The other day on, ‘Prof Zenkus,’ an instructor at Columbia and Adelphi Universities whose bio reads in part ‘Trauma expert. Anti-violence. Commie. I voted against genocide,’ saw fit to share this pearl of wisdom from Che Guevara, the vile Castro regime apparatchik who earned the nickname ‘The Butcher of la Cabaña’ due to his brutality in dealing with political prisoners at one of the most notorious prisons in that Marxist paradise:
If you’ve attended an American college or university in the past 50 years, you probably are well acquainted with the cult of Che, which characterizes the man as a handsome and idealistic freedom fighter who ultimately died trying to foment a revolution in Bolivia. The Che t-shirt was long a campus fixture, and Hollywood has seen fit to honor Guevara with hagiographic treatments such as 1969’s Che! (which featured Omar Sharif in the title role), 2004’s The Motorcycle Diaries (with dreamy Gael Garcia Bernal playing a young Guevara), and 2008’s epic Che (directed by Stephen Soderbergh and starring Benicio del Toro). Despite Che’s contempt for rock music, guitarist Carlos Santana wore a Che shirt while performing at the Academy Awards.
It’s my hope that the cult of Che is dying out finally, decades after his death and the utter immiseration of Cuba by a Marxist regime that’s been in power since 1959. Certainly, I see fewer Che t-shirts than I used to even a few years ago. I hope I’m right, because he was a horrible human being and the left wing’s romance with him is truly despicable.
I wanted to share this December 2008 Reason video produced by
. It’s titled Killer Chic: Hollywood’s Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara and it dives deep into the warped sensibility and awful legacy of Latin America’s sexiest murderer. It goes further still, to look at the way that even killers like Mao Zedong have been lionized by churlish Americans. Here’s the original writeup:Gisele Bundchen wears him on the runway, Johnny Depp wears him around his neck, and Benicio Del Toro becomes him in the new, highly acclaimed, two-part epic film from Steven Soderbergh, Che. Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the revolutionary who helped found communist Cuba, is the celebrity that celebrities adore. And be it Madonna, Rage Against the Machine, or Jay-Z, musicians really dig Che.
It's something that baffles Cuban jazz legend Paquito D'Rivera. "Che hated artists, so how is it possible that artists still today support the image of Che Guevara?" Turns out the rebellious icon that emblazons countless T-shirts actually enforced aesthetic and political conformity. D'Rivera explains that Che and other Cuban authorities sought to ban rock and roll and jazz.
"Che was an inspiration for me," D'Rivera tells reason.tv. "I thought I have to get out of this island as soon as I can, because I am in the wrong place at the wrong time!" D'Rivera did escape Cuba, and so far he's won nine Grammy awards playing the kind of music Che tried to silence. But D'Rivera says Che's crimes didn't end with censorship. "He ordered the execution of many people with no trial." Che served as Castro's chief executioner, presiding over the infamous La Cabana prison. D'Rivera says Che's policy of killing innocents earned him the nickname-the Butcher of La Cabana.
"We're rightly horrified by fascist murderers like Adolph Hitler," says reason.tv's Nick Gillespie. "Why aren't we also horrified by communist killers?" Certainly, Che's body count isn't anywhere near Hitler's. But what about someone Che idolized, someone whom he might have liked to wear on his chest?
"Che, Castro, all the communist regimes idolized only one thing that Mao personifies—violence." Kai Chen grew up in China under the reign of Mao Zedong. Although he won gold medals for China's national basketball team, Chen's was far from the celebrity life of an NBA star. Says Chen, "You have no right to talk, and you have no right to think."
The punishment for questioning Mao's authority was often death. The Black Book of Communism estimates that Mao is responsible for the deaths of 65 million people—a figure that dwarfs even Hitler's body count. "Mao is a murderer," says Chen. "The biggest mass murderer in human history."
And yet, like Che, Mao's image is becoming an increasingly popular way to move merchandise. You can buy Mao t-shirts, mugs, caps-you name it. Near Chen's Los Angeles home there's even a restaurant called Mao's Kitchen. "Can you imagine a restaurant called Hitler's Kitchen?" asks Gillespie.
Neither D'Rivera nor Chen understands why communist killers are considered Chic, but each finds his own way to have the last laugh on these anti-capitalist icons.
"Killer Chic" is written and produced by Ted Balaker. Director of Photography is Alex Manning.
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