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This chapter traces Guevara's unlikely resurgence in the post-Cold War era. The reimagination of Guevara for the new millennium isolated and extended dimensions of his complex profile, and he reemerged in nearly singular form: with long hair and beard, wearing a beret and looking into the distance, an image dubbed "Heroic Guerrilla" ("Guerrillero Heroico"). Through this image Guevara once again became a ubiquitous antiestablishment symbol. For those who were critical of contemporary globalization and domestic repression, he evoked the radicalism of the 1960s and early 1970s. Though Guevara's rebellious aura proved alluring, admirers frequently deemphasized his socialist beliefs. Moreover, as Guevara regained political relevance, he also began to appeal as a commercial, brand-like logo, quickly surpassing similar historical cases. Adaptations of the Heroic Guerrilla appeared on everything from baby clothes to mud flaps, which introduced Guevara to yet wider audiences, including many who embraced him as an antisystemic icon. While Guevara's ideology was excised to a great degree, an often implicit politicality continued to underwrite his potency as a symbol for diverse movements. Therefore, Guevara functioned simultaneously as an apolitical object of consumption, an inspirational symbol for alternative social possibilities, and the most prominent icon of dissent in the world.

This chapter takes a wide-angle approach to Che Guevara as a symbol of antiestablishment and antisystemic sentiment in the late 1960s and 1970s. Guevara's popularity offers a critical point of entry into two principle dispositions of the global left: commitment to antiestablishment struggle and a desire for transnational solidarity. This spirit of emancipatory internationalism, which bridged multiple doctrinal positions, was born of egalitarian aspirations, a transnational imagination, and the belief that global socialist revolution was possible, even imminent. As a renowned proponent of radical-emancipatory politics, Guevara neatly embodied this internationalist ideal. In an era when coordinated action across national boundaries was difficult and radical politics was marred by factionalism, Guevara became a medium for claiming and broadcasting shared sentiments. As a link among movements in North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, Guevara iconography helped to create and sustain communities of sentiment and dissent.

The theory and practice of Ernesto Che Guevara exemplifies the nexus of dispositions and a broadly conceived notion of education within and beyond formal schooling. A revolutionary, Guevara was also a pedagogue much interested in promoting specific dispositions in youth and in the Cuban population as a whole. Dispositions are at the heart of his idea of creating the new man and woman (el hombre nuevo). They would be of a qualitatively new nature because of the “values, commitments, and professional ethic” that would guide their actions in society. We live in different times than Guevara, but the injustices he struggled against are still with us, and his goal of creating human beings to create and take advantage of a democratic, participatory, and cooperative society are still before us. Transnational social justice seems less like a politically charged phrase and more like a burning necessity.

This chapter, “The Ten Million Will Happen: Expanding Socialism, 1963–1970,” traces the revolution's trajectory from “heroic idealism” in the early 1960s to what came to be known as the Great Debate among different socioeconomic models during 1963–66 to a “compromised idealism” formula toward the end of the decade, a phase epitomized by the epic drive to produce ten million tons of sugar in 1970. Major topics include the strengthening of Cuba-USSR relations, based on generous Soviet terms for the importation of sugar and exportation of oil; the negative repercussions of focusing on a single crop (sugar); the expansion of internationalism and interventionism headed by Guevara; and the creation of the Cuban Communist Party.

Giacomo Manzoni is one of Italy's most renowned composers and also a sought-after composition teacher. From 1958 to 1967 he was the music critic of the daily newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) L'Unità. This chapter recounts the appeal exerted by communism in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the emergence in Italy of a view that the conquest of new territory in art was entirely consistent with socialist ideas, and the initiatives taken by the PCI to bring culturally marginalised communities into contact with all kinds of music. It concludes with critical comments about the path taken by the PCI following the fall of the Soviet Union, and the consequent demise of the prospects for realising a free and humane communism in Italy.

