuster Korean American comedian Margaret Cho has
jumped on the Che image bandwagon. I suppose her usage
is an intentional pun on her name versus Guevara's
nickname.
As for the movie "Motorcycle Diaries" there might be
all sorts of reasons for people watching the movie.
Mine was historical as it portrays an earlier and
younger incarnation of Guevara as he travels through
the pampas of Argentina and through Chile up through
the Atacama desert in northern Chile and then ancient
Incan ruins at Machu Picchu in Peru and slowly becomes
transformed along the way seeing the conditions of the
people. Jungians could look at the story in light of
the trickster and hero archetypes, where the somewhat
mischievious Che slowly becomes a prototype of what
will beome one of the most significant Latin American
revolutionaries in history, with an impact that
transcends the shores of South America. He's a hero to
some on the left end of the spectrum and a natural
antipode to someone like Pinochet on the far right.
Motorcycle enthusiasts might be drawn to the movie (or
original book it's based on) because...well...it's
about a motorcycle adventure. Rush drummer Neil Peart
has a book called _Ghost Rider_ that's in the same
genre. Motorcyclists probably like motorcycle stories.
Motorcycling is an idea (or behavior) that could make
someone more receptive to Guevara's story, ignoring
his role in events that took place after the time
period of the movie.
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