Castro

Tom Gjelten provides this overview of the 50-year career of Cuban premier and revolutionary, Fidel Castro (9/15/06 8:50).

There were left-leaning politicians all across Latin America in the 1950s, but none of them was anything like Fidel Castro -- the bearded firebrand revolutionary who fought his way down from the mountains of central Cuba, vowing to build a nation based on social justice.

Fast-forward two generations: Castro is now an old man, still recovering from abdominal surgery and unable to make an appearance at a summit of non-aligned nations in his own capital of Havana. But a few of the gray-haired diplomats at the summit recall how Castro's triumph electrified the continent.

Musings

• Castro is a polarizing figure in American political discourse--officially labeld a dictator by U.S. government, and with few public defenders in the country. Yet as the Gjelten piece makes clear he still has heroic standing for some (or many) outside the country. How can you explain this discrepancy.
  
  
• Castro has lived to old age, and governing a country the whole time, while his compatriot Che Guevara died young. Hence whereas Castro is an elderly leader, his contemporary Che remains a youthful and, for many, beloved revolutionary.
  
  
• For decades, college dorm rooms were adorned with posters of Che. Who has replaced Che on posters; do young Americans have any political heroes today?