Companero: La Vida y Muerte de Che Guevara

From Library Journal
As Casta?eda's masterfully written biography concludes, "The death of Che Guevara gave significance to his life and life to his myth." Thirty years later, despite Che's failed economic policies and disastrous military adventures, the myth endures as a worldwide pop-cultural phenomenon. Of the several biographies on Che published this year, this work by Casta?eda (political science, New York Univ.) offers the most illuminating and substantive interpretation of the reasons behind the slain revolutionary's persistent appeal. Casta?eda accurately places his most lasting legacy in the cultural rather than the political realm, showing that in his idiosyncratic mixture of selfless idealism, willful arrogance, and uncompromising rejection of status-quo politics, Che personified the spirit of the popular youth movements of the Sixties. No less relevant today despite the hindsight of history, his legacy is well served by this lucid and eloquent examination of the mythic congruence of a man and his turbulent times.?Maria S. MaciasCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Cuando llegó el momento en que fue muerto en las selvas de Bolivia, donde su cuerpo fue exhibido como un Cristo destronado, Ernesto "Che Guevara se había convertido en sinónimo de revolución en todas partes desde Cuba hasta los terrenos universitarios de los Estados Unidos. Esta biografía extraordinaria por uno de los más prominentes analistas políticos de Latinoamérica revela la leyenda del Che Guevara para mostrar el carismático e inquieto hombre detrás de ella.

Tomando de los archivos de tres continentes y de entrevistas con la familia y asociados de Guevara, Jorge Castañeda sigue al Che desde su niñez en la clase media argentina hasta los años de peregrinaje que lo hicieron un revolucionario dedicado. Castañeda examina las complejas relaciones entre Guevara y Fidel Castro, quien lo hizo su mano derecha aùn cuando el Che se convirtió en la conciencia política de Fidel. Y Castañeda analiza las fallas de carácter que forzaron al Che a irse de Cuba y dar sus energias y, finalmente, su vida a aventuras quijotescas en el Congo y Bolivia. Una obra maestra de erudición y simpatía literaria, Compañero es el retrato definitivo de una figura que continua fascinando e inspirando a gentes del mundo entero.


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As Castaeda's masterfully written biography concludes, "The death of Che Guevara gave significance to his life and life to his myth." Thirty years later, despite Che's failed economic policies and disastrous military adventures, the myth endures as a worldwide pop-cultural phenomenon. Of the several biographies on Che published this year, this work by Castaeda (political science, New York Univ.) offers the most illuminating and substantive interpretation of the reasons behind the slain revolutionary's persistent appeal. Castaeda accurately places his most lasting legacy in the cultural rather than the political realm, showing that in his idiosyncratic mixture of selfless idealism, willful arrogance, and uncompromising rejection of status-quo politics, Che personified the spirit of the popular youth movements of the Sixties. No less relevant today despite the hindsight of history, his legacy is well served by this lucid and eloquent examination of the mythic congruence of a man and his turbulent times.Maria S. Macias


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