On this same website but in another forum carnale and Brown Beret Tiahui gives a very cool, calm, considered, compassionate and restrained response to a contributor identified as "Chicano831" who takes a very negative and critical stance against Che and Fidel in that forum and complains about why young people wave Che flags and wear Che tee shirts when he was such a tyrant (sic). Both of these men generate great passions when discussed, pro and con, and it would have been very easy for brother Tiahui to lose his patience and start yelling and screaming (with capital letters and numerous exclamation points) at "Chicano831". Instead he kept his composure and explained in a few, profound sentences why people admire Che and even Fidel in some cases. I wish to applaud Tiahui and congratulate him on his reserve and to add a few passing comments of my own.



It's important to remember that Che, at least, was never a communist. He never joined any Communist political party and was gone from Cuba when it installed itself there. He despised the russian communists as much as he did the american imperialists. And he refuted the Bolivian communists when he was there because they wanted to take over his 'foco insurrectionale' for their own purposes and he said no. It's speculated though I don't know if it's been proven yet, that the Bolivian Communist Party had a hand in Che's demise there because they worked with the CIA trained, equipped and sometimes led Bolivian Army to capture and kill him.



Che disliked labels-communist, socialist, democrat-and never wanted anyone to pigeonhole him in that way because it might force him into an ideaology that might try to contain and limit his global thinking and what he wanted to do. In the comment by "Chicano831" he says (as if we didn't know this and had to be told) Che was Argentinian, not Chicano, presumably meaning that why should any Chicanitos carry his flag or wear his tee shirt. (which he says makes him sick) In a Mexican-American sense he may have been right. Che wasn't a Chicano.
But he was hispano-latino and Chicanos fall into that group with him. And in anycase, as brother Tiahui said, the admiration for Che doesn't stem from where he was born or what his nationality was or what ethnic grouping he fell into. Che's idealogy had no nationality. He was a citizen of the world and at home in Cuba, Agentina, Bolivia, Angola or anywhere else he chose to rest his beret. His thoughts were international in scope. He wanted to help the down-trodden, the poor and destitute, the colonized, the forgotten whether they were his countrymen or not.
And a desire to do that is not something that's just local or regional or even national in its scope. those are things People can feel and understand everywhere and that's why the man is so admired all over the world and why the tee shirt I have with Che's picture on it was purchased in a tiny, out of the way seaside resort town on the south coast of France where I traveled to in 2003. The man's influence had even touched and reached them and they knew who he was.





"Chicano831" goes on to say that if we want the 'truth' about Che and Fidel we should access www.therealcuba.com Okay,
I did that. It is of course a totally anti-Che website. Nothing objective, two sided or fair about it at all. Just a complete slam and misrepresentation of everything Che stood for and meant to people. My guess is it was probably put together by Cubano exiles in South Florida where the hatred for Che and Fidel is stronger than anywhere else in this country. As an example, they refer to a supposed conversation that took place between Che and his executioners. Che supposedly pleaded for his life and they portray him as a wimp begging for mercy when he says, "I'm worth more to you alive than dead". But as I heard the story told his executioners asked him if they should kill him and he replied...."Kill me if that is your wish but from a propoganda standpoint you could do more with me alive than dead." And he said this in a calm, almost serene and dignified way, not begging and pleading on his knees or anything like that. When Che and Fidel cleaned up the cesspool that was Cuba under Fulgencio Batista, his mafia-controlled government,the prostitution of Cuban women,the uneducated ignorance of its children, the destitution of its sick, the denegration of the men by rich Americans who saw it as their lawless, limitless playground and 'banana republic'--many of those who got their riches confiscated, particularly Cuban collaborators in this maddness, and lost all their goodies that they were reveling in under
Batista and America's millionaires...many of those fled to Florida. It's no wonder the sentiment against Che and Fidel is so virialent there. They want their sugar plantations back. They don't want to overthrow communism. They couldn't care less about what political idealogy governs Cuba. Just as long as they can satisfy their stolen greed. And they know that constantly slamming Cuba as communist will keep the Americans presidents enforcing the embargo and against the country and is leader in their effort to break both enabling them to once again enjoy the profits they had so rudely taken from them in 1960.



Well, I could go on and on but I think the point's been made and maybe someone else will pick up where I've left off. Once again I wish to thank Tiahui whose response to "Chicano831" inspired mine and who I'm afraid was far more restrained than I was. You go, Brown Berets! Viva Tiahui and ReSista and Celia Sanchez- the woman who kept both Che and Fidel going during those harsh days in the Sierra Maestras.