‘Che’ mania is embarrassing, say Guevara’s children

TWO of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s children have said they are tired of seeing their father’s image used to sell everything from T-shirts to vodka, calling the growth of the revolutionary as a global super-brand embarrassing.

Aleida Guevara, the eldest of Guevara’s four children by his second wife, Cuban revolutionary Aleida March, said the commercialisation of her father’s image sometimes contributed to tension between rich and poor.

“Something that bothers me now is the appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes. It’s embarrassing,” she wrote during an internet forum sponsored by Cuba’s government ahead of what would have been her father’s 80th birthday on June 14.