Staring up at the brand-new, 43-storey waterside towers, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Buenos Aires. Or perhaps even Miami. But the twin giants—called the “Dolfines Guaraní”—are soaring above Rosario, a city of around one million in Santa Fe province that is undergoing an architectural revolution.

Rosario, situated around 300km from Buenos Aires in Santa Fe province, has its origins as a port city on the bank of the Río Paraná. It is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and the place where the Argentine flag was raised for the very first time, on 27th February 1812. In fact, the city has a much darker and more interesting history: for a long time Rosario was ruled by smugglers and Italian mafia groups of international infamy, leading some to nickname it the ‘Chicago of the South’.

Today the city stands out for its political leanings, after more than 22 years having the only socialist provincial government in Argentina (recent elections in the city and province confirmed another four years of socialist rule). And in recent years, Rosario has become the city with one of the greatest rates of economic growth in the country, which has sparked a flurry of major architectural developments.

Nowhere is the change more radical than in the Puerto Norte, around 100 hectares of land formerly used for cereal ports by the Paraná. In the same complex as the ‘Dolfines Guaraní’, another high-rise, the ‘Torre Embarcadero’, and the city’s first grade A office building, ‘Nordlink’, stand tall. This building will soon house the provisory offices of Argentina’s first World Trade Center, which, when constructed over the coming three years, will become another emblematic real estate development, putting Rosario on the international business map.

Another two 44-storey towers and an international hotel chain are being constructed on the same block. Just opposite, the ‘Ciudad Ribera’ project will be the city’s first mixed-use complex, incorporating apartments, offices, shops and a 5-star hotel.

Darío Giogiosa, Sales Director at INGECONSER, the Spanish company behind the ‘Ciudad Ribera’ development, describes it as a “mega venture”.

“The development, which will include eight buildings, three underground car parks, and a large public square spread over a total 109,600m2, is aligned with the Rosario municipal government’s plan to regenerate the river area,” said Giogiosa. “it will involve an estimated US$95m in investment over 42 months.”

Another of the premium real estate projects that are changing the landscape of the city is the most expensive casino in Latin America (with a US$270m investment). Financial analyst Salvador Di Stefano notes that the casino has a strategic location, with easy access from the Rosario-Buenos Aires highway, and from any point in the region. “The size of the investment is related to the need to accommodate lots of people. The casino is crowded every day of the week – sometimes there’s not even room to gamble – its shows are sell-outs, and its restaurants are always full. It is no coincidence that tourism in Rosario has exploded with the arrival of the casino.”

The number of people visiting the casino is also reflected in the taxes it pays: it has been reported that the casino alone contributes about $11m to the Santa Fe province budget revenues.

Boom Town

The wave of construction is changing the face of Rosario: the ‘Dolfines Guaraní’ towers are visible from any point in the city, while the central square in the ‘Ciudad Ribera’ will become an open, public space.

Among other things, the new projects in Puerto Norte have created around 1,000 construction jobs and will provide 1,500 new premium apartments in the city, with an exclusive view of the Río Paraná.

According to Giogiosa, “each building will include high-end and exclusive amenities, such as an indoor, climatised swimming pool, sauna, spa, gym, common room with a parrilla, and an industrial kitchen. On top of all this is the ample car parking space [a major problem for the city today].”

This type of construction, which has only been seen in Rosario in the last few years, reflects the sustained growth that the city has experienced of late, especially in terms of real estate developments.

Financial analyst, Salvador Di Stefano, says: “What is going in Argentina is that people are confusing the role of a building with the role of the banks. Since there have been so many different events that has created distrust in capital markets or any other financial instrument, people seek refuge in bricks and mortar.”

Di Stefano adds that Rosario is at the geographical heart of the country’s booming soy industry. “We are soy producers, and we are in a core zone. In the last ten years production has increased by 150%, while prices have risen four-fold. In total, this area generates US$14bn … [and] all of these rural profits spill into the urban centres.”

This remarkable growth explains why foreign investors see the city as an opportunity to develop such significant real estate projects. Giogiosa adds that the proximity to the Río Paraná – a major trade route – is another attraction.

