In the Shadow of El Che Our World

from our award-winning

documentary series Our World.

In this film Will Grant travelled

around Cuba to investigate

the legacy of the revolutionary

icon, Che Guevara -

50 years after his death.

His is probably the most

recognisable face in Latin America.

Perhaps one of the most iconic

images in the world.

Synonymous with youthful rebellion,

with socialism, with revolution.

But today, 50 years after the death

of Che Guevara, what does he mean

in a fast-changing Cuba?

As the communist-run island evolves,

some see his example as more

relevant than ever.

Others see a different future

ahead, one that breaks

with the indoctrination

and intolerance of the past.

I have spent the past few years

living on this fascinating island

at a period of great

upheaval and want to know

what El Che means today.

It's the start of another school

day in Cuba's capital,

Havana.

It's the start of another school

day in Cuba's capital,

Havana.

And the seconds are ticking down

to assembly at Nicolas Estevanez

primary school in the

city's Vedado district.

It's one of countless

schools across the island

in which the memories

and achievements of the country's

independence heroes are marked every

day by children in their distinctive

uniforms of the socialist pioneers.

But there's one revolutionary

who has a special place reserved

in the education of these Cuban

children, whose name is repeated

in unison every day,

and has been for decades.

That's not the first time I've seen

the morning assembly

in a Cuban school.

And it's funny because on one level,

it reminds to you of

when you were at school.

But, of course, there's

something here, something

about the declaration

towards undying commitment

to communism and saying that you're

going to be like Che Guevara

that is purely unique to Cuba.

50 years after his death,

Che's image still adorns

the corridors of the primary school,

as he does in schools

across the country.

For the headteacher here,

Waldir Ladron, who exactly was Che?

Camila Granado was a pupil at this

school herself before training

as a teacher and returning

three years ago.

Che looked down on her

as she studied in these same

classrooms, just as he still does

on a generation even further removed

Ernesto Guevara was a guerrilla

commander, an experienced doctor,

a man of the people and right-hand

man to Fidel Castro as he seized

power in Cuba in 1959.

Crucially, unlike some of those

in the guerrilla army,

Che Guevara was a committed

Marxist from the very start

of the Cuban revolution.

And to this day, he remains

a colossus in his adopted country's

self image, as a bastion

against imperialism and injustice.

His last resting place a beacon

for tens of thousands of visitors

and pilgrims every year

from the world over,

fascinated by a life documented

by iconic photographs and projected

as the epitome of

romance and rebellion.

Ernesto Guevara was born

into a middle-class Buenos Aires

family and studied to be a doctor.

But an adventurous streak saw him

travel the continent.

Influenced by examples of US

intervention in the Americas,

he joined a group of exiled Cubans

led by Fidel Castro in their bid

to remove the military

regime in Havana.

The men under his command began

to call Guevara "Che",

the Argentine slang for friend.

Against the odds, after two years

of guerrilla warfare

in the Sierra Maestra

mountains and in the cities,

the bearded revolutionaries

were victorious and took

power in Cuba.

Che's supporters saw in him

the embodiment of the so-called

"new man in socialism",

the very driving force

of the revolution.

But to his opponents,

he was ruthless and brutal.

Che might have settled down.

But instead, he took

the revolutionary struggle abroad,

entering countries in disguise.

Who would have guessed that this

smart businessman is,

in fact, Che Guevara,

preparing to reach Congo to wage

a guerrilla campaign.

But Che's enemies finally caught up

with him, and in 1967,

the revolutionary icon was killed,

fomenting rebellion

against the US-backed

military junta in Bolivia.

Terrorist to some, the image

of Christ-like martyrdom to others.

Only five made it back from Bolivia,

and his fallen comrades are buried

alongside him in this tomb

in the town of Santa Clara.

Luis Monteagudo fought

with Che in Cuba and again

during the revolutionary

war in Congo.

Still today he is under

the spell of his comandante,

Che.

What do you feel when you

see your friend here?

