In the midst of his enemies

On December 11th, 1964 in New York City Che Guevara spoke before the 19th General Assembly of the United Nations representing his home country Cuba. In that speech he spoke strongly against the very country hosting the assembly - the United States of America. In the midst of his enemies he made it very clear he was not afraid. Che spoke his mind and put forth his grievances with little thought for political correctness. It was a show of power for a little nation to stand up against a much larger and stronger nation. It was a show of determination. And it was a show he knew the world would be watching. He audience was not the United States - his audience was the people of Cuba and the world.

The rhetoric he applied throughout the speech is made crystal clear in his closing lines: "This new will of a whole continent, America, shows itself in the cry proclaimed daily by our masses as the irrefutable expression of their decisions to fight, to grasp and deter the armed hand of the invader. It is a cry that has the understanding and support of all the people of the world and especially of the socialist camp. headed by the Soviet Union. That cry is 'Our country or death.'"

Che tells the story of aggressive United States imperialism. He describes its negative effects on the world. He paints a far different picture than I ever heard growing up. He frames the United States as a warmongering giant and depicts China and the Soviet Union as peace promoting friends. He invokes images of racism, death, and oppression when describing the USA. He says it "must clearly be established that the United states is not the champion of freedom but rather the perpetrator of exploitation of the peoples of the world and of a large part of its own population." His claims are emotional and populist. He invokes images of millions who have finally decided to stand for their rights against the tyranny of the United States. "We were considered an impotent and submissive flock; but now they are afraid of that flock, a gigantic flock of 200 million Latin American, which is sounding a warning note to the Yankee monopolist capitalists." The struggle Che proclaims to exist he says exists outside of himself or anyone else. "The hour of vindication, the hour it chose for itself, is now striking from one end to the other of the continent." Che's speech is powerfully emotional, and courageously condemning of the world's greatest superpower - the United States. History has shown that Che's rhetoric (if not the substance of his ideas) certainly stood tall in the midst of his enemies.