Businesses / restaurants

A Cuban restaurant in Riga, Latvia.

40 years after his death Che is as much a marketing tool as an international revolutionary icon. Which raises the question of what exactly does the sheer proliferation of his image – the distant gaze, the scraggly beard and the beret adorned with a star – mean in a decidedly capitalist world?

— Marc Lacey, The New York Times^[20]

• The Russian capital, Moscow, features a Club Che, which is a vibrant Latin American-themed club staffed by Cuban waiters.^[21]
• The Russian city of St. Petersburg features a Cafe Club Che (lounge, bar, & jazz club) where patrons can get their hands on a shot of Cuban rum and a fine Cuban cigar at the drop of a military beret.^[22]
• Cairo, Egypt features a Che Guevara-themed nightclub, where the waiters dress in uniformed black berets.^[15]
• The Slovenian capital Ljubljana contains a Che Bar, where images of the man decorate every wall and surface.
• Zagreb, Croatia contained a restaurant named Che Wap, specializing mostly in ćevapi, but has since then closed.
• San Diego features Che Cafe on the UCSD campus.^[23]
• Colombo, Sri Lanka, features a Café CHé, whose walls "take you through the life of the iconic revolutionary leader."^[24]
• Lipscani, a district of downtown Bucharest, Romania, features the popular bar, El Grande Comandante,^[25] which is made to look like a "basement shrine to Che Guevara."^[26]
• Lagos Island, Nigeria features a Che Lounge & Steakhouse, where Che's face appears on every square inch of glass available, on the menus, the waiters' t-shirts and lapel pins.^[27]
• The city of London Ontario features a decidedly marxist decor and is named after Che Guevara.^[28]
• The capital city of North Macedonia, Skopje features a restaurant called Casa Cubana^[29] that has Latin American-theme with food and cocktail drinks (mojito, Cuba libre etc.)The walls are decorated with the Cuban flag and photos of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos and also there are hosted parties with Latin music.

Body art

• Argentine football legend Diego Maradona had a tattoo portrait of Che Guevara on his right arm.
• Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has a tattoo of Che Guevara, derived from Guerrillero Heroico, on the left side of his abdomen.^[44][45] In 1999, Tyson described Guevara as "An incredible individual. He had so much, but sacrificed it all for the benefit of other people."^[46]
• Former English professional footballer Darren Currie has a large tattoo on the left side of his stomach of Che Guevara. When asked about the motivation for the piece, Currie stated that he had been reading Che's book since he was 14, and that he "admired the way he went out of his way about things."^[47]
• Argentine Juan Sebastián Verón, the 2008 South American Footballer of the Year, has a tattoo of Che's face on his shoulder. When his S.S. Lazio won the 1999 Serie A championship, some of the team's Italian fans who initially didn't like the tattoo, came into the dressing room and kissed it.^[48]
• Former Italian footballer Fabrizio Miccoli has a large Che Guevara tattoo on his left calf.^[49] As a result, when he played for Ternana Calcio from 1998 to 2002, the team's fans would unveil a large stadium sized banner bearing the image of Che along with Moccoli's club shirt and the hammer and sickle.^[50]
• Swedish Olympic boxer Kwamena Turkson has the image of Che Guevara tattooed on his arm.^[51]
• Former South African footballer, Mark Fish, who helped his country to its African Cup of Nations victory in 1996, has a tattoo of Che Guevara.^[52]

In comedy

• American comedian Margaret Cho, on the cover of her stand-up act Revolution (2003) combines her face into an obvious appropriation of Che Guevara's famous graphic-portrait.

In films

Che Guevara was an amazing character. He's a person that changed the world and really forces me to change the rules of what I am.

— Gael García Bernal, portrayed Che in The Motorcycle Diaries^[53]

Benicio del Toro in the 2008 biopic Che.

Actors who have portrayed Che Guevara:

• Francisco Rabal in El Che Guevara (1968)
• Omar Sharif in Che! (1969)
• Terry Gilliam^[54] in the World Forum/Communist Quiz sketch in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episode "Spam" (1970).
• Michael Palin in the World Forum/Communist Quiz sketch during the concert film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982)
• Antonio Banderas in Evita (1996)
• Miguel Ruiz Días in El Che (1997)
• Alfredo Vasco in Hasta la Victoria Siempre (1999)
• Gael García Bernal in Fidel (2002)
• Karl Sheils in Meeting Che Guevara & the Man from Maybury Hill (2003)
• Gael García Bernal in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
• Jsu Garcia in The Lost City (2005)
• Martin Hyder in The Mark Steel Lectures: Che Guevara (2006)
• Sam G. Preston in The True Story of Che Guevara (2007)
• Eduardo Noriega in Che (2007)
• Benicio del Toro in Che (2008)

In games

Rebels and activists the world over still take inspiration from Guevara. But the image has lost something; Che's face on a poster in 1968 isn't quite the same thing as it is on a mousepad 40 years later. Perhaps it is precisely that loss – the shedding of Che's radicalism and ideological rigor – that renders him so supremely marketable today.

— Ben Ehrenreich, Los Angeles Times^[63]

• The design of Zeus Bertrand, Kantaris' right-hand man in Time Crisis: Project Titan, features more or less identical resemblances with Che Guevara.
• His exploits during the Cuban Revolution were very loosely dramatized in the 1987 video game Guevara, released by SNK in Japan and "converted" into Guerrilla War for Western audiences, removing all references to Guevara but keeping all the visuals and a game map that clearly resembles Cuba. As a result of its rarity, original copies of the "Guevara" edition of the Japanese Famicom edition go for high amounts on the collectors' market.
• The 2001 construction and management simulation computer game Tropico allows players to govern a tropical island while amidst a theme similar to that of Cuba after the Cuban revolution. Players may either design their own "El Presidente" character or select one from a list of pre-made historical figures, one of which is Che Guevara.
• The box art for Just Cause, (the 2006 videogame for PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2) imitates the famous photograph of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda. The main character in the game of Rico Rodriguez is also based on CIA agent Félix Rodríguez, who was present for Che Guevara's capture and eventual execution in Bolivia.

