Don't Cry For Che Guevara
Cuban–American author Humberto Fontova has a new book out titled, Exposing The Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Che worship is something I have been fascinated with for quite some time, especially among the young Americans who are hyper consumers. Investor’s Business Daily ran an interview of Fontova concerning his new book on July 10 and here are some essential quotes by Fontova from the interview. “My dad doesn’t like to take orders. There’s this myth that anyone leaving Fidel Castro’s revolution had to be a millionaire, a gangster or a crook. All he wanted was to not be a slave.”
“Cuba in 1961 had 6.3 million people. According to Freedom House, 500,000 Cubans have passed through Cuba’s prison systems, proportionately more than went through Stalin’s Gulag. At one time in 1961, 350,000 Cubans (were) jailed for political crimes and 1 out of 18 Cubans was a political prisoner.”
“He had an arrogant nature. I interviewed people who visited him and tried to save their sons from firing squad executions without trial. He liked to toy with them. He liked to pick up the phone in front of weeping mothers and bark out, "Execute the Fernandez boy right now!”
“They have big notions, especially the young kids who see Che as a hero — that he is a revolutionary, that he fought “The Man.” No, sir, I say, he was “The Man” that rebellious people fought against. You got it completely backwards.”
The disinformation out there about Che is staggering. Che was unsuccessful leading Marxist revolutions in Africa and Latin America, so much so Fidel Castro sent him on a suicide mission. He was a tyrant and murderer. And even one book against one tyrant and murder is a book against all of them.
Religious Cubans also suffer from the oppression of a hostile regime just 90 miles from the American shore. If the Che t-shirt culture reminds of us anything it’s the fact and sadness of the billions of people who live under totalitarian oppression are often forgotten. Unfortunately the evil Stalinist - Che ideology is not just forgotten but knowingly and sometimes unknowingly propped up by copycat consumers. In fact the National Council of Churches and other like minded organizations have defended and propped up Castro’s Cuba.
In contrast Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said, “We must stand with the oppressed rather than their oppressors and defend human dignity by supporting those who toil for freedom.”
Tue, 01/06/2009 17:40
Ray, Witness is as good a book as I’ve ever read.