Appearances of Che Guevara in popular culture are common in the West. Che Guevara is a political figure, but also the focus of a pop culture following.
In theatre
- In the musical Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Che acts as a narrator and commentator on the events of the life of Eva Peron. In addition to cynically describing Eva's story, he occasionally confronts Eva with difficult questions. This portrayal is entirely fictional; Che and Eva never actually met.
In films
Movies and actors who have portrayed Che Guevara:
- El 'Che' Guevara at IMDb – Francisco Rabal (1968)
- Che! at IMDb – Omar Sharif (1969)
- Evita (based on the above musical) – Antonio Banderas (1996)
- "El Día Que Me Quieras" at IMDb ("The Day You'll Love Me" is a song by Carlos Gardel) – dir. Leandro Katz (1997)
- Hasta la victoria siempre at IMDb – Alfredo Vasco (1999)
- Fidel at IMDb – Gael García Bernal (2002)
- The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta) – Gael García Bernal (2004)
- Guerrilla – Benicio Del Toro (2006)
- Guevara is also one of the characters portrayed in Monty Python's "World Forum" sketch, where Eric Idle hosts a game-show type program between Guevara, Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx.
- In The Boondocks, Huey, the main character, has posters of Che on his walls and is portrayed in red and black to resemble Guevara in the intro.
In video games
- His exploits during the Cuban Revolution were very loosely dramatized in the 1987 video game Guevara, released by SNK in Japan and "converted" into Guerrilla War for Western audiences, removing all references to Guevara but keeping all the visuals and a game map that clearly resembles Cuba. Original copies of the "Guevara" edition of the Japanese Famicom edition go for high amounts on the collectors' market.
- In Counter-Strike: Source, the level "CS_Havana" features Che's photo on the walls of the village.
- In Grim Fandango, a computer game set in the land of the dead, a skeletal revolutionary leader resembling Guevara speaks with a Latino accent.
- In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, a figure named Suhadi Sadono leading an Indonesian rebel force known as Darah Dan Doa bears a striking resemblance to Guevara. During a cut scene in the form of a news report, T-Shirts bearing the viasge of Sadono sell like wildfire via the internet, while a newscaster quips the buyers have "no idea who he is", most likely referring to the popular Guevara shirts many teenagers buy despite not knowing the extent of Guevara's legacy.
- In Tropico, images of Che can be seen on a wall of the clinic.
In music
- In Hasta siempre, Comandante, popular song written in 1965 by Carlos Puebla.
- In Carta al Che, song written in 1969 by Carlos Puebla.
- See also Marxists Internet Archive for an extensive list and recordings of songs about Che Guevera.
- Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine has a Peavey 4x12 cabinet with Che's face on the speaker.
- Cliche Guevara, A song released by Against Me! in 2003, is an obvious reference to Che.
- Comandante Che Guevara (Commander Che Guevara), a song by Nueva Trova maestro Silvio Rodríguez
- In rapper Nas's album, Stillmatic there is a controversial track named "My Country" that pays tribute to Che Guevara and others who were destroyed by their country.
- In singer David Bowie's 1973 song, Panic In Detroit, the first lines are "Looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van."
- In Immortal Technique's No Me Importa off of Revolutionary Vol. 1.
In books
- Guevara is on the cover of the book [The Rebel Sell].