• On November 16, 2008, a new world record for the number of dominoes toppled in one turn was set in the Netherlands. The 4,345,027 falling dominoes tumbled for two hours and along with other images, revealed a portrait of Che Guevara.^[65]
• On April 29, 2004, one of the largest simultaneous chess games in history was played with 13,000 boards set up in front of the Che Guevara Mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba. The games of chess, which was Guevara's personal favorite, included the participation of President Fidel Castro. A similar event took place again in 2007 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Che's death in Bolivia, when 1,500 chess boards were played at once. Villa Clara Grandmaster Jesús Nogueiras dedicated the chess extravaganza to Che, remarking that "there will always be Grandmasters thanks to the revolution that Che helped make a reality."^[66]
• In 2009, it was announced that GlobalFun would be releasing a mobile phone game titled El Che. Described as a "great looking, action packed, freedom fighting excursion into the historical battles of Sierra Maestra, Bueycito and Santa Clara", El Che allows cell phone users to choose from an arsenal of assault rifles, shotguns, grenades and rocket launchers, while you attempt "to bring peace to impoverished Cuba."^[67]
• In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Che is referenced several times in the audio briefings, and several aspects of his persona are discussed. Additionally, the main character, Big Boss, resembles Che in both appearance and ideology, leading other characters in-game to point out the resemblance.
• In the 2010 first person shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops one of the multi-player maps available for the player to play is named "Havana" and shows many different pieces of art painted on walls including at least one of Jim Fitzpatrick's version of Guerrillero Heroico.
• A 2013 Cuban-made PC video game titled Gesta Final: Camino a la Victoria (Final Fight: Road to Victory) is based on Che Guevara and Fidel Castro's exploits during the Cuban Revolution.^[68]
• In the 2023 tactical role-playing game Persona 5 Tactica, a spinoff of 2016's Persona 5, Che Guevera as depicted as the Persona - a physical manifestation of human psyche - arising from Toshiro Kasukabe, a Japanese Diet member and potential Prime Ministerial candidate. Abducted by supernatural forces and imprisoned in a subconscious realm composed of kingdoms ruled by cruel tyrants, Toshiro is rescued by the Phantom Thieves of Hearts with the help of a female revolutionary leader, Erina, who resembles Toshiro's old high-school friend that inspired his fight for social justice. Upon Toshiro confronting one of the his captors who turns out to be his Shadow self, Erina transforms and is revealed to be Toshiro's Persona Ernesto, a gender-swapped depiction of Guevera identifiable by a beret with a star (giving her facial silhouette a stylized resemblance to Che's iconic image), with ammunition bandoleers lining her coat and giant pistols for legs.

In literature and publications

As the possibility of real political change recedes, people do need symbols of resistance; it makes them feel better, and Che is that par excellence. Yes, he was handsome. Yes, he died young. But I would say more important than any of those things, he was a rebel.

— Colin Robinson, managing director of Verso Books publishing house^[6]

Comics

Cover art from The Last Days of Che Guevara comic book

• Vida del Che ("Life of Che", 1968), written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and illustrated by Enrique and Alberto Breccia. A biographical Historieta (comic book) published as a graphic novel only three months after Che Guevara's assassination; it was subsequently banned by the military dictatorship self-styled as "Argentine Revolution" (1966–1973) and the whole edition was kidnapped.^[70] The original drawings were saved by Enrique Breccia, and it was finally republished in 2008.^[70]
• Pastores ("Shepherds", 1985), written and illustrated by Horacio Altuna.
• Che: una biografía gráfica ("Che: a graphic biography" 2010), written by Sid Jacobson and illustrated by Ernie Colón.
• The Last Days of Che Guevara (2014). Red Quill Books published this radical graphic novel of Che's life written by Italian journalist Marco Rizzo and illustrated by Lelio Bonaccorso.^[71]
• In the memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the main character dressed up as Che as a child and played with her friends, who portrayed other revolutionaries.
• In the manga, Baki Hanma, there's a character inspired and named after Che. Considered 'The Second' and given immense freedom in prison, this Japanese, ninjitsu-practicing island leader named Jun "Che" Guevaru sought to prove his island's independence from the United States, even going as far as to threaten President Bush. He's eventually sent to the Black Pentagon, where he fights, and loses, to Biscuit Oliva, before escaping to his homeland.

In music

And if there's any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there's any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara.

— Phil Ochs, the liner notes of The Broadside Tapes

• Jazz bassist Charlie Haden composed a piece titled "Song for Che" after Guevara was killed. While performing with Ornette Coleman in Portugal in 1971, Haden dedicated "Song for Che" to the Black Peoples Liberation Movements of Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau in protest against the Estado Novo (Portugal) authoritarian regime. The next day, Haden was arrested by the PIDE and imprisoned and interrogated for possibly a day or two, before being rescued by the Cultural Attaché from the American Embassy.^[77]
• Punk band The (International) Noise Conspiracy's musical inspiration was stated to be the above Ochs quote.
• Upon hearing the news of Guevara's leaving Cuba to start new revolutions in other countries, Cuban musician Carlos Puebla composed "Hasta Siempre, Comandante." Since then it has been covered by numerous artists including the Buena Vista Social Club. French singer Nathalie Cardone produced a modern rendition of the song titled "Hasta Siempre" as an ode to honor Guevara. Cardone's single sold over 800,000 copies in France alone.^[78]
• Folk singer Judy Collins composed a ballad titled "Che" as an ode to Che Guevara after his death. The song was then remixed into an "intense rhythmic interpretation" for a 2009 tribute album titled Born to the Breed by artist James Mudriczki. Collins singled out this song as one of her favorite tracks, while describing Mudriczki's rendition as "marvelous".^[79]
• The German composer Hans Werner Henze dedicated his 1968 oratorio Das Floß der Medusa as a requiem for Guevera.
• In 1968, Scottish songwriter Ewan MacColl composed the song "The Compañeros" in honor of Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. His wife Peggy Seeger also wrote "A Song for Che Guevara."
• The Spanish punk rock group Boikot, released a 1997 CD titled La Ruta del Che. Upon release of the album, a band member told the newspaper El País that "Guevara represents a universal concept of revolution, I believe we all carry a Che inside us, a way of making our own revolution."^[6]
• In 1987, the French rock band Indochine mentions Che Guevara in the song "Les Tzars".
• Grammy Award-winning Carlos Santana wore a Che Guevara shirt to the 2005 Oscar awards.
• The cover of Madonna's 2003 album American Life emulates Guerrillero Heroico, as she revealed to the Italian version of Top of the Pops. Madonna cited Che as a "revolutionary spirit" while adding that although she does not "necessarily agree with The Communist Manifesto, she believes that "there are aspects of socialism which are good", and that she "likes what (Che) stood for".^[80]

