Che-ing All Over

Che Guevara - Bumper Sticker and Icon of the People (who drive tuk tuks)

 

At first glance you'd think Che Guevara is pretty popular in Laos.

 

His image is everywhere - mostly on vehicles. You see versions of the silhouetted portrait that represents the whole "Cult Of Che"on trucks, tuk tuks, motorbikes and fancy new Hyundai hatchbacks.

 

 

I pass a mechanic shop each day that uses Che's image as their logo. I'm not sure, but I don't think that mechanic I making a statement about their politics. I think it's just a popular image. A familiar and easily recognised image. Like a Lao frangipani flower. Or a Chinese dragon. Or Hello Kitty.

 

Why would I think this? Why can't I just accept that images of the face of  Guevara represent a political alignment, an appreciation for Marxist communist ideals and a statement of the politics of the driver or shop owner?

 

Che Guevara was an Argentine doctor. He got political, travelled a lot, wrote a lot and influenced many. He is seen as a key figure in many Latin American revolutions, fighting capitalist imperialism and exploitation and working for social reforms and freedom for the people.  He promoted Karl Marx's ideas about equality and sharing property and power.

It makes sense that he would be known in a country like Laos whose fight for self rule and freedom from imperialism in the 20th Century was based on Marx's theories about how the world should be.

And yet...

I have asked many people I work with and most don't know much about Marxist theory. Many don't seem to know a lot about the revolutions and communist movements in Latin America.

And at least one educated, English speaking Lao once said something that was stunning in it's confusion.. He saw the Che Guevara sticker on a friend's motorbike and asked "So, do you like Hitler?"

yep. He didn't know the difference between Che Guevera, symbol of the political ideology that had revolutionised his own country and Adolf Hitler, the reviled, anti-communist, anti-democracy fascist fuhrer of Nazi Germany. Different people. REALLY different people.

I am going to ask a lot more people - especially ones with Che stickers on their bikes -if they know who he was and what he did.

I'll report back..

Update: (8 Sept 2014)

So far no one I have asked knows who he is. They recognise the image but have no idea. Even a masters degree graduate  currently undergoing a training course about Marxism and Lao politics didn't know. Sigh.