The state of Veracruz honors Che with dedication of plaque

Just minutes after having seen the Governor, I walked over to Xalapa's Integral Development of the Family (DIF) building where I had planned on meeting two fellow frisbee players before heading to practice. Tonight's unveiling of a plaque devoted to Che Guevara's achievements was meant to be the culmination of a week of events aimed at commemorating the 40th anniversary of Che's death, which occurred October 9, 1967. As part of the festivities, the DIF screened several of the more popular movies recounting the famous Argentinian revolutionary's life. In attendance were two presidents of nearby municipalities and a guy who seemed to have a more intimate, maybe even familiar tie to Che, but I couldn't quite figure it out (I've intentionally left out the two frisbee players...they were no shows).

After listening to a few redundant speeches revolving around the idea of the universality of Che's message, the underwhelming crowd of maybe 15 people was treated to the revelation of the Che plaque, a process which required the detachment of a flyer (for the event itself) that had been precariously taped to the plaque. The plaque pictures a gold outline of the now famous sketch of Che that ironically adorns millions of teenage kids' Mexican 'sweatshop-labor' made tees.

Not to tip an already limping cow (or whatever the saying is), I just wanted to touch on the idea that, like Emiliano Zapata, Che has become a household name here only as a result of the people's repackaging of the legacy of the Communist guerilla. Certainly, Mexicans aren't the only ones to do it. Just take a look at buddy Bush's reception of the Dalai Lama yesterday as "a spiritual leader, not a political one." Don't take what I have to say as me expressing overwhelming support for Che, a man I consider to have been a quick-to-arms and militarily/politically inept ideologue. I simply want to point out the obvious disconnect between Che's sincere care for the well-being of the downtrodden, for which I readily admit to admiring the guy, and the corrupt and greedy ways of far too many of the politically important people in Mexico today who have the gall to show up to events like tonight's to 'honor' Che's life.