The romantic and the revolutionary
DISCLAIMER! I do not believe (at least as of now) in Marxism as an effective way for ridding the world of the problems that ail it, nor do I believe in Communism of any kind. All I do believe in is standing up for one’s rights and one’s freedom and in the principle of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam.
Today is the 9th of October, 2020. 53 years ago on this very day, a great revolutionary left this mortal world. He was barely even 40 years old. Yet, more than half a century later his legacy lives on, not just in Cuba where he lived or Argentina where he was born or even Bolivia where he was assassinated (but where he has now been apotheosized), but in every such part of this planet where people decide to rise in indignation against the tyranny of the powers that be. He has, today, become a symbol of the never-ending revolution, of the ceaseless fight against oppression, against status quo, of INQUILAB.
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was a Cuban revolutionary and guerrilla warfare exponent who along with his 'comrade' Fidel Castro successfully led a rebellion against the despotic rule of Fulgencio Batista in the tiny North American island of Cuba in the 1950s and also against the wider exploitative capitalist force which he believed was the main reason why Latin America was plagued by widespread poverty in those days.
But to speak of Che just in terms of his political exploits is to paint only half the picture of the doctor-turned-revolutionary who, unlike many of his ilk, was also a romantic.
Hidden behind his demeanour of an alpha was an idyllic heart of a charismatic young lad who, staring at the future that lay in front of him with rose-tinted glasses, had declared that his "destiny was to travel" as he embarked on an epiphanic odyssey traversing an entire continent by straddling a rickety La Poderosa II along with his dear friend Alberto Granado, chronicles of which have been revived today in the form of the best seller "The Motorcycle Diaries"
And travel, he did, as his revolution and faith in guerrilla warfare took him places- both metaphorically and literally. After having worked towards emancipating Cuba, Guevara took upon himself, the responsibility of liberating people suffering under similar repressive regimes in other parts of the world. It was on one such mission in Bolivia that Che rode off, for one last time, into sunset. After having returned from an unsuccessful mission in Congo, he travelled to Bolivia hoping to replicate the success of his guerrilla warfare led coup in Cuba there. The circumstances to support his mutiny were far from ideal but he was too resolute to bog down before the vagaries of kismet and there on the 9th of October, 1967 Che left for his final voyage.
To me, Che was an ordinary person with extraordinary conviction in his principles and himself. His legacy continues to inspire people to fight unto death, if it so requires, defending whatever it is that they believe in and to him I say 'Hasta la victoria siempre comrade!'.