• In rapper Jay-Z's Black Album, the track "Public Service Announcement" contains the line "I'm like Che Guevara with bling on / I'm complex."
• "Indian Girl" by The Rolling Stones has a lyric referring to Che. "Mr. Gringo, my father he ain't no Che Guevara, And he's fighting the war on the streets of Masaya"
• The Nightwatchman aka (Tom Morello) references a quote from Che Guevara – "Liberators do not exist, the people liberate themselves" – in the music video for the song 'Road I Must Travel.'
• In rapper Nas's album, Stillmatic there is a controversial track named "My Country" that pays tribute to Che Guevara and others who were murdered by the United States.
• The Allstonians, a third wave ska/reggae band, released a 1997 album with a song called "Doctor Che Guevara."^[64]
• David Bowie's album, Lodger featured an inside sleeve containing one of the famous photographs of Guevara's corpse surrounded by his executioners.
• In Richard Shindell's 2004 album Vuelta the track "Che Guevara t-Shirt" tells the story of an illegal immigrant imprisoned after 9/11 who may be kept in jail forever because he carries a photo of his girlfriend wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.
• On the track "It's Your World" from the rapper Common's 2005 album Be, the artist states "Wish I was free as Che was."
• In Pet Shop Boys' song "Left to My Own Devices" they mention with irony "Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat".
• The artist Immortal Technique has made several references to Guevara in his songs (No Me Importa, Internally Bleeding) and has performed many times while wearing a shirt bearing his image.
• In the Manic Street Preachers song, "Revol", there is the lyric "Che Guevara, you're all target now".
• The song "Hammerblow", off the Cherry Poppin' Daddies album Susquehanna, is a story-song about an underground Marxist uprising; a character in the song tells the narrator ""We haven't gone extinct/Unlike Che Guevara, Marx and Pravda"", assuring that though said revolutionaries may be gone, the movement continues.
• American rock band Chagall Guevara, took their name from artist Marc Chagall and Che Guevara, to imply the concept of "revolutionary art."
• The Australian punk band the Clap has a song called "Che Guevara T-Shirt Wearer" featuring the chorus lines of "you're a Che Guevara T-shirt wearer, and you have no idea who he is."
• American folk singer-songwriter Richard Shindell often introduces performances of his song "Che Guevara T-Shirt" with a story of the irony of the t-shirts. The song features Shindell lamenting on how "Che the great anti-capitalist revolutionary" has had his name and image thoroughly co-opted by the shirt makers not for revolutionary purposes but to make money for the company owners i.e. the capitalists.^[82]
• The band Rage Against the Machine has assorted band apparel with Che's image on it and recommends Guevara's manual "Guerrilla Warfare" in their liner notes. They also released a single called "Bombtrack" bearing Che's image and tour with a Guevara banner draped behind them while onstage.^[6]
• On October 12, 2007, musicians from the Chilean community and Grupo Amistad, performed songs dedicated to Che at a memorial celebration in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.^[83]
• The Brazilian rock band Sepultura performed at Havana's "José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune" in July 2008, while also visiting the memorial to Che Guevara.^[84]
• American punk rock band Against Me! have a song called "Cliché Guevara" on their album As the Eternal Cowboy.
• Muslim-American rapper Rhymefest (whose birth name is 'Che' in honor of Guevara) titled his 2009 album "El Che", describing the overall theme as a "journey with a revolutionary."
• Artist Dana Lyons mentions Che Guevara in his song Cows with Guns.
• American noise rock band Che Guevara T-shirt^[85] named themselves after the phenomena outlined in this article, specifically the irony that a Marxist-inspired guerrilla is now used to sell capitalist products.
• In July 2009, Cuba's best known folk musician Silvio Rodríguez announced that had written a new song titled "Tonada del albedrio" (Tune to Free Will) intended to "rehabilitate" the image of revolutionary Che Guevara from being an "international super-brand". According to Rodriguez the new song on his upcoming album "Segunda Cita" (Second Date) returns the emphasis and meaning of Guevara's life to "his struggle against imperialism, his love of being a revolutionary and his concept of socialism."^[86]
• In October 2009, French alternative rock artist Manu Chao played two tribute concerts in Cuba (at Havana University and Sandino Stadium in the city of Santa Clara) to mark the 42nd anniversary Guevara's assassination. Chao was accompanied in Havana by Polish designer Jacek Wozniak, who joined several Cuban artists to paint a large mural dedicated to Che's memory.^[87]
• Song "List do Che" (literally "Letter to Che") by Polish alternative rock band Strachy na Lachy mocks the fact that capitalists make great profit from communism-oriented revolutionst's image
• Che appeared in an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History and battled Guy Fawkes. He was portrayed by Robert Rico.

Songs in tribute

We've considered Che a fifth band member for a long time now, for the simple reason that he exemplifies the integrity and revolutionary ideals to which we aspire.

— Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against the Machine^[88]

• Afro Cubanos All Stars ~ "Hasta Siempre Comandante" mp3
• Ahmet Koç ~ "Hasta Siempre" (instrumental) official video
• Ali Primera ~ "Comandante Amigo" listen
• Angelo Branduardi ~ "1° aprile 1965"
• Biermann & Black ~ "Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara" mp3
• Bill Laswell ~ "Commander Guevara" mp3
• Carlos Puebla ~ "Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara" video
• Chicos Nuevos ~ "Che Guevara Rap Cubano" official video
• Elena Burke ~ "Cancion del Guerrillero Heroico" mp3
• Francesco Guccini ~ "Stagioni"
• Francesco Guccini ~ "Canzone per il Che"
• Happoradio ~ "Che Guevara"
• Jorge Drexler ~ "Al otro lado del río" = "On the other side of the river" (received the Academy Award for Best Original Song of 2004) Video --- Performed by Antonio Banderas & Carlos Santana @ 2005 Oscars Video
• Juan Carlos Biondini ~ "Poema al Che" listen

The Plaza de la Revolución in Havana, Cuba.

Che Guevara is the purest part of the Cuban Revolution. He is the symbol of the ideal of the revolution; he is the symbol of innovation. We all need change, and we need hope. He is the symbol of hope. He had Irish roots, traveled around Mexico and learned to be alone, he challenged solitude. He is the brave part of the revolution.

– Nathalie Cardone,
sang modern version of Hasta Siempre^[78]

• La Mona Jiménez ~ "El pueblo te ama Che Guevara" listen
• Levellers ~ "Happy birthday revolution"
• Nathalie Cardone ~ "Hasta Siempre" official video -&- performed live
• Oktober Klub international ~ "Comandante Che Guevara" mp3
• Quilapayún ~ "Cancion funebre para el Che Guevara" listen
• Roberto Vecchioni ~ "Celia de la Serna"
• Shaikh Emam ~ "Guevara Mat (Guevara has died)"
• Silvio Rodríguez ~ "Fusil contra fusil" mp3 --- live in Chile

"Tonada del albedrio" (Tune to Free Will)

• Soledad Bravo ~ "Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara" mp3
• United States of America – "Love Song for the Dead Che"
• Víctor Jara ~ "Zamba del Che" listen
• Wolf Biermann ~ "Comandante Che Guevara" listen

He looked a lot like Che Guevara
Drove a diesel van
Kept his gun in quiet seclusion
Such a humble man.

— David Bowie, Panic in Detroit

In television

• Che Guevara himself was a guest on Face the Nation with Tad Szulc in 1964.
• In the now canceled Fox television series Dark Angel, the main character's (Jessica Alba) assumed name is Max Guevara, a reference to Che in her quest to liberate her own race of people, as well.
• In an episode of the animated sitcom King of the Hill, Bobby's activist friend wears a Che Guevara T-shirt.
• In an episode of American Dad!, Stan's son is brainwashed by a communist to follow communism, after his dad ignores him. When his dad enters his room and sees communist apparel everywhere, he begins to rip them down. When he gets to a picture of Che he says "This we can agree on. Planet of the Apes was a fine picture".
• Kyle wears a Che Guevara T-shirt in the South Park episode "Die Hippie, Die".
• In the 2011 South Park episode "The Last of the Meheecans", a street vendor in Mexico is selling a stylized version of the Che t-shirt bearing the image of "Mantequilla".
• In the first season, the opening sequence of The Boondocks featured main character Huey Freeman stylized in the likeness of Che Guevara. A poster of Che Guevara was also seen in his room in the episode "The Passion of the Ruckus".
• In the anime Eureka Seven, the character Stoner resembles Che.
• In the anime Zoku Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei, Nami finds a shirt with Che Guevara's face on it and Chiri tries to give history lessons from Che in episode 12.
• In the anime series Heat Guy J, a poster of Che Guevara hangs on a wall in Daisuke's room.
• In the anime 009-1, the Plaza de la Revolución with Che Guevara's face on it appears in a background shot in episode 12.
• In That '70s Show, the character Steven Hyde often wears a Che Guevara t-shirt.
• Eric Burdon wears a Che Guevara shirt as host of the PBS special The '60s Experience.
• PBS held a forum titled 'the Legacy of Che' where they proclaimed that: "Che Guevara was a pop icon of mythic proportions."
• In The Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)", the Tito Puente's mambo club is called "Chez Guevara", a reference to Che.
• In The Simpsons episode "The Trouble With Trillions", when Homer goes to Cuba there is a wall with a mural that reads "El Duffo o Muerte" (Duffo or death), which is a parody of Cuban Motto "Patria o Muerte" (Homeland or Death) and shows a picture of Che Guevara holding a can of beer.
• In The Simpsons episode "Havana Wild Weekend", the ferry they ride to Cuba is named the "Che Gue-ferry", accompanied by the famous Guerrillero Heroico portrait.
• In the Family Guy episode "Tales of Former Sports Glory", Che Guevara appears on a flashback where Cleveland and his father LeVar they had met him in person at a baseball game.
• In the Serbian television series Vratiće se rode, Švaba has a poster of Che Guevara in his bedroom.
• The Latin American Xchange, a Total Nonstop Action Wrestling tag team, show clips of Che Guevara in their entrance video.
• In the pilot episode of Mission Hill, there is a picture of Che in the background of a classroom.
• In the movie Lost and Delirious, the character Paulie has a Che Guevara poster over her bed.
• In an episode of The Venture Bros., "Dia de Los Dangerous!" Dr. Venture's "colleague" is named Ernesto Guevara.
• When British comedy and TV star Ricky Gervais (of The Office) brought out a DVD of his politics live stand-up show in 2004, he chose to represent himself on the cover as Che Guevara.
• In episode 6 of the British teen drama Skins, the character James Cook (played by Jack O'Connell) runs for class president by presenting himself mocked up as Che Guevara.
• Stephen Colbert gifted Benicio del Toro a modified Che T-shirt bearing his own image when del Toro appeared on a January 2009 broadcast of The Colbert Report, to promote the film Che.^[89]
• The 2009 ABC animated comedy The Goode Family parodies a liberal family whose dog is named "Che". Abhorring meat consumption, the Goode Family (whose car bumper also features the face of Che Guevara) force their dog Che to follow a vegan diet, which forces him to supplement his appetite by eating small creatures and neighborhood cats.^[90]
• A character on the German soap opera Lindenstraße, "Dr. Ernesto Stadler", was named (by his leftist father) after Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Both Ernesto and his brother Jimi (named after Jimi Hendrix) are quite conservative.
• While describing character Hideo Kuze in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG, Motoko Kusanagi compares him to Che, as well as to Martin Luther King Jr., and Mohandas Gandhi.
• An episode of "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders" aired in May 2016 and was heavily influenced by Guevara's anti-American rhetoric. Several quotes from Guevara were left at the murder scenes by the episode's spree killers.

