“I Tried to Conquer the Evil Yankee Imperialists and All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt”

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  11.01.05 | 1:27 PM ET

That’s the message that writer Ryan Clancy would like to see on the next generation of T-shirts featuring the iconic image of Che Guevara. Clancy isn’t happy that Che has become a symbol of idealistic rebellion around the globe. “Che demanded worldwide revolution, even if it meant a stream of death and misery,” he writes in Monday’s USA Today.

“He said the utopia that could be built on the ashes of the old world would make the suffering worthwhile. That’s why he advocated a nuclear exchange during the Cuban missile crisis. In fact, if you read through Che’s speeches, with his constant refrain of glorious martyrdom, they’re remarkably similar to another well-known ‘revolutionary’ — the tall, bearded one holed up somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.”

Clancy notes that The Motorcycle Diaries movie is being remade into a major studio film starring Benicio Del Toro. But “The Motorycle Diaries” focused on Che’s early life. This article suggests the new film will focus on the last part of Guevara’s life. That would be interesting, because that part is far more controversial.

Tags: Caribbean, Cuba


4 Comments for “I Tried to Conquer the Evil Yankee Imperialists and All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt”

Tim 11.01.05 | 4:52 PM ET

There are some great anti-Che t-shirts on cafepress.com. One of my favorites, which I can’t find now, had a picture of him and said, “I have no idea who this is!”

Terriby fitting…

Jim 11.02.05 | 1:03 AM ET

Ha! I suspected there must be more than a few alternative Che shirts out there. That’s good to know.

John 11.04.05 | 7:35 PM ET

I’m pretty tired of being told by anti-anti establishment Coffee shop disillusioned former leftists that I don’t know who Che is or what he stood for.

One of the sadly pervasive ideas in this realm of political commentary is that just because an idea is popular means it is suddenly invalid - and it is bred from the very same root of counterculture as the embracing of Socialism and Communism in the first place!

Sure there are idiots out there with long hair and guaged ears with no clue what “the re education of the masses” means, but guess what?  There are educated, enlightened individuals out there and I’m not hyping up myself, who DO know what it means and who fully appreciate and recognize the realities of the man and the myth.

By condemning Che for dismissing the use of judicial review of executions, the author is completely ignoring the reality of the situation in 1959 Cuba… They were at war with an enemy who hid behind profits!

The United States hated that Fidel successfully came to power and tried to help Bastista every step of the way to stop them.  It wasn’t blind disregard for human life that drove Guevara to dismiss judicial reviews of the executions… it was good sense!  The Cuban government was still rife with Batista supporters who would be instigating counter insurgency propaganda and military actions, destabilizing the government, etc if they were allowed to.

I can tell you what I scorn, and isn’t a man like Ernesto Guevara.  Yes, it is the 24 yr old Marketing-major who is sitting in Usama’s in Columbia, MO wearing his Che hat and sipping his Fue-she coffee because he thinks he’s helping the revolution.  When he doesn’t realize the beans were ground by the very same bloody indigenous feet Che cared enough to give his life trying to free from an Imperialist boot.

You think the “Yankee Imperialism” bit is done and overwith?  What is NAFTA?  What is CAFTA?  More blind strikes of the back of our Western rifle into the gut of Indigenous farmers.  There IS care to be given to the people STILL suffering what Guevara wanted to end… Exploitation. 

Someone once said, ‘It’s easy to be a saint in Paradise’, and it’s easy to condemn Che for not being a Saint FROM Paradise, when that is certainly not where he lived.  Nor where those who grind your coffee beans, sow your Adidas, your Prada and push your iPod along the assembly line are from.

Yes, Ryan Clancy, YOUR iPod.  The one that is, by your argument, more important than lifting a subjugated continent from a millenia of grunt work.

But then again… there’s only so much luxury to go around… Right?

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