Che was not alone in giving his life

to international revolution.

More than 2,000 Cubans died fighting

in conflicts around the world.

And those who survived

still revere him.

What was Che like as

a leader and as a friend?

If a young person from Europe

or from the United States

or from Africa was to come

to you when they were visiting this

space and say, "Well,

what has the revolution achieved,

what did it do?"

What would you say to them?

But cutting dependency on the US

came with repercussions.

An economic embargo was imposed

which, together with a planned

socialist-style economy,

has left enduring scars.

In the country, empty

roads cut through swathes

of underdeveloped agriculture.

While in Havana, many

homes are crumbling

after years of underinvestment.

The classic 1950s and Soviet-era

cars aren't only iconic,

they're a symbol of an island

economically trapped in the past.

But today, Cuba is beginning

to change, not least

in its fractious relationship

with Washington.

I have come here to bury the last

remnant of the Cold War

in the Americas.

APPLAUSE

Recently, President Trump

has begun to roll back

on that policy.

However, the most obvious benefit

of the new relations,

a boost to tourism,

so far seems unaffected.

Ironically, much of the tourism

features the great Marxist

revolutionary himself,

central to the island's brand,

on every street corner,

on every T-shirt.

It's an irony that doesn't

worry some, though.

Among them, Che's son, who,

as well as his distinctive features,

also shares his father's

first name, Ernesto.

Along with an Argentinian investor,

the Ernesto Guevara runs a motorbike

tour company named after Che's

famous bike of the Motorcycle

Diaries, La Poderosa,

on which he toured South America

in the 1950s.

Does his son sense the irony

of building a capitalist enterprise

on the life story of a Marxist icon?

With so many new tourists

to the island, business is booming

for La Poderosa, and

Ernesto is a busy man.

Ernesto rarely talks to the media

but has invited me to ride with him

to experience Havana by motorbike.

In its three-year existence,

La Poderosa has taken advantage

of new laws allowing

private enterprise in Cuba.

Previously, most private

businesses were banned.

Today, La Poderosa

is gathering pace.

It's close to paying back

the initial foreign investment

and operates a small fleet

of the few Harley-Davidsons

available on the island.

On our tour, we'd arrived at a place

of particular relevance to the story

of El Che - La Cabana fortress.

But La Cabana is synonymous

with another part of Che's history.

Over his six months in charge here,

dozens of men and women received

summary trials and were sent

to the firing squad.

The decades have come and gone.

The decades have come and gone.

So have the US presidents.

But 50 years after Che's death,

his portrait still assumes place

of honour at the nation's

annual demonstrations.

The late Fidel Castro stood at this

podium for countless marches

in his signature

fatigues and peaked cap.

Today, his younger brother, Raul,

presides over proceedings.

But with Raul announcing

he will step down early next year,

it is perhaps as important as ever

to demonstrate stability will reign

on after the Castros in Cuba.

This is the image that the Cuban

government want to project of Cuban

youth - loyal,

dedicated and faithful.

Young people turning out to pay

homage to the socialist project.

This man has been participating

in the event since he was a small

boy, and he's clearly

a committed revolutionary.

In Santa Clara, beneath

the mausoleum of Che Guevara itself

lies a poor neighbourhood

known simply as the Hole.

The residents never had permission

to build their wooden shacks

and breeze block homes so aren't

legally recognised by the state.

Gladys was born in this

neighbourhood and has lived

in it her entire life.

But despite their proximity to one

of the revolution's heroes,

she says they've been ignored

by the government for decades.

MUSIC PLAYS

The well-worn strains of the song

that immortalises Che Guevara,

sung by the Cuban bard

Silvio Rodriguez,

considered one of the revolution's

most emblematic voices.

The song is known off by heart

by millions of Cubans

and encapsulates how the Cuban state

would like people to remember

el comandante Che.

But that vision isn't shared

by the singer's son,

Silvito El Libre.

His reality is very different.