This chapter explores how Walter Salles’ Diarios de motocicleta and On the Road use road movie conventions to forward their political agendas. It establishes the interconnectedness of the near contemporaneous journeys recounted in the two films by Cuban revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and author of the seminal novel On the Road (1957) Jack Kerouac and how these are linked to the genesis of the road movie genre. It goes on to analyse how both films use the political strategies of the road movie (rebellion) to (re)explore and update the beginnings of the interconnected social, cultural and political revolutions (the Cuban Revolution, the Beat Generation and their links to the counter culture in the United States). In keeping with the broader aims of the book, this chapter is also about defending the political potential of the genre film and how it is used to address rather than ‘gloss over’ the political history of the continent.

This chapter talks about Ernesto “Che” Guevara's classic essay “Socialism and Man.” In it, he writes: “Let me say, at the risk of sounding ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” The text, in which Guevara outlines his concept of the “new man” under socialism, has inspired generations of revolutionaries around the world. It is a meditation on the relationship between the individual and the collective and the roles of the masses, the party, and the revolutionary vanguard in constructing the new socialist society. “Socialism and Man” celebrates the role of the revolutionary leader in awakening and leading the masses and emphasizes sacrifice, heroism, bravery, and hard work as the essential qualities of the revolutionary.

Why do certain individuals become martyrs, heroes, villains, and commercialized symbols? What meanings do transnational icons have for diverse audiences? What can the popular attraction to these figures tell us about both the global past and contemporary cultural politics? This book seeks to answer these questions by studying the history of popular attraction to iconic figures over the past fifty years, a period of significant global integration. It explores the transformation of individuals into idealized symbols and the circulation of those larger-than-life icons in mass culture. In the first instance this is a story of symbolic communication in a media age. In the second instance this is a book about the larger contexts of iconic resonance and the people that embrace icons. It is an inquiry into why so many people are drawn to iconic figures, how such figures condense larger ideals and desires, mirror and affect popular sentiments, and gain or lose meaning. By considering the resonances of four very different figures across the globe over several decades, Icons of Dissent seeks to shed new light on the transnational factors and historical contingencies that define icons.

This chapter analyzes US-Cuban relations under the Johnson administration. It shows how Kennedy's initiative took on a life of its own as Havana and Washington sustained an ongoing dialogue through intermediaries and third countries. Under Johnson came the first review of the merits and effectiveness of a hostile Cuba policy. Following Che Guevara's death in 1967, US officials would begin actively considering options for an alternative, more conciliatory approach to Cuba.

Lima is Peru's capital and is a city that defies idealism. The Lima of the early 1960s was a brighter place. Cuba proved that a Marxist revolution could take place in what was coming to be called the Third World. The principal theoretician of Cuban socialism that so enchanted the Peruvians was an Argentine physician named Che Guevara. Historical connections between Che and Peru added to the theory's mystique for Peruvian leftists. The momentum of the peasant movement sparked debate about the rebellion's ultimate direction. The political program enunciated by the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) was nearly silent on the subject of the Indians expected to form the movement's base and to count themselves among the primary beneficiaries of the MIR's revolution.

The American cars transported people and goods during the early years of the Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro traveled in an Oldsmobile and Che Guevara drove his Chevrolet. However, after the Revolution, Cuba stopped doing business with the United States in October 1960. This chapter discusses the impact of the Cuban Revolution on Cuba, how the government organized the car business, why the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the effects of eliminating profit motive and commerce with the United States. Every year, up until the Revolution, there was a great number of American cars arriving in Cuba. Gradually, the automobile business disappeared and businesses connected to automobiles were immensely affected. Eventually, the revolutionary government sought to solve the problems of transportation by importing shipments of vehicles from Poland and Czechoslovakia. Eventually, cars such as Ladas, Volgas, Trebants, and Skodas from Eastern Europe began to appear.

