Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was an Argentine-born revolutionary who became a key figure in the Cuban Revolution and later in guerrilla movements abroad, where he was killed in Bolivia in 1967.

His image became one of the most reproduced in the world, a symbol of rebellion to admirers. Critics, including many Cuban exiles, point to his role in early revolutionary tribunals and executions.

In 1959, Guevara was placed in command of La Cabaña fortress, where he oversaw the revolutionary tribunals that sent hundreds of men to the wall. He signed execution orders without remorse and wrote openly of the need for cold, calculated killing in the service of revolution. The students, soldiers, and ordinary citizens shot there left behind grieving families who never forgot the name of the man who ran that prison.

The face printed on t-shirts and dorm-room posters belongs, for the families of his victims, to the architect of summary justice. To wear his image is, for them, to celebrate the man who took their fathers, brothers, and sons.

Che means different things to different people, and Cuba Explained explains why — the icon, the ideology, and the historical record behind the myth.