Usually symbols are objects. Sometimes it can be animals or plants. But a symbol is rarely a person.
Indeed a symbol is something that should be eternal and universal and there are few people that are seen in the same way in every part of the world.
However it's different for Ernesto "Che" Guevara. How did he become so popular? I can't really answer this question, I wasn't born the day he died. However I've seen his face and his name used very frequently until now before I knew what he exactly did. For all people he is a hero. The symbol for rebellion and struggle against oppression. It is this way I always perceived him.
I put here the two well-know photographs of him. The first is his portray and the second one shows his dead body as army officials exhibit it a few days after he was captured and executed. It was in 1967. His body disappeared a few days later because they feared that his body would become a relic. But it contributed to make his name last. And when the place where is body was buried was found outa few years later, it actually became a cult object.
He was a guerillero fighting for a goal he could never attain: he wanted to unite all South America as one and unique folk. He took part in many revolts and guerillas, he fought on Fidel Castro's side during the Cuban revolution.
Most of people forgot that he advocated violence as the only way to overthrow a governement and that he should have killed many people.
He is a man that fought for his ideas and died for them. And people remember that. I'm not trying to praise Che Guevara. I'm just interested in him, the way he lived and what made him such a symbol. I'm interested of the way the people all over the world unanimously agree about him when usually for great men there is always an existing opposition. Try to find another man in the world History that had such a influence on people. For instance, Leonardo da Vinci was a great scientist, painter and humanist, but his name doesn't carry as much emotions.
Photographs taken by Alberto Korda on the 5th March 1960 and by Gustavo Villoldo on the 9th October 1967.
He is a man that fought for his ideas and died for them. And people remember that. I'm not trying to praise Che Guevara. I'm just interested in him, the way he lived and what made him such a symbol. I'm interested of the way the people all over the world unanimously agree about him when usually for great men there is always an existing opposition. Try to find another man in the world History that had such a influence on people. For instance, Leonardo da Vinci was a great scientist, painter and humanist, but his name doesn't carry as much emotions.
Photographs taken by Alberto Korda on the 5th March 1960 and by Gustavo Villoldo on the 9th October 1967.
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