In theatre

In celebrity fashion

• Jay Z Rapper, songwriter and Black Lives Matter activist, wore t-shirt ^[96]
• Madonna Singer songwriter, dressed in costume^[97]
• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Argentinian leader, wore t-shirt ^[98]
• Carlos Santana Songwriter, most memorable hit Black Magic Woman by Fleetwood Mac ^[99]
• Ricky Gervais British comedian, wore t-shirt. Gervais says: "I wasn't political six months ago, and now there's nothing else in the world but politics," the Brit, 55, admitted. "I honestly haven't felt this way since I was 16 and wearing Che Guevara T-shirts, and protesting against nuclear weapons."^[100]
• Behati Prinsloo Victoria's Secret model, wore t-shirt ^[101]
• Gisele Bündchen Married to Tom Brady, modeled Che Guevara bikini ^[102]
• Supermodel Gisele Bündchen donned a bikini adorned with Che Guevara's image for the São Paulo fashion week in July 2002.
• During the October 7, 2002, Vanity Fair photo shoot of the Osbourne family by Annie Leibovitz, son Jack Osbourne is wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.
• Model/actress Elizabeth Hurley was spotted in 2004 clubbing in London with a $4,500 Che-embroidered Louis Vuitton handbag.^[103]
• In 2004, the New York Public Library's gift shop featured a Che Guevara watch. The ad for the watch stated: "Revolution is a permanent state with this clever watch, featuring the classic romantic image of Che Guevara, around which the word 'revolution'-revolves."
• Actor Johnny Depp wears a pendant of Che Guevara around his neck, as can be seen on the February 2005 cover of Rolling Stone. he has also been seen wearing his t-shirt ^[102]
• Prince Harry was spotted in July 2006 adorning a Che Guevara t-shirt, leading London tabloids to proclaim him "Havana Henry".
• Rapper Jay-Z, who raps in one of his songs "I'm like Che Guevara with bling on", commonly is seen wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt.

• In June 2010, Che's daughter Aleida Guevara, opined at a two-day Che related conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that the "ubiquitous exploitation" of Che Guevara's image on t-shirts and paraphernalia would have made her revolutionary father laugh, while joking that "He probably would have been delighted to see his face on the breasts of so many beautiful women."^[105]
• A store called La La Ling in Los Angeles sells a Che Guevara onesie for babies and love-sleeve tee for kids.
• The Onion offers a satirical shirt with Che Guevara himself wearing a Che Guevara shirt. The accompanying sardonic advertisement refers to the "iconic" image as "scarcely seen" since the days when Guevara "freed thousands from the restrictive yoke of T-shirt selection."^[106]
• The international retail store Urban Outfitters offers a "Che Cigar" graphic t-shirt, featuring a famous photo of the guerrilla smoking. The item is marketed with the accompanying tag line "kick back with a smoke with Che Guevara."^[107]
• The Italian company Belstaff offers a "Trialmaster Che Guevara replica jacket", a wax cotton, 4 pocket, belted, classic motorcycle jacket – offered as "a perfect replica" of the one worn by a youthful Ernesto Guevara during his famous motorcycle journey across Latin America.^[108]

Political imagery

The guy's face is shorthand for "I'm against the status quo." He's politics' answer to James Dean, a rebel with a very specific cause.

— David Segal, The Washington Post^[109]

• In February 2008, a minor internet-based "controversy" emerged when a local news report in Houston, Texas, featured the independently funded office of Cuban-American Maria Isabel, a volunteer staffer for the then Barack Obama presidential campaign.^[110] Some conservatives and Obama political opponents were angered when the clip portrayed that Isabel had used a large Cuban flag superimposed with the image of Che Guevara to decorate her office.^[111] For his part, Obama addressed the issue and called the flag's presence "inappropriate".^[112]
• In July 2008, Colombian secret agents posing as leftist rebels were able to rescue Ingrid Betancourt and 15 other hostages held by FARC guerrillas. Part of the ruse involved the agents posing as fellow rebels by wearing Che Guevara t-shirts (considered a heroic figure by the Marxist inspired insurgents).^[113]
• During a November 2008 interview with Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, he disclosed that a band of his rebels refer to themselves as the "Group of Che" and insist on wearing Che Guevara t-shirts as their uniform.^[114]

Leung Kwok-hung.

• Hong Kong legislator and activist Leung Kwok-hung aka "Long Hair", exclusively wears his trademark Che Guevara t-shirts during his numerous protests.^[115]
• Street artist Shepard Fairey, has stated that when he designed the two-tone red and blue stylized portrait of then presidential candidate Barack Obama, his "inspiration" was Alberto Korda's portrait of Che Guevara.^[116]
• In April 2009, Poland's equality minister, Elzbieta Radziszewska, proposed an amendment to the present Polish law prohibiting the production of "fascist" and "totalitarian propaganda". Critics of the addition worry that it could extend to punish those wearing the popular Che Guevara t-shirts or CCCP (USSR) jackets. If passed, many of Communism's leading figures (and thus presumably Che) would have their images outlawed for public use, with those guilty facing a two-year prison sentence.^[117]
• The May 2009 issue of Paper magazine featured a portfolio of ideas on how to rebrand the USA. One campaign by Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter & Bogusky showed President Barack Obama wearing a T-shirt on which there is the familiar image of Che Guevara – altered to show Guevara wearing a T-shirt bearing the famous Shepard Fairey portrait of Mr. Obama and the word "Hope."^[118]

Political praise

Despite the spectacularization of the image of Che, what remains compelling are the many instances worldwide which the photograph persists as a rallying point for political struggles. To articulate resistance, to define local rebellions, to announce solidarity with others, activist artists will undoubtedly continue to remake, reclaim and recontextualize Korda's photograph.