Chapter 1 offers an overview of the armed struggle that, beginning with the attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953, brought the Revolution to power in 1959. In so doing, it reveals the historical circumstances that allowed the leaders of the Rebel Army, specifically Che Guevara, to acquire power and thereafter leave a permanent guerrilla imprint on revolutionary discourse. Guevara’s writings on the methodologies of guerrilla warfare constitute a particular focus of attention, given that his ideas and image continue to permeate the verbal and visual language of the Revolution. Ultimately, this chapter offers an overview of the origins of guerrillerismo, especially when discussed in the Cuban context.

This chapter presents Malcolm X’s travels in Africa during the months leading up to the Stanleyville (Kisangani) crisis of November 1964. Speeches, diaries, correspondence, FBI surveillance reports, and circumstantial evidence indicate that, during the final months of his life, Malcolm X may have been involved in recruiting African American volunteers through the OAAU (Organization of Afro-American Unity) and the OAU (Organization of African Unity) to serve in the Congo as mercenaries in opposition to white South African forces, a project that may have been a model for a similar effort soon undertaken by Che Guevara. In the wake of the 1964 U.S. airlift of Belgian paratroopers into Stanleyville to rescue white hostages, Malcolm spoke of the history of hand-severing, a reference which links him to Sheppard. Malcolm’s frequent commentary on the subject, in many of his most important forums during the final year of his life, locates the trajectory of African American involvement in the Congo at the center of his political vision and organizational praxis, and, by extension, at the heart of modern Black nationalism.

Inspired by Che Guevara, who visited the region twice, and taking their cues from Sartre’s position on Algeria, Vietnam, Cuba, and Congo, Arab intellectuals jointly translated Sartre’s writing on sites of anti-imperial resistance and used them in order to join the global movement of “Southern” resistance to “Northern” oppression. They also used Sartre’s vocabulary to theorize Zionism as a classic neo-colonial phenomenon of settler colonialism and asked Sartre to acknowledge the ethical meaning of these similarities. Drawing on this new outlook, Egypt enrolled alongside Cuba in African liberation struggles, such as the one in Congo. Against this background, and with war looming in the horizon, Sartre visited the Middle East.

The stagnation of its economy in the 1980s led Cuba to attempts (perfeccionamente empresarial) to associate workers' incomes more closely to their actual contributions to production. The structure of urban agriculture in Cuba readily allows for this association. Furthermore, the existing price-formation mechanisms, and supply-and-demand conditions, assure (relatively) high incomes for the UA workforce. There also exist “moral” incentives that do not depend on the existence of the socialist “new man” as conceptualized by Che Guevara in the 1960s. Rather, they are structured as awards and recognition given to individuals, collectives, and even entire provinces. The aim is to raise the self-esteem of urban agriculturalists as well as the social esteem they enjoy in the community. GNAU awards “de referencia” and “de ecelencia” status, the latter to individual production units. At the level of central government, the President meets with outstanding urban agriculturalists every December 27.

This chapter explores how and why the survival or “serve the people” programs came to play a central role in the Black Panther Party organization, focusing on factors that caused the evolution of the Black Panther’s health politics. The ideas of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Mao Zedong, and Frantz Fanon provided a conceptual bridge between the Panther’s political philosophy, its community service ethos, and its health politics. The theorists’ influence is reflected in how the Party afforded an integral role to medicine in its imagination of a “robust” social body. Between January 1968 and December 1969, the Black Panther became subject to repressive police power, resulting to at least 28 murdered members.

This chapter discusses the perceived usefulness of mule-based transportation for agrarian rebels and backwoods smugglers. Che Guevara’s discussion of mules and muleteers in his 1959 treatise Guerrilla Warfare receives attention, as does the use of mules by Pancho Villa’s rebels during the Mexican Revolution, by moonshiners in American Appalachia during the 1920s, and by Communist-aligned highland fighters during the Greek Civil War of the late 1940s and the Korean War of the early 1950s. In addition, this chapter looks at eventual divestments from mule-based logistical capabilities within the American military during the 1950s, and contends that this institutional divestment must be understood in relation to a longstanding perceived association between the social geography of the mule industry and the geography of off-road subversive logistical networks.