Exposing the Real Che Guevara

April 30, 2007
Fontova gets right to the work of debunking familiar notions of Argentinan revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevera; by the end of the preface, he's pinned 14,000 executions on Guevera and credited positive portrayals to the public relations work of Castro and the laziness of biographers. The critical attack continues throughout, combining the testimonies of former revolutionaries and Cuban refugees to assemble a damning portrait of a man lauded by everyone from Jean-Paul Sartre to Jon Lee Anderson. According to Fontova, the real Che was "a revolutionary Ringo Starr" who "fell in with the right bunch and rode their coattails to world fame." Presenting a failed physician, an inept guerrilla and a hapless sycophant, Fontova adds insult to injury by claiming Che was "deathly afraid to drive a motorcycle." Fontova's charged language keeps things interesting, if occasionally dubious; midway through the book, after asserting that Che enjoyed killing dogs, Fontova concedes that, "You might put down your book here and think, this has to be propaganda." Though propaganda probably colors any consideration of this controversial figure, Fontova makes a convincing case that, in the words of one former political prisoner, "There was something seriously wrong with Che Guevera."

June 18, 2007
Fontova gets right to the work of debunking familiar notions of Argentinan revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevera; by the end of the preface, he's pinned 14,000 executions on Guevera and credited positive portrayals to the public relations work of Castro and the laziness of biographers. The critical attack continues throughout, combining the testimonies of former revolutionaries and Cuban refugees to assemble a damning portrait of a man lauded by everyone from Jean-Paul Sartre to Jon Lee Anderson. According to Fontova, the real Che was "a revolutionary Ringo Starr" who "fell in with the right bunch and rode their coattails to world fame." Presenting a failed physician, an inept guerrilla and a hapless sycophant, Fontova adds insult to injury by claiming Che was "deathly afraid to drive a motorcycle." Fontova's charged language keeps things interesting, if occasionally dubious; midway through the book, after asserting that Che enjoyed killing dogs, Fontova concedes that, "You might put down your book here and think, this has to be propaganda." Though propaganda probably colors any consideration of this controversial figure, Fontova makes a convincing case that, in the words of one former political prisoner, "There was something seriously wrong with Che Guevera."

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