From The New York Times:
Che Guevara has been put on a pedestal in Manhattan. This is something not lacking in irony, since Manhattan might not exist today had the Argentine-born, Cuban-tested revolutionary had his way and unleashed the Soviet nukes against the United States during the 1962 missile crisis. Are New Yorkers really allowing such an homage to occupy the southeast corner of Central Park? Technically, no. The statue actually depicts a Barcelona street performer portraying Che, part of three bronze sculptures by Christian Janowski, which were recently installed by the Public Art Fund.
Che seems to be everywhere these days, especially with Steven Soderbergh’s Che biopic on it’s way to movie theaters. It will be interesting to see how the film changes peoples minds or will inform the ideas people already have about Che. Today he stands more as idol, as a face on t-shirts and for general principles that many folks know a little bit about but not too much. For now I can’t help but wonder how the statue (that isn’t even Che, it’s someone portraying Che) will be interpreted by folks.
takepart to read up on what folks think about the new Che film andtakepart again to see how the New York Times answers some of my Che questions.

(Photo: David Gonzalez/The New York Times)
CATEGORIES: Culture
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