— Brian Wallis, International Center of Photography^[119]

• Cuban school children begin every day of class with a salute and pledge of: "We will be like Che!"^[120]
• Former South African President Nelson Mandela in 1991 on a visit to Havana declared that: "Che's life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory."^[121]
• American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, in a 1984 visit to the University of Havana declared: "Long live our cry of freedom. Long Live Che!"^[122]
• One week before his own assassination on October 15, 1987, in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of Guevara's execution, Burkina Faso's revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara (himself coined "Africa's Che")^[123] declared: "ideas cannot be killed, ideas never die."^[124]

• Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro (who fought alongside Che during the Cuban revolution) proclaimed that Guevara was "a flower prematurely cut from its stem" who "sowed the seeds of social conscience in Latin America and the world."^[125] He also remarked that Che's "luminous gaze of a prophet has become a symbol for all the poor"^[126] and that "today he is in every place, wherever there is a just cause to defend."^[127]
• Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez performed several symbolic acts of solidarity with Guevara, which included laying a wreath in remembrance of the 40th anniversary of his death at his Mausoleum, naming a state-funded adult education programme "Misión Che Guevara", and granting doctors of the Venezuelan public health system a 60 percent pay raise in "honor of Che", who was a physician.^[128]
• After winning President of Bolivia in 2006, Evo Morales installed a portrait of Che Guevara made from coca leaves in the presidential palace.^[129] At a ceremony the following year marking the 40th anniversary of his execution, Morales declared "the ideals and actions of Commander Ernesto Guevara are examples for those who defend equality and justice. We are humanists and followers of the example of Guevara."^[130]

President of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, holding a poster of Guevara. She has remarked that "Che is a man who fought unconditionally for his ideas and died for them."^[131]

• In October 2007, Irish Republicans in Derry, Northern Ireland and Sinn Féin organized a weekend celebration on the "life and legacy" of Irish-Argentine Che Guevara. The weekend featured numerous events including a meeting on freeing the "Cuban Five" and a youth discussion in Pilots Row, while concluding with the unveiling of a new Che Guevara mural in the Bogside.^[132]
• On November 9, 2007, the British House of Commons held an early day motion proposed by John McDonnell and signed by 27 other members of parliament which read: "This House notes that 9 October marks the 40th anniversary of the murder of Ernesto Che Guevara in Bolivia; further notes the inspiration that Che Guevara has brought to national liberation movements and millions of socialists around the world; and believes that the sustained social gains of the Cuban revolution and the government of Evo Morales in Bolivia are fitting tributes to his legacy."^[133]
• After attending a private screening of Steven Soderbergh's 2008 biographical film Che, British politician George Galloway professed that "no one could be more alive – his image, his example, his spirit, is abroad in every struggle throughout the world." Galloway ended his praise by stating that "Guevara radiates out from the photos a goodness, with the power to move millions forever."^[134]
• In September 2009, Croatian President Stjepan Mesić visited and placed a wreath at Che's grave site in Santa Clara, Cuba. Afterwards during his remarks President Mesic referred to Guevara as "a symbol of struggle and an example for young people who wanted a better and more just society", before noting that "Che Guevara's ideals have transcended Latin America's borders, he has become an example for all who are dreaming about a better world."^[135]

"Saint Ernesto" in Bolivia

It's like he is alive and with us, like a friend. He is kind of like a Virgin Mary for us. We say, "Che, help us with our work or with this planting", and it always goes well.

— Manuel Cortez, a campesino who resides next to the schoolhouse where Guevara was executed^[136]

A memorial site in La Higuera, Bolivia, where Che Guevara was executed on October 9, 1967.

Che Guevara's unlikely transformation into a "sanctified" figure began immediately after his execution. Susana Osinaga, the nurse who cleaned Guevara's corpse after his execution reminisced that locals saw an uncanny physical resemblance to the popularized artistic portrayals of Jesus. According to Osinaga, "he was just like a Christ, with his strong eyes, his beard, his long hair", adding that in her view he was "very miraculous."^[137] Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, notes how among the hospital's nuns, and a number of Vallegrande women, the impression that Guevara bore an extraordinary resemblance to Jesus Christ quickly spread; leading them to surreptitiously clip off clumps of his long hair and keep them for good luck.^[138] Jorge G. Castañeda, author of Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara, discerns that "the Christ-like image prevailed" stating "it's as if the dead Guevara looks on his killers and forgives them, and upon the world, proclaiming that he who dies for an idea is beyond suffering."^[139]

Eleven days after Guevara's execution, journalist I. F. Stone (who himself had interviewed Guevara), drew the comparison by noting that "with his curly reddish beard, he looked like a cross between a faun and a Sunday-school print of Jesus."^[140] That observation was followed by German artist and playwright Peter Weiss' remark that the post-mortem images of Guevara resembled a "Christ taken down from the cross."^[141] Che's last moments and the connection to Christian iconography was also noted by David Kunzle, author of the book Che Guevara: Icon, Myth, and Message, who analogized the last photo of Guevara alive, with his hands bound, to an "Ecce Homo."^[142]

In August 1968, French intellectual Régis Debray, who was captured in Bolivia while living with Che Guevara, gave a jailhouse interview where he also drew the comparison. According to Debray, Che (an atheist) "was a mystic without a transcendent belief, a saint without a God." Debray went on to tell interviewer Marlene Nadle of Ramparts magazine that "Che was a modern Christ, but I think he suffered a much harder passion. The Christ of 2,000 years ago died face-to-face with his God. But Che knew there was no God and that after his death nothing remains."^[143]

