Generations, Identities, and the Collective Memory of Che Guevara1

Has the image of Che Guevara lost its power to evoke radical politics in the face of pervasive commodification? The commercialization of this 1960s political icon has called into question the power of the market to shape col-lective memories. Meanwhile, antisystemic movements of the left continue to erect his image at protest events. In light of this contest over how Che Gue-vara is remembered, we investigate, using data from a survey of Spanish citi-zens, who is most likely to recall him. We find qualified support for the theory of generational imprinting—Che is more often recalled by those gen-erations who saw him rise to prominence during their formative years, although prominent as a collective symbol rather than as a living person. Our results also corroborate the claim that historical figures or events are more salient for, and therefore more likely to be remembered by, some sub-generational units than others. Thus, although the younger generations are in general more likely than their elders to recall Che, he is most frequently remembered by the highly educated leftists who espouse postmaterialist and posttraditionalist values and identify more with their local regions than with the nation of Spain. These patterns suggest that, in contrast to the dire pre-dictions of mass culture theorists, the memory of Che Guevara has become increasingly tied to markers of social, ethnic-regional, and political identity. KEY WORDS: collective memory; generational research; identity; Latin America; national symbols. 1 Authors are listed in alphabetical order to reflect equal contributions to this article. An ear-lier version of this article was presented at the 2006 American Sociological Association meetings. The authors acknowledge the thoughtful comments of two anonymous reviewers, which helped us to refine the arguments made here