it's Che Guevara's birthday!
“Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”
"I'm like Che Guevara with bling on--I'm complex."("And I look extra uncomfortable posing like this.")
Wearing the image of a revolutionary on your person became so lame so long ago (sorry if that stings, Jay), but if you were a Caucasoid person somewhere between age 12 and 19 between the years 1992 and, ohh, 2000, and if you weren't a complete idiot,
1) you were a Rage fan, and
2) you were legally required to own a t-shirt with Che's likeness on it. You know, that photo.
Alberto Korda took the picture on March 5, 1960. Che was 31.
The photo--Guerrillero Heroico--was taken during a Castro speech after the memorial service for victims of "La Coubre," when a Belgian transport exploded in Havana harbor and killed 136 people. The CIA of the United States of America, the country where I live, was apparently behind the attack (nofuckingway!) and backed the counterrevolutionary groups that caused the explosion.
Castro gave his speech at what had become a mass funeral and demonstration. Che Guevara just happened upon the stage where Castro was talking and stayed for a few seconds, looking out over the large crowd. Korda quickly snapped two photos with his Leica, and Che disappeared off stage again. After the memorial service, the photo of Che was not seen as particularly noteworthy; it remained just part of Korda’s personal collection for years, and he kept a print hanging on his small studio's wall.
People often ask Korda how he was able to take that photograph. “This photograph is not the product of knowledge or technique," he said, "It was really coincidence, pure luck.” He described what has now become the famous gaze of Che as encabronado y dolente (angry and sad).
Korda's real last name was Diaz Gutierrez, but he changed it to that of British filmmaker Alexander Korda because he thought it sounded like "Kodak."There's more, too much to post here, about how Korda didn't really make any profit off the image (even though, goddamn, it's probably the world's most published photo), and how he sued Smirnoff for using it in 2000 and donated the money from the lawsuit settlement to a children's health fund in Cuba; "If Che were still alive," Korda said, "he would have done the same."
"As a supporter of the ideals for which Che Guevara died," he said, in explaining his reasons for the lawsuit, "I am not averse to (the photo's) reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world, but I am categorically against the exploitation of Che's image for the promotion of products such as alcohol, or for any purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che."
(This is kinda how I feel about Nas and AZ slangin Sprite in '97.
KRS did it the year before, and broke my hiphop dork heart when he ordered me to obey my thirst.)
Che's poem.
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