Beginning with the 30th anniversary of Che's death, as Western reporters returned to Bolivia to report on commemorations, they began to notice that Che Guevara had been transfigured and "canonized" by the local Bolivian campesinos. No longer was he Che Guevara the guerrilla insurgent, but he was now viewed as a "Saint" by locals who had come to refer to him as "San Ernesto de La Higuera" (Saint Ernesto of La Higuera).^[145] Accompanying his "Sainthood" came prayers for favors and legends of his ghost still walking the area.^[145] This prompted the development of the 2006 film San Ernesto de la Higuera produced by Isabel Santos, which won best short documentary at the 5th International Film Festival of Human Rights.^[146]

As the 40th anniversary of Che's execution approached in 2007, journalists returned to discover that in Bolivia, images of Che now hung next to images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Pope John Paul II.^[137] Additionally, columnist Christopher Roper observed that "in Bolivia, Che's murdered body was now compared to John the Baptist,^[137] while Reuters reported that in many homes, Che's face competed for wall space with a host of saints of the Catholic Church.^[136] A new legend also became known, when the Los Angeles Times reported that some rural campesinos now believed that if you whisper Che Guevara's name to the sky or light a candle to his memory, you will find your lost goat or cow.^[147]

A host of local campesinos went on record to journalists from The Guardian about this phenomenon as well. Melanio Moscoso, of La Higuera stated "we pray to him, we are so proud he had died here, in La Higuera, fighting for us. We feel him so close",^[137] while Freddy Vallejos, of Vallegrande, proclaimed "we have a faith, a confidence in Che. When I go to bed and when I wake up, I first pray to God and then I pray to Che – and then, everything is all right. Che's presence here is a positive force. I feel it in my skin, I have faith that always, at all times, he has an eye on us."^[137] Remi Calzadilla, a resident of Pucara, claimed that praying to Che had helped him regain the ability to walk, adding that "now every time I speak to Che I feel a strong force inside of me."^[137]

The laundry where Guevara's corpse was displayed to the world's press in Vallegrande is now a place of pilgrimage as well, with hundreds of personal messages transcribed and carved into the surrounding walls from admiring visitors. In large letters above the table where Che's dead body once lay, an engraving now reads "None dies as long as he is remembered."

Outside Bolivia

The resemblance to aspects of Christ's life on earth can be easily traced in the life of Che. Both were doctors – Christ as miracle healer, Che as the trained physician, and were active as such, even or especially so when they were fighting, doctoring when others were resting or escaping. Both men were particularly concerned with leprosy, the disease of the downtrodden and outcast, as The Motorcycle Diaries (books and film) have reminded us in the case of Che. Like Che, Jesus was an egalitarian, a communist in terms of owning little and sharing all, and his disciples were bidden to hold all in common. Both were strict disciplinarians, who insisted on individuals leaving families, friends and privileges behind to join them, sacrificing comforts and, if need be, their own lives.

— David Kunzle, author of Che Guevara: Icon, Myth, and Message^[148]

• The Church of England caused some controversy in 1999, when they drew comparisons of Jesus to Che Guevara on a red and black poster titled "Che Jesus", which bore the slogan: "Meek. Mild. As if. Discover the real Jesus."^[149] In response to the controversy Reverend Peter Owens-Jones of the Church Advertising Network (CAN) who designed the ad stated "We are not saying that Jesus was communist, but that he was revolutionary. We are exploiting the image of revolution, not the image of Che Guevara."^[150]
• Che Guevara appears as the Christ figure in a mural called "The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes" in Stanford University's Latino Dorm (Casa Zapata).^[51]
• Actor Benicio del Toro who played Guevara in the 2008 biographical film Che, compared the guerrilla leader to Jesus Christ, stating "I think Che had perseverance and morality ... being the underdog and fighting against injustice and standing up for the forgotten moved him so hard. Kind of like Jesus, in a way – only Jesus would turn the other cheek. Che wouldn't."^[55]

"Curse of Che"

Many of the rural campesinos in the small Bolivian town of Vallegrande, where anthropologists retrieved Che's remains in 1997, firmly believe that there exists a "curse of Che".^[151] This belief exists because six of the Bolivian politicians and military officers who share responsibility for Guevara's death have since died a violent death. They were murdered, died in accidents, or in the case of Bolivian President René Barrientos were killed in a helicopter crash. In addition, General Gary Prado, who arrested Guevara, became paralyzed after a shot went off from a gun he was handling and hit his spine.^[151]

Monuments and memorials

"This is the only surviving tree in the world that has been planted by Che Guevara" in Yahala Kele rubber estate in Moragahahena, Horana, Sri Lanka on August 8, 1959

Guevara is everywhere. He is being reborn. And nowadays, he has won. You will see.

— Eladio Gonzalez, Che memorabilia store owner in Buenos Aires^[159]

