Ernesto "Che" Guevara

Have you ever seen this picture? Maybe you have and it was on a t-shirt just like this one.

This is a picture of Ernesto "Che" Guevara [air-nest-oh tchay gae-vahr-ah; commonly referred to just as "Che"]. Did you know that Che is Argentine? He sure is; he was born in Rosario in 1928 and studied medicine. However, his fame came not through medicine, but through socialist revolution. He was a communist and supported revolutions as a way to bring about more social equality. He helped Fidel Castro win in Cuba's revolution of 1959 and travelled to various places in Europe, Africa, and Latin America to promote his ideas of reform. While he never seemed to try to implement his revolutionary ideas in his native Argentina, he is one of the most famous Argentines and one of the most influential Argentines (and Latin Americans) of the twentieth century.

While he was captured and executed in Bolivia in 1967 while trying to promote a socialist revolution there, his legacy lives all over the world among those people who feel that social injustice can be cured by communism. Whether you agree with Che or not, it is impossible to deny that this Argentine has had a very profound influence on Latin America and many other parts of the world. Here are some pictures of Che and his influence. The first is Che with Fidel Castro. The second is of a memorial to Che in Havana, Cuba. Its inscription says Hasta la victoria siempre, which means essentially "always until the victory." This indicates his belief of a need to always continue the fight against injustice until the victory is won. The last picture is of a wall painting of the famous Che picture in a poor neighborhood in Mendoza, Argentina. His face as well as quotes of his appear on walls all over the country.