One thing that you will notice when arriving in Cuba is the propaganda of the revolution everywhere.  Most noticeably pictures of Che Guevara, which you can’t hide from.  There is God, your mother and then Che in Cuba (and on some days Che beats mother in the pecking order).  He was the picture-perfect profile of a revolutionist and at first it was entertaining to see him on every street corner, in every restaurant, bar…you name it but after the fourth day it became a little much.  For real, try to imagine seeing your president’s picture every 5min.  That it took more time to find a souvenir of him not on it then one with him on it.  Singing about him (“Comandante Che Guevara“) every 6th song and after 4 days of this you just get tiresome.

I did notice a fact that for every 10 pictures of Che, you found one of Castro.  This made me really think, as you know it had to piss Castro off that everyone loved Che so much more, that he got all the ladies and was basically the Brad Pitt of the movie while Castro was Woody Allen.  I’m not officially stating anything but it makes you really wonder who had him killed (officially it was the CIA backed Bolivian Army in 1967).

For me though I’m not a fan for his movement or against it but I did start to really admire him after watching the movie “The Motorcycle Diaries.”  It is one the the best travel movies I have ever seen and just inspires one to go out, travel the world, see it all on nothing, then start a revolution.  Hell I think that’s every man’s dream in life anyways.  If you haven’t watched this movie do so ASAP!  He has also inspired me to maybe sail the Amazon River on my own some day (soon I hope, anyone doing anything say around Jan-Feb 2010?) in which I make my own raft/boat and take off from Ecuador to Peru.  For me this is what I think of Che when I hear his name.  The image I see isn’t of him fighting a war, telling the US off or smoking a Cuban cigar…it’s him riding free in life and believing that one can do anything one wants.

He is without a doubt one of the most famous Latin men of the 20th century and for Cubans he still remains in their hearts and minds daily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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