Statue of Che Guevara in Utrecht, Netherlands

• An average of about 800 international visitors each day make the trek to Che Guevara Mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba. The site, which contains a 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) bronze statue of Guevara, also includes his remains, a museum of his exploits, and an eternal flame in honor of his memory.^[160]
• In Venezuela, along the Andean mountain highway near the city of Mérida, an 8-foot glass plate bearing Guevara's image is erected near the top of El Aguila Peak. Guevara visited the spot in 1952 during his travels through South America, which he recorded in his diary.^[161]
• Rosario, Argentina, the city of Che's birth, features an Ernesto "Che" Guevara plaza. The centerpiece is a 13-foot bronze "Monument to Che" statue of Guevara, cast from thousands of donated and melted-down keys.^[162]
• In Alta Gracia, Argentina, the home where Guevara lived part of his childhood and teenage years, was turned into a museum in 1997. Titled "Villa Nidia", the museum features a sculpture depicting a young Ernesto at the age of 12, along with a tree in the backyard brought in from Cuba in October 2002 on 35th anniversary of Che's death.^[163]
• The Bolivian town of La Higuera (where Che was executed) hosts a statue of Guevara^[164] as does the bus terminal in El Alto, Bolivia, which features a 23-foot scrap metal sculpture of his likeness.^[165]
• The Jintai Museum park in Beijing, China (where Guevara visited chairman Mao Zedong in 1960), is home to a sculpted bust of Che, designed by Chinese artist Yuan Xikun.^[166]
• A park along the Danube river in Vienna, Austria, features a 28-inch bronze bust of a bearded Che in his "trademark" beret. At the 2008 unveiling, the city's Social Democratic mayor Michael Haeupl proclaimed the statue "a symbol of Vienna's intention to eradicate poverty."^[167]
• In the autonomous community of Oleiros, Galicia, a ten-meter high outline of Guevara's face was constructed by Cuban artist Juan Quintani. The mayor of Oleiros, Angel García Seoane, promoted the 2008 project to "honor Che and all the revolutionaries of the world."^[168]
• When Che Guevara visited the Yahala Kele rubber estate in Horana, Sri Lanka, on August 7, 1959, as part of a Cuban state visit to study rubber planting methods, he planted a mahogany tree. Fifty years later in 2009, the now large tree still stands, along with a small memorial at an adjacent bungalow showcasing Guevara's visit. Caretaker Dingiri Mahattaya, who met Che upon the visit as a young teen, remarked in 2009 that "this is the only surviving tree in the world that has been planted by Che Guevara."^[169]
• In 2009, the South African city of Durban, renamed Moore Road (in honor of colonial era British General Sir John Moore) to Che Guevara Road, in the revolutionary's honor.^[170] This was followed by a statue^[171] of Guevara being added to the gallery of "liberation struggle heroes" at Pretoria's Freedom Park.^[172]
• In Algiers, Algeria the main avenue along the seaside bears the name Che Guevara. Che visited the capital several times in the 1960s when Algeria was a symbol to African liberation movements after its war of independence from France, and according to the Latin American Herald Tribune, the guerrilla leader "is much loved by and well-known to Algerians."^[173]
• In Mexico City, Mexico, statues of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro were placed in 2018 to commemorate the first time both met after the start of the Cuban Revolution.^[174]

From an anti-Che perspective

The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster ... The present-day cult of Che – the t-shirts, the bars, the posters – has succeeded in obscuring this dreadful reality.

— Paul Berman, Slate^[189]

Mexican author Rogelio Villareal has noted how "the famous image is not venerated by all ... it has also been aged, laughed about, parodied, insulted, and distorted around the world."^[190] Conservative Mark Falcoff has remarked that Guevara is "a cultural icon" not because of "his example for poor countries" but as a result of "his capacity to provoke empathy among the spoiled youth of the affluent West."^[191] Historian Robert Conquest, of the Hoover Institution, has referred to such "empathy" and adulation among the young, as the "unfortunate affliction" of "adolescent revolutionary romanticism."^[31] Sean O'Hagan of The Observer contends that the appeal to such empathy is one of superficiality, remarking that "if Che hadn't been born so good-looking, he wouldn't be a mythical revolutionary."^[31] In the view of Ana Menéndez, author of the novel Loving Che, the fascination with Che is not with the man, but the photograph.^[192] While herself acknowledging him as a "great idealist", Menéndez believes there is a "fallibility of memory", which leads many to "gloss over the fact that he was also a brutal man, the head of a firing squad in the opening days of the revolution."^[192] Menéndez theorizes that such unsavory aspects are glossed over in the way one glosses over someone's flaws when in love.^[192] Jazz musician Paquito D'Rivera, himself a Cuban exile who fled the island after a run-in with Guevara, has criticized the positive portrayal of Che by musicians such as Santana, by noting the strict censorship of music at the time deemed "immoral" and "imperialist" by the Cuban government.^[193] In deference to such contradictions, Patrick Symmes, author of Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend, has hypothesized that "the more time goes by, the chicer and chicer Che gets because the less he stands for anything."^[194] Barcelona museum director Ivan de la Nuez, in the 2008 documentary "Chevolution" describes the overall phenomena by observing that "Capitalism devours everything – even its worst enemies."^[195]

From a pro-Che perspective

During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the "consolation" of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.

— Vladimir Lenin, The State and Revolution^[196]

Duke Latin American studies professor Ariel Dorfman hypothesizes that Che's been "comfortably transmogrified into a symbol of rebellion" precisely because those in power no longer believe him to be dangerous.^[197] Dorfman suspects the attempt to subvert Che could backfire, positing that 3 billion people now live on less than $2 a day and thus "the powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience."^[197] Expressing a similar sentiment, director Jonathan Green acknowledges that "Che is turning over in his grave" because of the commercialization; in Green's view, Che's visage also has the potential to be a "Trojan horse" of capitalist marketing, by embedding itself into pop iconography. In his example, corporations in their desperate drive to sell goods, create the opportunity for observers to see the "logo" and ask "who was that guy?"^[188] Trisha Ziff, curator of Che! Revolution and Commerce believes that regardless of the "postmodern" diffusion, you can't disassociate Che from "radical ideas and change", nor can one control it. In Ziff's view, despite the endless array of merchandising, the symbol of Che will continue to be worn and have resonance.^[188] Critical pedagogical theorist Peter McLaren theorizes that American capitalism is responsible for the Che phenomenon, stating that "the United States has a seductive way of incorporating anything that it can't defeat and transforming that 'thing' into a weaker version of itself, much like the process of diluting the strength and efficacy of a virus through the creation of a vaccine."^[198] Neo-Marxist and critical theorist Herbert Marcuse argued that in the contemporary capitalist world there is no escaping such co-optation, theorizing that we are made "one-dimensional" by capitalism's single-minded orientation toward greed and growth.^[82] Author Susan Sontag spoke of the potential positive ramifications of utilizing Che as a symbol, positing:

I don't disdain the impact of Che as a romantic image, especially among newly radicalized youth in the United States and Western Europe; if the glamour of Che's person, the heroism of his life, and the pathos of his death, are useful to young people in strengthening their disaffiliation from the life-style of American imperialism and in advancing the development of a revolutionary consciousness, so much the better.^[199]