I haven't read the newly-published Congo diaries of Che Guevara (and, frankly, it's pretty unlikely that I ever will-- you know how it is): so I can't comment on whether Cynthia Grenier's characterization of it as a picture of "the guerrilla hero as a dispirited racist" is accurate. The conventional wisdom had been that Castro would never release this material for publication because it would reveal the futility of attempts to spark world revolution by means of engineering native insurrections (as though that really needed further demonstration.) With or without the racism angle, the question of Castro's timing arises. Here's Grenier's intriguing theory:
Perhaps the most interesting question raised by the diaries is one of timing. Castro kept the diaries under lock and key for years. Why did he decide to release them now? Could it be that in his old age, he is getting envious of Guevara’s lasting fame? Can the sight of those glorious Che posters appearing wherever in the world there is a demonstration be getting to the old dictator?Posted by Dr. Frank at May 13, 2002 01:33 PM | TrackBackOne might have supposed that Guevara’s memory would be undermined by Cuban refugees such as Armando Valladares, whose terrifying prison memoir Against All Hope was also reissued last year by Encounter Books. Who would have ever guessed that Che’s demythologizer might turn out to be his oldest ally?