‘El Che’ by Marcelino Quiñonez: A Humanizing Look at the Life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara

By Editor April 27, 2016 12:29

By: Aida Chavez

Cronkite Special to AZLatinos.com

Marcelino Quiñonez humanizes Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara in, “El Che” – an original play that will be performed in August at the Phoenix Center for the Arts.

“I hope that people learn the more complete sense of what icons are in our lives and how we elevate people to a certain stature when in reality they are just human,” Quiñonez said. “They are filled with flaws, they are filled with qualities. The play is meant to humanize an iconic figure that was either vilified or revered by many. The play essentially presents the human side of this icon.”

Quiñonez said he wants to emphasize the revolutionary’s contradictions and expose his other sides. “The play starts off with his capture in Bolivia in 1967,” Quiñonez said. “We go back about 15 years to how he got involved in the Cuban Revolution, and then we see Che Guevara as a friend, as a husband, as a teacher, as a guerilla war fighter. We see aspects of the human being throughout the play.”

The local community should support the play because it is a community that is 30-percent Latino, which should also be represented on stage. “It’s important for people to be able to see themselves on stage,” Quiñonez said. “Che Guevara is a very polemical Latino figure and so in a city that is 30 percent Latino, it’s important for Latinos to support a play that puts their stories on stage. Plus, it’s a local playwright, it’s local talent, and it’s going to be a good show.”

Something Quiñonez said he found fascinating during his research was the fact that Guevara was a man of many contradictions, saying, “He was always moving at such a fast pace that in some ways he failed to realize what was right in front of him. He decides to become a revolutionary and change the world, yet he abandoned his own family.”

Quiñonez continued, “I also learned that he was an avid reader, someone who really enjoyed poetry. He was much more of an artist, more than anything else. To me, Che Guevara is a human being who was willing to sacrifice himself for his ideals.He was a martyr, he’s a symbol of rebellion, a symbol of justice and contradiction, he was a student of life and he’s a change agent.”

Quiñonez said he thinks audience members will learn something, adding, “It’s a unique play of a misunderstood story that features amazing, local talent and it will not only enlighten but also entertain audience members.”

For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.phoenixcenterforthearts.com