The Hindu : Front Page : The return of ‘Che’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 29, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

The return of ‘Che’

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara returned to Buenos Aires on Tuesday, his defiant expression immortalised in a towering bronze statue.

He had left the capital as a young doctor in 1953 to travel the continent and join the Cuban Revolution, becoming a political icon plastered on T-shirts and posters worldwide. Now, a 3-tonne, 4-metre bronze replica of his image will tower over a plaza in the town of Rosario, his birthplace, topped with his famed starred beret.

But first the statue toured the streets here, swinging past his university and ending at the Obelisk, a symbol of the Argentine capital.

“Finally, the city where he studied medicine, which was home to the most important dreams of his youth, sees him arrive again,” said Eladio Gonzalez, director of the Ernesto Che Guevara Museum that helped promote the project.

Local artist Andres Zerneri used 75,000 bronze keys, donated by 14,000 Argentines over two years, to cast the statue. The replica arrived in Rosario on Wednesday, ahead of an 80th anniversary celebration of the revolutionary’s birth on June 14.

Guevara was executed in Bolivia in 1967 after promoting revolution there. — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page