Gay Pride Day The real Che Guevara, a homophobe who locked up hundreds of homosexuals in labor camps Although T-shirts with his face on them could be seen at Pride demonstrations, both the "commander" and Fidel Castro himself were defenders of heterosexual men. Follow Manuel P. Villatoro@ABC_HistoriaUpdated: 07/11/2019 02:23 a.m. Related news • The elite commandos of the Second Republic who terrified Franco • Fidel Castro, the tyrant who conspired to 'kill' his friend Che The Cuban revolution orchestrated by Fidel Castro achieved something that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels longed for throughout World War II: to burn an idea into the minds of society. While the German tried (unsuccessfully) to make the world see Adolf Hitler as the hero who would liberate Europe from the Jewish yoke and the old European powers, the bearded rebels who rose up against Fulgencio Batista managed—almost unintentionally—to ensure that one of their most controversial guerrilla fighters, Ernesto Guevara , went down in history as the symbol of the good and rational combatant. So much so that today, his image proudly adorns hundreds of thousands of T-shirts worn by young and old alike. The reality, however, is that Che had little in common with a saint (and much in common with a murderer). But that's the thing about symbols: once they have entered the collective imagination, it is impossible to eradicate them with historical reality. An example of this was the recent Gay Pride Day celebration, where several protesters could be seen proudly wearing T- shirts with Che's face on them. This is an embarrassing historical error because, despite what the myth tells us, Guevara repeatedly attacked homosexuals, considering them contrary to his ideal of the "new man " (the one who was to rise above the rest after the revolution). As if that were not enough, the guerrilla leader went so far as to label them " sexual perverts " and, with the help of the also avowed homophobe Fidel Castro , persecuted them and interned them in labor camps. Subscribe to DeepL Pro to translate larger documents. Visit www.DeepL.com/pro for more information. Revolution against homosexuals To understand the hatred that the Cuban revolution exuded towards homosexuals, we need to go back in time to the 19th century. This is according to Carlos Tejo Veloso (Vice Dean of International Relations at the University of Vigo) in his dossier "Swimming against the tide: artistic practice and homosexuality in contemporary Cuba." In his words, the "great heroes of the Cuban homeland" contributed to building "a model of heroism associated with a virile stereotype of the masculine ideal." The same model that Castro and Guevara would soon embrace. One of the first was the writer and politician José Martí, who, in his work "Our America , " identified "homosexuals as effeminate beings incapable of building a nation and defined them as useless detritus of modern materialism." ADVERTISEMENT inRead invented by Teads Guevara and Castro Martí, a defender of heterosexuality as a means of increasing the birth rate, was one of the ideologues on whom, from 1959 onwards, the policies of the revolutionaries who arrived in Havana in 1959 were based. However, other authors also point to the influence of the machismo of the time, Stalinism , and Chinese communism on this mentality. The latter two movements considered same-sex attraction to be a sign of "bourgeois decadence" and weakness. Almost "a virus that irremediably excludes the infected person from the construction of the revolutionary project," in the words of Tejo Veloso himself. Researcher Frances Negrón-Muntaner shares this opinion in her well- documented "Mariela Castro, Homosexuals, and Cuban Politics." In any case, the truth is that Castro's supporters focused their efforts on making society see the "bearded warriors" as virile men capable of saving the revolution, the complete opposite of homosexuals. "In the Revolution, homosexuality was considered a phase that had to be overcome if one wanted to fulfill the objectives set by the system," adds the scholar in his work. This is also corroborated by Guillermina Sutter Schneider , Research Assistant at the Center for Global Freedom and Prosperity, in "Are you gay? Che Guevara would have sent you to a concentration camp." For Fidel and his comrades, attributes such as strength and courage (which they believed were so necessary in the new regime they were organizing) were contrary to the now LGBT collective. A self-declared homophobe On a personal level, Che considered homosexuality contrary to his ideal of "new man" (the archetype of a male who, in his words, should rise above the established powers and any form of domination). According to journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner , this should be "a vigorous , gallant , hard-working , patriotic , selfless , heterosexual , monogamous , and austere worker." This led him to consider gays and lesbians as " sexual perverts " and (in the words of researcher and writer Cabrera Infante ) " sick people " who should give way to the aforementioned "new man, politically healthy and a product of communist Cuba." The same was true of Fidel Castro himself, who, in several interviews, maintained that homosexuals were incompatible with the revolutionary group he led: "We have never believed that a homosexual can embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would allow us to consider him a true revolutionary, a true communist. A deviation of this nature clashes with our concept of what a communist militant should be." However, in her book El Testimonio en la Pentagonía de Reinaldo Arenas (The Testimony in the Pentagon of Reinaldo Arenas), University of Warwick