Posted on 08/31/2005 5:03:04 PM PDT by REactor
THE image of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara gazing sternly into the distance, his long hair tucked into a beret bearing a single star, has been an enduring 20th- century pop icon, appearing on posters, badges, watches and even underwear.
But now the late Argentine Marxist revolutionary's family is attempting to claim back his image from the capitalist consumer society that he died fighting to overturn.
The picture was taken by the Cuban photographer Alberto Diaz, a fashion photographer better known as Korda, at a funeral in 1960 for victims of an explosion on a French freighter transporting weapons to Cuba a year after Fidel Castro's revolution triumphed with the help of Guevara.
It was not published but appeared on posters seven years later following Che Guevara's execution in Bolivia, firing the imagination of rioting Parisian students in May 1968 and becoming a symbol of idealistic revolt for a generation.
As well as being one of the world's most reproduced, the image has become one of its most merchandised, prompting Guevara's family to launch an effort to stop it.
They plan to file lawsuits abroad against companies that they believe are exploiting the image and say lawyers in a number of countries have offered assistance.
"We have a plan to deal with the misuse," Guevara's Cuban widow Aleida March said. "We can't attack everyone with lances like Don Quixote, but we can try to maintain the ethics [of Guevara's legacy]," said Ms March, who will lead the effort from the Che Guevara Studies Centre which is opening in Havana later this year.
"The centre intends to contain the uncontrolled use of Che's image. It will be costly and difficult because each country has different laws, but a limit has to be drawn," Aleida Guevara, the guerrilla's daughter, said.
Swatch has used Guevara on a wristwatch, advertising firms have used his image to sell vodka, supermodel Gisele Bundchen even took to the catwalk in Brazilian underwear stamped with Che's face. Guevara collectibles - from cigarette lighters to belt buckles and key chains - can be bought online.
But a successful copyright lawsuit against Smirnoff vodka in Britain in 2000 set the precedent for legal action, establishing ownership of the photographic
Yoko Ono liberal feeding off the dead syndrome.
Man! I love that picture!
It has been said that his last words were something to the effect that "I am Che Guevara and I am worth more to you alive than dead."
Well, that was his opinion.
If he hadn't had been such a pretty boy, his image wouldn't be on anything and he'd be mostly forgotten by now. As far as dead commies go, his efforts towards the advancement of world communism were pretty minor. But you don't see Marx or Trotsky's ugly mugs on any t-shirts.
Kinda sounds like an anti-communist sentiment to not let all the proletariat free use of Che's likeness.
Property rights? Bourgeois!
LOL!
Forget minor, he was an abject failure.
Castro sent him to Africa, and then Bolivia, to get him out of Cuba. Both missions were failures. Castro wanted him to die, and got his wish.
Hell, the man managed to be wounded during the bay of pigs while defending a beach that WASN'T attacked!
Roast in hell, MoFo...
So I have never had the number of attacks upon my systems as to when I posted to this post. Zone Alarm are gone absolutely nuts and i"m extracting myself.
Amen to that t-shirt brother. Might you know where I might be able to buy one? There are some lib pals I need to drive up the wall with it. Thanks RFan.
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