Che, staged
Yesterday I was going through the junk mail and found a flier for The Public Theater's 50th Anniversary Season, which includes the world premiere of

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS

Written JOSÉ RIVERA

A CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN LABYRINTH THEATER COMPANY AND THE PUBLIC THEATER

In a school house in Bolivia, Che Guevara, wounded and imprisoned, waits to learn whether his destiny lies with the CIA or the murderous Bolivian dictator. He spends his last days comforted by conversations with the local school teacher, a woman awakened politically and emotionally by the revolutionary leader. By the Academy Award-nominated writer of The Motorcycle Diaries and the play References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot.

Maybe Mr. Rivera should awaken "politically and emotionally" to a few facts about Che, who personally executed his followers for disloyalty and created the Cuban gulags, into which he sent the gays he persecuted.

Here's a list of the names of people executed by Che at the Sierra Maestra mountains, Santa Clara city, and La Cabaña prison.

Last October I said,

It is estimated that Che Guevara sent to the firing squads some 15,000 Cubans. Untold number of people died in Cuba, Central America, Bolivia and Congo from his guerrila wars. The real number might never be known.

No movie will be made from their stories.

Mr. Rivera won't be writing any plays about them.

As Paul Berman said, The modern-day cult of Che blinds us not just to the past but also to the present. Mr. Rivera chooses to remain blind.

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