On the subject of Che Guevara shirts, what I've always found most intriguing about the phenomenon (and if you think they're popular here, spend some time in Latin America -- they're everywhere) is that it was his obsession with his own image that brought him down. Guevara wasn't as concerned with inciting revolution as he was in being the leader of that revolution. He saw himself as some sort of prophet, an icon, the revolutionary figure endowed with the ability to lead all revolutions, which is what drove him to Eastern Europe, Congo, Asia, and to Bolivia. His conceit led him to Bolivia, and it is why he died in Bolivia. After arriving in there, he found that even the dissident Bolivians weren't that interested in his idea of revolution, and he wasn't able to develop much of a movement behind him. They had their own plans for what should happen in their country. And legend has it that photos of Guevara and other guerrillas left behind at their camp site were what tipped Bolivian President René Barrientos off to the fact that they were in the country, who then called for his men to kill Guevara and put his head on display in La Paz. Soon the CIA was involved, and "El Che" was dead in a matter of months.
Which, in addition to all the reasons Kay Steiger points out, is precisely why seeing his image emblazoned on so many T-shirts is so disheartening. It was his own self-obsession, his own fixation on his revolutionary image, that brought him down. So it's really disappointing to see people perpetuate that without any recognition that focusing on one person is a problem. It's nice to have leaders to rally behind, visionaries that we can look to as sources of inspiration, but being focused on a particular person is as counter-revolutionary as you can get.
--Kate Sheppard
