Che: Rise and Fall

Educational Media Reviews

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Reviewed by Lourdes Vázquez

Rutgers University Libraries

Alberto Granados, Che’s longtime friend and companion on Che’s motorcycle ride out of Argentina, is one of the main characters of this documentary, together with the three surviving members of Guevara’s personal guard in Cuba, who bring an honest and personal testimony.

Che: Rise and Fall

Shot in Cuba during the time the remains of Che were being transported from Bolivia to his final resting place in Santa Clara: the Mausoleo Che Guevara, which houses his remains and sixteen of his fellow combatants in Bolivia; Granados gives a portrait of young Ché and their long trip through South America. Che diaries related to the trip, as well as Alberto Granado’s own memoir, served as the story for the Motorcycle Diaries film. The three surviving guards unveil Che’s strong contribution to the Cuban Revolution, his experience and example as Industry Minister after the revolution, his intimate relationship with Fidel Castro, and his frustrations with bureaucracy and bourgeois life. “No nací para ser ministro, ni abuelito.”--I was not born to be a minister or a grandfather, he said once to Granados.

For the first time, a documentary presents Che’s frustrated experience of the period spent in Congo fighting a Revolutionary War, as well as his sense of failure. This sense of failure was probably the cause of his rushing to organize a guerrilla movement in Bolivia despite being counseled to the contrary. This documentary includes extraordinary archival footage as well as original photographs taken by Che himself. So far, it is the only documentary that brings the ceremony of the return of Che’s remains to Santa Clara, the government ceremony, as well as the pouring of people who gave homage to this twentieth-century heroic figure. This documentary is a must-see for anyone interested in labor studies, history, and cultural studies of Latin America.

Che: Rise and Fall is Highly recommended for high school, college, university, and public libraries.