|  In the late 1970’s, and for over a decade, thereafter, the currency of Che Guevara’s image was down-valued. That image still appeared emblazoned on tourist and teen commodities across the West, and in many Cuban houses it still is nestled belong images of the Virgen de la Guardia, the patron Madonna of Cuba. Compared to the worldwide sheer iconicity of that image following Che’s murder in 1967, however, it seemed as if Che’s moment was waning.
Yet his image reemerged with powerful force in the 1990s. As a symbol of rebellion and defiance, it still graced commodities aimed at the dissatisfied but now the picture of a bearded man, gaunt face topped by a beret with a single star, also appeared on the banners of demonstrators in Italy and Venezuela, was carried proudly by the Zapatistas in Chiapas, and was flaunted by a newly beleaguered Cuban government. John Lee Anderson’s ambitious biography can be thought of as both a symptom of and an attempt to explain our enduring fascination with Ernest ‘Che’ Guevara.
Anderson spent over five years researching che’s life; he traveled to Cuba, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, Moscow, Washing, Sweden and London; he mamaged to get an unprecedented level of access to Aleida March, Che’s widow, and to several of the revolutionary’s closest friends and advisors.
The result is the definitive biography of a man’s whose life was interwoven with some of the conflicts, movements and ideas which themselves defined the second half of the 20th century. There are bound to be omissions and inconsistencies in any work on a figure so central to, and so controversial within 20th century political culture. Even if it cannot please everyone all the time, however, Anderson’s detailed work remains the most significant single volume on the life and times of a man who is still mourned by many across the world.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
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