Dr. Albert Michaels presents Che Guevara: His Life: Myth and Reality

Professor, author and curator Albert Michaels presents an overview of the life of Che Guevara. First presented at the Latin American Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, Michaels traces the life of Che and his struggles driven by the downward mobility of his once aristocratic family and his battle with severe asthma. What Michaels reveals is a framework of a frustrated, energetic, and courageous non-conformist, whose early cynicism turned to optimism, but whose utopian views were impossible to carry out. The admiration that Michaels, a conservative, has for Guevara is genuine as he states: “Unlike most leftists, Che was willing to die for what he believed in and was looking to an alternative world view stirred to replace the material with the moral.”

Albert Michaels, Ph.D., is an associate curator at the Burchfield Penney Art Center and a member of the history and honors faculties at Buffalo State College. He is a specialist on twentieth-century Latin American history, US foreign policy and Western New York historical art. He has written many books and articles including “The Mexican Revolution 1910-1940,” “Sandinista Mischief,” and “The Media as an Adversary Culture,” and helped produce and write the introduction to Classic Buffalo." He taught for many years at the University of Buffalo, where he received the Milton Plesur Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Michaels was in Bolivia in 1967 – the same time as Che Guevara.

This program is free for Burchfield Penney members and a suggested donation of $10 for "not yet" members.