THIS IS THE SPEECH I WROTE FOR MY COLLEGE ASSIGNMENT ON CHE FOR THE SUBJECT MASS COMMUNICATION:
After watching numerous documentaries on Che Guevara and reading many reviews on his book called 'The Motorcycle Diaries, it did give me a lot of different perspectives of different historians and writers about him. But here we come to discuss my perspective and what I understood about this revolutionary- who failed.
A rich boy's quest for adventure and a journey of life. Belonging to a rich family, 23 years old about to be doctor, Che with his pharmacist friend decided to go on a journey. Only to find himself in the midst of harsh reality. The real world outside the comfy house that he belonged to. A world of poverty and discrimination. Changing his life forever, planting the seed of revolution.
This young man rippled the world with his socialist ideologies. A man who struck America with the bullet of anger and disbelieve. His belief to free the Latin America from the clutches of none other than the Americans themselves. Introduce you the man responsible for the Cuban revolution, Ernesto Che Guevara. It is hard to be positive about him and equally hard to be negative. But he was the man who preached the belief that revolution can only be attained with arms and wars. He evokes strong feelings for everyone except for most of the people who wear shirts with his face printed on them. But the people who actually knew him, either tend to hate him and call him a communist murderer or love him, hailing him as a freedom fighter, a hero.
His dream was a world where all people ( the poor in particular) had the opportunities as the rich i.e. food, shelter, education, health care. He was against capitalism and actively set out to fight against it. Although his intentions were pure, he was an extremist, and the darker side of Che always seem to find a way off the conscience of Che's supporters. His diary contains detailed description of executions he performed. Some people might see him as a hero, but in the process of nationalization the lands and the business of the US corporations in Cuba he also created a bit of a collateral damage. If you ask the millions of middle class people ( Cuban businessmen, because Cuba's middle class was strong) how they feel about the person who took away their grocery stores that their family started or the land that they slaved over to provide for the basic needs of the family, I think their opinion would probably be quite different.
He was a hero for the poor, the under privileged. But he was not thinking of the society as a whole. He was advocating equality and education but also military training. These ideologies would change the conditions of the poor class but what about the society as a whole? He was a man of passionate convictions who would not compromise, but was essentially after Cuba, ineffective. I think his desire to better people's lives was admirable.
In focusing on the lower class he was doing the very thing that he fought against, that is social discrimination. He started focusing only on a certain section of the society. When a vision narrows down as drastically as this, it seizes to be a vision and the change from development to destruction makes all the difference. But if we speak of him as a revolutionary, the rise and fall of Che is an ode to the established laws of communication. It was easier to convince the poor class because he promised them what they needed. But what about the middle class? That's where it started to go wrong."
Comparing him to his contemporary Fidel Castro, Fidel remained back for Cuba whereas Che left started looking for other revolutions. He was more focused in destroying than building on what already existed. Maybe the very presence of Fidel among the Cubans physically working 'with'them towards their country's revolution, which mattered more to them than Che's 'world'revolution was responsible for bringing about a sense of abandonment in the hearts of the Cubans and their turning oblivious to Che's plight. Sort of a tit for tat situation.
Cut to the 21st century even now when revolutionaries stand up with a vision noble in every way the plan of action may not begin with but ends with violence. Violence is not communication. Violence suppresses communication. No one can justify killing innocent lives and the biggest example will be Che where violence spoke louder than his vision.
But thats just my conclusion.
A rich boy's quest for adventure and a journey of life. Belonging to a rich family, 23 years old about to be doctor, Che with his pharmacist friend decided to go on a journey. Only to find himself in the midst of harsh reality. The real world outside the comfy house that he belonged to. A world of poverty and discrimination. Changing his life forever, planting the seed of revolution.
This young man rippled the world with his socialist ideologies. A man who struck America with the bullet of anger and disbelieve. His belief to free the Latin America from the clutches of none other than the Americans themselves. Introduce you the man responsible for the Cuban revolution, Ernesto Che Guevara. It is hard to be positive about him and equally hard to be negative. But he was the man who preached the belief that revolution can only be attained with arms and wars. He evokes strong feelings for everyone except for most of the people who wear shirts with his face printed on them. But the people who actually knew him, either tend to hate him and call him a communist murderer or love him, hailing him as a freedom fighter, a hero.
His dream was a world where all people ( the poor in particular) had the opportunities as the rich i.e. food, shelter, education, health care. He was against capitalism and actively set out to fight against it. Although his intentions were pure, he was an extremist, and the darker side of Che always seem to find a way off the conscience of Che's supporters. His diary contains detailed description of executions he performed. Some people might see him as a hero, but in the process of nationalization the lands and the business of the US corporations in Cuba he also created a bit of a collateral damage. If you ask the millions of middle class people ( Cuban businessmen, because Cuba's middle class was strong) how they feel about the person who took away their grocery stores that their family started or the land that they slaved over to provide for the basic needs of the family, I think their opinion would probably be quite different.
He was a hero for the poor, the under privileged. But he was not thinking of the society as a whole. He was advocating equality and education but also military training. These ideologies would change the conditions of the poor class but what about the society as a whole? He was a man of passionate convictions who would not compromise, but was essentially after Cuba, ineffective. I think his desire to better people's lives was admirable.
In focusing on the lower class he was doing the very thing that he fought against, that is social discrimination. He started focusing only on a certain section of the society. When a vision narrows down as drastically as this, it seizes to be a vision and the change from development to destruction makes all the difference. But if we speak of him as a revolutionary, the rise and fall of Che is an ode to the established laws of communication. It was easier to convince the poor class because he promised them what they needed. But what about the middle class? That's where it started to go wrong."
Comparing him to his contemporary Fidel Castro, Fidel remained back for Cuba whereas Che left started looking for other revolutions. He was more focused in destroying than building on what already existed. Maybe the very presence of Fidel among the Cubans physically working 'with'them towards their country's revolution, which mattered more to them than Che's 'world'revolution was responsible for bringing about a sense of abandonment in the hearts of the Cubans and their turning oblivious to Che's plight. Sort of a tit for tat situation.
Cut to the 21st century even now when revolutionaries stand up with a vision noble in every way the plan of action may not begin with but ends with violence. Violence is not communication. Violence suppresses communication. No one can justify killing innocent lives and the biggest example will be Che where violence spoke louder than his vision.
But thats just my conclusion.
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