Little Coloured Bricks

You would have to agree that the Lego Che Guevarra is less subversive than the original. The minifig is iconic especially to the younger generation but the question is, do they really know who Che Guevarra is?

Che Guevarra is not just the guy whose face is usually printed on shirts of university students, he is the Marxist revolutionary from Argentina.  The famous global insignia, was a medical student who traveled all around Latin America and saw endemic poverty in the countries he went to. El Che as he is known by his comrades believed that Latin America’s ingrained economic inequality is a result of neocolonialism, imperialism and capitalism. Young Che also surmised that the only remedy to this “sickness” is world revolution.  His beliefs later on prompted Che to push for social reforms in Guatemala who was then under the leadership of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. Guzman was thrown out of power and solidified the radical ideology of the guerilla hero.

The Lego minifig seems to be alone in the photo though. It just doesn’t feel right that he is not with the brothers Castro (Raul and Fidel). Che met Raul and Fidel in Mexico City, he later on became one of the forefronts of the Castros’ infamous 26^th of July Movement. The three invaded Cuba to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, a US-backed dictator.  Che, Raul and Fidel were able to execute their mission after two years of hardship and after that played an important role in Fidel Castro’s government. He walked the globe on behalf of socialist Cuba, trained the militia in the Bay of Pigs, wrote a manual for guerilla warfare and incited other revolutions after that.

Che Guevarra was captured in Bolivia by the CIA and was later on executed. Let’s hope that Legoland will not execute the revered (and reviled) Che though.