professor Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla argues that, in reality, the two leaders only despised gay men who "rejected their masculine nature" and had an effeminate manner. In any case, the Castro regime's hatred of homosexuals can be seen in the repression organized against them in the 1960s. Thus, the state was quick to consider gays as detractors of the new government and potential enemies who declared themselves against patriarchal norms . In the words of Tejo Veloso, the first arrests of this group were carried out "by the newly created Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)," a civilian volunteer organization that infiltrated neighborhoods and denounced "all attitudes that could be considered anti-revolutionary ." Shortly thereafter, prisoners began to be sent to labor camps. This was confirmed by writer, opposition figure, and journalist Jacobo Machover to the BBC in 2017. In his words, it is often forgotten that it was Che "who created Cuba's first labor camp, which was located on the Guanahacabibes peninsula ." A prison where " Communist Party officials or militants who had not complied with the rules were sent" and which, ultimately, was "the first step towards the forced labor camps that existed in Cuba in the 1960s, sadly known as the Military Unit to Aid Production (UMAP)." According to his statements, homosexuals , Catholics , and followers of Afro-Cuban religions were imprisoned in these enclaves. Image of Pride 2016 In turn, Machover attacked Che Guevara during this interview, stating that "was the main organizer of these cruel centers ." The same is true of Sutter, who describes these centers as concentration camps. "This camp was the first of many. The Cuban government also adopted the Nazi slogan from Auschwitz, 'Work sets you free,' changing it to 'Work will make you men,'" he explains in his article. In turn, she argues that they were forced to work for a huge number of hours to "correct their homosexual behavior." The Spanish professor shares this opinion. In his dossier, he states that homosexuals became "a large community within these unique spaces for re-education." Furthermore, he argues that in 1971, on the occasion of the "First National Congress on Education and Culture," the Castro government recognized homosexuality as a pathological deviation and prohibited gays from representing the country in official events outside the country. This was only the beginning. In the 1970s, the "Law on Homosexual Ostentation" was introduced , prohibiting public displays of affection between people of the same sex. After the T-shirt Although he is treated as Cuban, Ernesto Che Guevara was born on June 14 (or May 14, depending on the historian) 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He was born into a fairly wealthy family, which allowed him to pursue higher education in medicine in 1947. By then—and according to his friend Carlos Ferrer in a documentary—he had already earned the nickname "chancho" (pig) because he only washed his clothes once a week. At the same time, the future revolutionary had already shown signs of suffering (in the words of the interviewee) from latent "hypers exuality ." Not surprisingly, he lost his virginity at an early age to the maid hired by his parents. His revolutionary character, which was already beginning to emerge, was finally shaped in 1952, when he took a 10-month motorcycle trip through Argentina with the aim of recognize all its nooks and crannies. "He traveled 3,500 kilometers from south to north," explains the Che Guevara Foundation in a dossier on this figure. During the journey, he truly learned what the country's misery was like after living with lepers and experiencing firsthand the poverty that surrounded him. According to his friend Alberto Granado , Che always boasted that traveling was the best way to form a true opinion about the world: "He used to say to his fellow students, 'While you are here studying for three exams, I am going to see the province of Santa Fe, the north of Mendoza, the east of Mendoza, and along the way I will study to pass those exams at the same time as you.'" Fernando Barral (a psychologist who knew him) has also referred to his independence in numerous interviews: "He was incredibly self-confident and had totally independent opinions. He was very dynamic , tireless , and unconventional ." Che Guevara points his gun With each country he visited, Che became more and more imbued with the revolutionary spirit latent in Latin America. So it was not surprising that in 1955 he met Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel, who were preparing a coup against the Cuban government. "He immediately enlisted as the third confirmed member of the future guerrilla expedition. Guevara then devoted himself to training the combatants and the Cubans," explains Michael Ratner in his book Che Guevara and the FBI: U.S. Political Police Dossier on the Latin American Revolutionary Paperback. Our protagonist landed as a doctor with the contingent formed by these revolutionaries in 1956 and, shortly afterwards, due to his bravery, he became lieutenant of the forces. Thus, Che validated one of the phrases for which he would be remembered: "At fifteen, a man already knows what he is willing to die for, and he is not afraid to give his life if he has an ideal that makes that sacrifice easy." On February 17, 1957, he was named " comandante ," a title by which he would be known throughout the world. A few months later, now as a military leader, he defeated the troops of the government and entered Havana victorious. He had gone from being a doctor to a revolutionary leader. And along the way, he had been accused of carrying out all kinds of murders and massacres