Howard LaFranchi: Bush and Che Guevara Compared
In the birthplace of Ernesto "Che" Guevara - one of the 20th century's great icons of liberation - and in a nation where most adults remember life under a brutal military dictatorship, you might think there would be greater appreciation for a world leader who champions freedom through prosperity and democracy. But no.
President George Bush finds little respect in Argentina. In some ways, the Guevara comparison is unfair. History hasn't judged Bush yet, and analysts here note that Argentina's favorite son benefits from a mythological status that allows vendors to sell Che T-shirts for $40 in London and New York. But there are revealing distinctions about Latin Americans' views of the freedom each symbolizes.
"Che's liberty was not individual freedom, it was the independence of countries and the liberation of the collective poor of those countries," says Manuel Mora y Araujo, director of Ipsos-Mora y Araujo, a prominent public-opinion analysis agency here. "But for Bush it is about individual freedoms. He is the archetype of the conservative, whereas Che was the archetype of the socialist."
That does not mean Argentines wish to emulate Guevara's political and economic ideology, experts explain. "The admiration for El Che no longer extends to his politics and ideology, certainly not to his Marxism," says Martin Krause, dean of the Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration in Buenos Aires and a longtime analyst of Argentine society. "It's a romantic idea of one man going to battle against the windmills, he's a Quixote."
Several years ago, when there was fresh intrigue about where Guevara's remains were buried, Mr. Krause wrote that the socialist icon's spiritual tomb is Cuba. "That's where his ideas found their final resting place," he says, "and it's a disaster."
Some, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, would disagree with that assessment. But Guevara was certainly integral to Fidel Castro's revolution. He fought alongside the Castro brothers when they seized control of Cuba in 1959. Later, he was a key participant in the socialist reforms, and became known for his fiery attacks on US foreign policy. He also wrote the influential manual "Guerrilla Warfare," which advocated peasant-based revolutions worldwide.
Today, what remains of Guevara in pop culture is often a figure stripped of political ideology, an "icon of rebellion," Krause says, which explains why youth wear his face on shirts and put his poster on college dorm walls.
President George Bush finds little respect in Argentina. In some ways, the Guevara comparison is unfair. History hasn't judged Bush yet, and analysts here note that Argentina's favorite son benefits from a mythological status that allows vendors to sell Che T-shirts for $40 in London and New York. But there are revealing distinctions about Latin Americans' views of the freedom each symbolizes.
"Che's liberty was not individual freedom, it was the independence of countries and the liberation of the collective poor of those countries," says Manuel Mora y Araujo, director of Ipsos-Mora y Araujo, a prominent public-opinion analysis agency here. "But for Bush it is about individual freedoms. He is the archetype of the conservative, whereas Che was the archetype of the socialist."
That does not mean Argentines wish to emulate Guevara's political and economic ideology, experts explain. "The admiration for El Che no longer extends to his politics and ideology, certainly not to his Marxism," says Martin Krause, dean of the Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration in Buenos Aires and a longtime analyst of Argentine society. "It's a romantic idea of one man going to battle against the windmills, he's a Quixote."
Several years ago, when there was fresh intrigue about where Guevara's remains were buried, Mr. Krause wrote that the socialist icon's spiritual tomb is Cuba. "That's where his ideas found their final resting place," he says, "and it's a disaster."
Some, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, would disagree with that assessment. But Guevara was certainly integral to Fidel Castro's revolution. He fought alongside the Castro brothers when they seized control of Cuba in 1959. Later, he was a key participant in the socialist reforms, and became known for his fiery attacks on US foreign policy. He also wrote the influential manual "Guerrilla Warfare," which advocated peasant-based revolutions worldwide.
Today, what remains of Guevara in pop culture is often a figure stripped of political ideology, an "icon of rebellion," Krause says, which explains why youth wear his face on shirts and put his poster on college dorm walls.