Discovering Water in Unthinkable Places

In thinking about Che Guevara, I first wondered why his image is even more powerful than it was in his time of revolution. The two-part film, “Che”, then became my primary source of research. I discovered that Che did free Cuba from a corrupted government, although, he his dreams of freeing all of Latin America came to an end in the defeat by the Bolivian Government.

Che witnessed the structural violence that occurred in Latin America on his motorcycle journey as a young man, and the violence still occurs today. He observed a colonial world where the people’s human rights were violated and exploited by the higher powers of American capitalists. Che’s vision of giving Latin Americans came to an end, but Americans control over the lands has heightened.

Neo-Liberalism or Post Fordism has granted open markets and deregulations to American organization, such as NAFTA. Capitalist are free to develop industries all over Latin America where they can exploit the natural resources, as well as the slave labor that the locals depend on. Their exploitations create a monopoly where the rich stay rich, and where the poor are forced to depend on sweatshop wages.

Today, capitalists buy their power in these vulnerable countries, and they sustain their control with Latin “leadership” or bureaucracy. The economical power that American capitalist contain transforms Latin social structures, which eliminates the middle class, and destroys the livelihoods of the people that live in these third world countries.

The exploitation of the land and its people is one issue, but the torture, imprisonment, and extermination of Latinos and Latinas becomes another problem, as capitalist try to protect their power. Latinos can’t resist their government, or fight against exploitation, or issues, such as industrial pollution, because the Latin bureaucracy doesn’t tolerate resistance. The corrupted government has demonstrated their power with the disappearances in Guatemala, and the Dirty War of Buenos Aires where the army was responsible for 85% of civilian deaths. The power that the oppressors take away every single ounce of autonomy and hope that these third world people have, and they control them with economical, social, and militaristic brutality.

In a world where you contain no social, political, or economical autonomy, it is pretty obvious why the rhetoric of Che’s image still lives today. The oppressed see an intelligent and kind man who was ruthless towards his enemies, which is their enemies as well. They see one of their own, who revolted against the corrupted governments, and who successfully defeated the powerful. Che Guevara’s image becomes more than a historical figure, but rather an image of resistance, and a sense of autonomy, which gives the oppressed a sense of empowerment.