While watching this movie, I noticed a lot of similarities between the movie and the novel we read Guerrilla Warfare. What I particularly liked however, was this narrative shift within the movie from the perspective of Che to the perspective of Fidel while in New York during a UN conference. What this narrative shift accomplishes is it looks at the Cuban Revolution in two, but related, fields. Through the voice of Che we see what the Revolution was like through a local lens, that of the soldiers, recruiting, training, traveling, and fighting. However, the perspective of Fidel in New York offers, or better yet, reminds us of the political implications of the Cuban Revolution. That was something that was not really mentioned in the novel Guerrilla Warfare. The political aspect of the Revolution, I think, is also very important as it addresses other important problems Cuba as a country faced at the time, such as the trade embargo, and the presence of US imperialism. These issues play an important role in the Cuban Revolution as they perpetuated the current problems associated with the Batista regime: mainly hunger, poverty, and agrarian reform.

Now I would like to go deeper and talk about some parts of the movie that I found quite interesting. For example at around the 23:00 minute Che says that he doesn’t plan to retire being a revolutionary, that one can never stop being a revolutionary.  This is quite captivating as I thought that revolutionaries fight a war to bring change, and once the war is over and a new order in in place, the revolution stops. But by affirming that one can never stop being a revolutionary it defies our modern understanding of what a revolution is. Is a revolution simply a war to bring change? This interpretation now seems to be inaccurate since Che believes once a revolutionary, always a revolutionary, there is this sense that a revolution goes on. But what is this “revolution” then? Just before the 23:00 minute Che underlines the importance of the “spirit of the men” in making a revolution successful. And this spirit he claims, is the will to fight and defend one’s values which can never go away. So maybe to Che, a revolution is not about war, or as much about bringing change, but more importantly about the “spirit of the men”; this sense of honor and patriotism, and fighting to protect one’s country and its ideals. Then around the 48:00 minute Che also states that the most fundamental part of a revolutionary is love. And he operationalizes love as love for justice and humanity. Without this quality, a revolutionary cannot exist. In general, I like these quotes about Che because he challenges our notion of revolutions. But I also believe that interpreting revolutions the way Che does, acts as a sort of binding agent. By binding agent I mean he seems to connect people together, creating this sense of fraternity and solidarity. He uses people’s emotions, struggles, to put everyone, no matter social conditions, as equal people undergoing the same problems, and for that reason, this is a collective fight. This collective fight means therefore, that the soldiers are not fighting for themselves, but rather for everyone.

Although there is much more to say I would like to address one more part of the movie I quite liked. Around the 57:00 minute Che finds himself more possible recruits. In front of him is a group, with two young brothers 14, and 16 years of age, 1 women, and the rest men. He says, that a joining a war is not just about shooting and winning but that a nation that cannot read or write is easy to deceive. Here Che brings up another very important topic: education. What is interesting is how only the young boys and the lady knew how to read and write. Many people have already said this, but I repeat, education is a powerful tool. With education one can have the possibility to challenge ideas but also to form new ones. Ideas are also powerful as they can bring change. So by having an education, one can bring change.

This movie has a lot of important themes. But more than anything, it is trying, or better yet, Che is trying to help us look at what a revolution truly is; one about ideals. So in this regard, this movies can also be seen as quite different from the novel Guerrilla Warfare as in that book, there is more of an emphasis on actual tactics, and a guide on how to create a revolution. Maybe this week we can talk more about similarities and differences between the two (movie and novel) to help us better understand more about this term “revolution”, which is ultimately what this course is about.