What makes a myth?

Last week people all over the world commemorated Che Guevara's life and death on the 40th anniversary of his execution in Bolivia.

I often wonder about the myth that has become 'Che.' I've been drawn into this myth at times, yet I have to ask, "Who was he, really?"

Other than religious personages, I doubt any visage is as globally recognizable as that of Che with his beret and scraggly beard. I've seen his image on fridge magnets, buttons and t-shirts while traveling in countries on every continent: Turkey, South Africa, Australia, Croatia, Peru, England, the U.S. The list could go on.

These images take the 'Motorcycle Diaries' version of Ernesto Guevara as a young man developing a desire to help the poor and oppressed and create an idealized revolutionary.

On the anniversary of his execution, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote one of the few articles I've ever seen that focused on often-omitted facts about Che. For example, Che oversaw the executions of hundreds of dissenters and 'traitors' in Cuba at the end of the revolution. Today, we would question such actions from a leader. Just look at the fallen leaders in Serbia and the Middle East. How does Che's memory avoid the question altogether? Why are his actions often considered noble when similar actions from others are talked about as evil?

One of the men who caught and oversaw Che's execution was interviewed in the Chronicle article. To this day, he can't understand why people revere Che. He expressed distress that Che had become such a mythological figure...an icon who's human failings and evils had been long forgotten in favor of recalling only his purest principles.

I personally have encountered some of Che's detractors. I was talking to a woman from Peru about a year ago and I made some comment about how popular Che seemed to be in South Amercia -- Peru included. She got very frustrated and made it clear that she was not someone who idealized him "Not all Peruvians consider Che a hero," she told me. "I most certainly do not. He was a murderer."

So, what makes a myth? How do some people win the myth game, and others lose? Do we create these myths around people because we don't want to remember the truth? Or is it because we have lost faith in our leaders and need to believe in someone who fought for his ideals, regardless of what they really were and regardless of the consequences?

I wish I knew...maybe then I'd be able to understand my own conflicting emotions about Che Geuvara.