Bolivia's Other Great Crop: Che Nostalgia

Reader Mark Bonacquisti points to this NY Times travel piece (reg. required) that will warm the hearts of beret-wearing commodity fetishists everywhere. It describes how sandalistas can trace the path that Che Guevara rode in The Motorcycle Diaries, which has been described, notes the Times, as "Easy Rider meets Das Kapital" (I'm guessing that Marx is Dennis Hopper and Engels is Peter Fonda, but who the hell is the godawful talking-mime troupe at the commune?)

For hard-core Che Guevara enthusiasts, there is yet another [vacation] option. On Oct. 4, the Bolivian government opened up the "Che Trail," which allows visitors to follow the path of Guevara's last march before he was captured in the village of La Higuera by the Bolivian Army.

All that's missing is the cardboard cut-out of the bullet-ridden totalitarian pinup that you can take a picture with. Whole thing here.

Some Reason thoughts about Che's "secret diaries" are online here and about Cuba's 30th anniversary celebration of his death here. And Managing Editor Jesse Walker took a long look at Cuban art posters here.

Comments

[Rick Barton]

I've got your Che Nostalgia right here:

http://bureaucrash.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=583

http://bureaucrash.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=475

http://bureaucrash.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=577

[Hydroman]

Very interesting, I was in the Congo in `64 during the "Congo Crises" . We went down there with NATO forces from Wheelus AFB in Tripoli, Libya.I never heard that "Che" was involved. I guess being young and dumb left me out of the loop.

[Rick Barton]

And of course, they also do a very nice Mickey Che T-shirt:

http://bureaucrash.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=377

[Pro Libertate]

I have an old National Lampoon book that pokes fun at Che in a parody entitled, "Che Guevara's Bolivian Diaries" (written by National Lampoon founder, Doug Kenney, I believe). I tried to find it on the web, but I guess the Internet doesn't have everything just yet. Anyway, it was pretty funny. All I can recall off the top of my head was that Che became addicted to the Yanqui imperialist drink, Coca-Cola, and redirected his efforts to finding more of said drink. Probably closer to the truth than the crazy "cult of Che" would have us believe.

[Adam]

I'll stick with my favorite Bolivian product, sweet, sweet cocaine.

[Gary Gunnels]

Is this a new sort of tourism? First it was "eco-tourism" (which I generally applaud as a form of free-market environmentalism) now its "totalitarian tourism?" 🙂 Of course I guess its really been around for a long time - given the number of folks who have visited Lenin's tomb, etc., not to mention all the heavily visited temples built to Roman Emperors/Tyrants/Gods.

[drf]

and rick, don't forget the "che deserved to die" t-shirt from liberator.dk...

merry christmas!
drf