My Debunking Fascination

I love a good expose - I mean a solid, well-researched, documented and verifiable debunking of conventional, widely-accepted thinking.

A conversation with a chap in Puerto Vallarta earlier this month stuck with me. We were in the cigar and Cuban-paraphenalia shop on the Malecon called "La Bodeguita del Medio" surrounded by a lot of Che Guevara symbols and images. Knowing pretty much zero about Cuba or Che, I have mindlessly accepted the pop culture propaganda that Che is some kind of iconic rebel/revolutionary who fought for freedom of oppressed people.

The man I spoke with seemed very knowledgeable on the subject, and basically told me that the image of Che-as-a-hero is simply B.S., that the guy was actually a butchering murderer doing the dirty work of Castro. He mentioned some staggering acts of genocide and brutality, and cited some stats I had never heard re: the Cuban Revolution. It caught my attention.

I looked around the little store that has lionized images of Che everywhere and asked him how, then, can he stand to be surrounded by this stuff all day (he's associated with the store and adjoining Cuban restaurant). He basically said it's impossible to overcome the deeply rooted beliefs and myths - based in popular culture - about who Che actually was, and what he actually did in his life.

I believe history gets successfully reinvented all the time, by people manipulating it for their own purposes, and it gets accepted by unthinking masses. You tell a big enough lie often enough and adamantly enough, and other people start believing it.

So, I did some research and downloaded a book to my Kindle - "Exposing the Real Che Guevara - And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him" by Humberto Fontova. I am only 1/4 into it and have had my eyes opened wide by the first-person/eye witness accounts Fontova has gathered and documented. This information runs counter to Che's famous "diaries" and all the information curated at the Cuban Archive; but, Fontova claims all that stuff has been edited/vetted by Castro from the start (typical historical revisionism at work!).

Fontova ridicules all the stars and celebrities who have Che tattoos (supposedly Angelina Jolie - a devoted humanitarian!) and those who wear T-shirts/clothing with the famous image of Che...thinking that they are exemplifying some anti-establishment brand that embraces freedom from oppression for the masses. Wrong! The information in this book documents that Che's beliefs and actions were the exact opposite.

Thank goodness for people like Fontova who are willing to go up against the conventional UNthinking of the ignorant mainstream, of whom I was certainly one on this issue - but no longer. I plan to learn more.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)