Che Guevara was a socialist soldier rockstar, and Cuba's local boy made good. Although, of course, he wasnt local. An Argentine from a fairly well-to-do family, he toured South America on a motorcycle in his tender years and evolved into the leftist activist and revolutionary we know of today. He is plastered, largely through the dictate of Fidel as a propaganda tool, across buildings and billboards and hats and postcards throughout the huge island nation. You can't escape him. I once saw an episode of Globe Trekker where the host asked a group of Cuban students, bedizened all in t-shirts with the face of Che Guevara, if Che used to wear a t-shirt with his own face on it. Part of the impetus for this photo was my excitement at the discovery that Che was, as well as a revolutionary and social humanitarian, an amateur photographer. An exhibition of his photographs shot during the "Motorcycle Diaries" years was printed and on display in PietraSanta, Tuscany when I visited Italy last year. Although it delighted me to learn we shared some common passions - travel, photography, motorcycles :) - after seeing the photos I realized it was probably a good thing he kept his day job. When I began shooting pictures of these Che trinkets through the window, this man off the street rushed over to show me his identification card which documented he had been a fighter in the Revolution.
Santiago de Cuba
La República de Cuba