Silvito's The Cuba You Don't Know

takes a hard look at the island,

raising the kind of issues

that the authorities prefer to keep

under wraps - violence,

social decay and police control.

Despite his uncompromising lyrics,

Silvito insists he is no

opponent of Cuba.

But Silvito's candour has

brought him problems.

He says he's been detained

and his friends have been

intimidated by the authorities.

It's led him to move away

from the island to Tampa,

Florida, where he is free

to follow his career as a rapper.

Do you think that fear is one

of the legacies of the generation

of El Che and Fidel

Castro and Raul Castro?

Few know that better

than the island's dissidents.

Among those calling

for a new political system in Cuba

are the ladies in white.

Originally formed by the wives

of political prisoners,

their weekly protests to call

for free elections are often broken

up by the police and state security,

the organisers arbitrarily detained.

Libertad, libertad!

They say they're calling for greater

human rights on the island.

The Cuban government accused them

of being mercenaries funded

by right-wing anti-Castro groups out

of Miami and Washington.

Certainly the Cuban government

allows them no room to operate.

This was their protest on the eve

of a visit by President Obama

in front of the world's

watching media.

When our cameraman tried to film

a weekly protest outside the lady's

house, the police intervened.

He was told he couldn't film there.

And the police removed the camera

from the scene as the mood began

to heat up.

What happened next was

predictable and swift.

A number of women

were detained that day.

It's a side of Cuba that jars

with a new hip image of the island

in the eyes of the rest

of the world.

In some cases, even

the image of Che Guevara no

longer appears sacred.

His revolutionary beret

and olive-green fatigues drained

of ideology and deployed

for striking effect on Chanel models

at their recent fashion

show in Havana.

Critics thought the show

was condescending to ordinary

Cubans, flaunting the worst

of capitalism's excesses

in front of them.

But others thought it refreshingly

reframed Cuba as a global cultural

icon for the 21st century.

That's exactly what people

like Gabriela Domenech

would like to see.

Her fashion magazine,

Garbos, is only available

through a revolutionary

idea called El Paquete.

With very little internet

permitted on the island,

it distributes global but not

overtly political popular control

via a semilegal system

of downloading using hard drives.

She is optimistic about

the magazine's impact.

In spite of all the difficulties

we are facing in Cuba,

I think that young people,

entrepreneurs, are very optimistic.

All these kinds of people

want to find their own way

here in Cuba.

They are trying to find a way

to make a different country

with new ideas, new projects.

There is a lot of optimism

in Cuba at the moment.

But I can't help but wonder,

50 years after his death,

how Che would feel if he

viewed the island today.

As the conversation turned

back to Che Guevara,

Gabriela had an extraordinary

revelation about her family for me.

My grandfather died

with Che Guevara - in Bolivia.

And he died struggling

for the revolution,

for the freedom of Cuba.

So I grew up with this

feeling in my family,

and this is what the

young people have now.

This legacy and this force

for struggling to get what we want.

Gabriela's grandfather, she told me,

was Orlando Pantoja,

a guerrilla who fought alongside Che

in Bolivia exactly 50 years ago.

He died in the battle

in which Che was captured.

I was interested how

Gabriela's family connection

to the world-famous revolutionary

influenced her life

as an entrepreneur in

today's emerging Cuba.

Do you feel like you are inspired

by the sacrifices of your

grandfather and his generation,

or are you growing away

from what they built?

In spite of I belong

to another generation,

of course, I feel

inspired by this legacy.

He was struggling by what he wanted,

and I'm doing the same right now.

Having died so young,

today Che Guevara is all things

to all people, adored and reviled

in equal measure around the world

for his socialist legacy.

But inside Cuba his image has

assumed almost spiritual

significance, ever present in

people's daily lives and struggles.

As the island redraws its future,

the uncertainty is tangible.

Amid the transition,

Che Guevara is a source

of continuity, even as today's Cuba

becomes further removed from the one

he helped to create.