80 years of Che Guevara

Too tired to write it all down now, but here are the pictures I took during the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the birth of Ernesto Che Guevara, quite possibly the most famous citizen of Rosario. It's an embedded Flickr slideshow. If that doesn't work, try 80che: 80 years of Che Guevara. New pictures may be added tomorrow.

Che Guevara's statue

The bronze statue of Ernesto Che Guevara arrived in Rosario, its city of birth, today, after four days travelling by boat up the Paraná river from Buenos Aires, where it was made. I wrote about el Che's monument in February, after I'd read about plans for the celebrations of Ernesto Guevara's 80th birthday (June 14th).

The statue came at noon, and I guess I could've been there, but didn't know and I was exhausted, and expected at home for lunch. There was a welcome celebration at the Flag Memorial Park, and then a parade that took the statue to the place where it will be set up, its own Plaza Ernesto Che Guevara within Parque Yrigoyen, on 27 de Febrero Blvd. The next two weeks there'll be a whole lot of Che Guevara-related activities organized by the Municipality, which is (I'm told) spending its last cents on these events. (The economy is going badly, what with inflation and public employees' pay rise and all.) Yours truly expects to be present at least in some of them.

Picture: BIENVENIDO COMANDANTE!, by I'mBatman
The statue of Che Guevara arrives — caught by a fellow Flickr'er!

Plans for Che Guevara's monument

Last December I wrote about a monument to Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The news now says Che Guevara's monument will be ready and in place in about four months. The place is going to be the same as planned, Parque Yrigoyen, near the old Central Córdoba Station, south of downtown. The date will be June 14, the 80th anniversary of Guevara's birth.

The monument is a four-metre-tall statue depicting el Che in a combative pose, without weapons. It was made from bronze donated by some 14,000 people, often in the form of old keys. The statue will be made in Buenos Aires; a boat will carry it up the Paraná River, departing on May 30 and stopping several times along the way for public events. It will arrive on June 1 or 2, and it'll be installed, I guess, during the intervening fortnight until Guevara's birthday. The unveiling will be attended by people coming on a bus caravan from the Obelisco in BA, some representatives of the Argentine government, and envoys from Cuba.

Rosario, the birthplace of Guevara, has never had anything like this before — not even a museum. There'll be many voices against this monument and all the fuss around it, I know. I'll only repeat what I said in December: Guevara is part of our history and of world history. Ignoring him or refusing to acknowledge his influence would be stupid. Ideological blindness should not lead us to consider him just a revolutionary hero and a fighter for good causes, or just a fanatic and a murderer. The monument will serve everyone to remember that Che Guevara existed and had an effect on his generation, and to make visitors and local residents think about him.

Moreover, the city will profit from this. Tourists are always astonished to hear we have no "Museum of Che Guevara", and often disappointed when they see that Guevara's birth home looks just like any other house and the building is taken over by an insurance company. At least we'll have something to show them now, something big and shiny and three-dimensional that remembers a man no-one can afford to ignore.

El Che and his monument

I was reading GoodAirs the other day and found the news about the monument to Ernesto Che Guevara. The monument is going to take up three tons of bronze, donated by thousands of people in the form of old keys and other objects, to sculptor Andrés Zerneri. I knew it had been decided to erect the monument here in Rosario, by a majority of votes of those who donated the bronze, but I didn't know when or where exactly.

So, digging a little bit, I found the plans for Che's 80th birthday celebrations at the Municipality of Rosario website. It turns out there'll be several days (June 12–15, 2008) with a schedule of various events, including the unveiling of the monument, which will be located within the recently finished Parque Yrigoyen, near the old Central Córdoba Station. It's not a prime visitor spot, being on the very edge of the macrocentric area, but it's along one of the major avenues of the city (27 de Febrero) and should be easily accessible.

I expect there'll be a lot of debate about the convenience of honouring el Che. Some consider him a terrorist and a murderer; others call him a brave freedom fighter; others disregard his ideology and his methods and somewhat shallowly admire his struggle for the cause he believed in; for most he's little more than an icon of rebellion. I have no position on this, feeling that this is a subject for reflection, not debate. Historical facts are clear enough for everybody to learn and decide.

The monument will settle a debt that the city has had with itself for decades — it will be a reminder of the life of one of its most notable children. There are monuments to, and streets and parks named after, much more sinister historical characters. Call me a heartless postmodernist on this, but I'd rather have a big statue of a controversial man that gets tourists here that not having anything. And if the whole celebration and the monument get more young disinformed people to go to the library and read history books, all the better.