Letter: The truth about Che

Sir: Jonathan Glancey writes of Comandante Guevara as a 'myth' and an 'icon' ('Che: the myth on your T-shirt', 9 October); not surprisingly, since, in the dreamy, image-centred world of the Independent, only the ethereal is concrete. The truth about Che is less trendily post-modern: he was an unusually successful guerrilla commander, a useful politician, and (as anyone who has read his speeches knows) one of the most original, influential and exciting political thinkers of this century.

That is why 'Che lives': it isn't the quixotic legend or the Christ-like poster, but the true story of his life and work that makes Ernie Lynch (Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Lynch) an object of interest and a source of inspiration to people who were not even born in 1967.

Yours faithfully,

MAT COWARD

Pinner, Middlesex

9 October