Alberto Granado, scientist and Che Guevara’s close friend, died at the age of 88 on 5th March. The scientist from Córdoba was Guevara’s motorcycle companion during his journey throughout Latin America where they experienced first-hand the continent’s deep poverty and injustice. This was immortalized in Walter Salles’ film The Motorcycle Diaries, where actor Rodrigo de la Serna interpreted Granado alongside Mexican Gael García Bernal, as Che.

After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Guevara asked Granado to join him in Cuba. And, upon his arrival two years later, Granado became a biochemistry professor at Havana University.

“One of his granddaughters called and told us he had died this morning due to a cardiopulmonary arrest”, as official sources stated.

Meanwhile, Che Guevara Museum’s director María Inés Carignani, explained daily La Voz del Interior that Granado was expected to return Córdoba this month. “We are very sorry for his death as he was a sweet, charming man. Every time he visited we would call on him. He was Che’s great friend”, Carignani assured.

Granado was born in Hernando, Córdoba, on 8^th August 1922. He studied biochemistry, pharmacy and natural sciences.

His body will be cremated and his ashes, spread in Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela, according to his wishes.

Photo by Alberto Korda

The image that started it all.

The iconic portrait of Argentina’s revolutionary son, Che Guevara, is thought to be the most reproduced photograph in the world. Originally a rallying cry for the revolutionary movement in Cuba, it has come to be the ultimate symbol of radical chic, recently appearing on Madonna’s ‘American Life’ album cover and a Gaultier sunglasses ad. Has the image lost its political meaning and become merely a fashion accessory and marketing tool?

An international touring exhibition, ‘Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon’, traces the photograph’s diverse uses, from conception to contemporary appropriation. Beginning with the original contact sheet of the photographer, it goes on to show t-shirt designs worn by champagne drinking socialites, a poster campaign by the church depicting Christ as a Che-style revolutionary, and artwork by Vic Muniz rendering the iconic face in baked beans.

The photographic portrait upon which these images are based was originally taken in 1960 by Alberto Korda, a photographer who covered the early days of the Cuban revolution. Inspired by the intensity of Guevara’s expression, he snapped just two frames of him at a funeral service for over 100 Cubans killed in an explosion of an ammunition-filled Belgian ship bound for Havana Harbour.

Remarkably, the photo was originally rejected for publication by Korda’s newspaper, ‘Revolución’, in favour of pictures of Castro and French writers Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. It remained unknown until Korda gave a print to an Italian visitor in 1967. When Guevara died soon after, the image that had originally expressed Guevara’s rage at the bombing now gained the saintly aura of a martyr, and the Italian quickly began to distribute the picture.

The photo, for which Korda never received royalties, would ironically come to be appropriated by the very capitalist system it had stood against, as its marketability was to be exploited relentlessly. The most notable examples in the exhibition include a Che doll produced by a US fast food chain, and his image’s incorporation into a ‘Cherry Guevara’ flavour Magnum ice cream.

Photo by Kate Stanworth

A graffiti representation of the iconic Che Guevara image mixed with the likenesses of Marilyn Monroe.

In recent years Korda began to fight the commercial reproduction of the famous image in ways he thought dishonoured Guevara. The Cuban photographer famously hit the headlines in 2000 when he won an out-of-court settlement and was paid about US$50,000 from a British ad agency to settle a dispute over the use of his photo in a Smirnoff vodka ad campaign.

In general though, he was happy if the photo’s popularity meant a dissemination of el Che’s message and the situation in Cuba. But does its current appearance on t-shirts and baseball caps around the world mean that everyone is the wiser about this episode in Latin American political history? I was not convinced of this when a British boy recently asked me “who is he?” in reference to the image of Guevara on his own t-shirt.

But since the release of the film ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ in 2004 more young people have undoubtedly been introduced to Guevara and his ideologies. However, current evocations of the Che myth, including this film, tend not to delve into the contradictions that exist regarding the revolutionary figure, who demonstrated a cold, battle-loving streak during his fight for social justice. If he was operating today he might be spoken of as a key terrorist figure in the ‘Axis of Evil’. Lets see if ‘Guerrilla’, a new film set to be released about the revolutionary in 2007 dares to question the myth, or simply proves to be easy viewing for followers of the romanticised cult of el Che.

Meanwhile, let us not underestimate the effects of this one image. Had Guevara not been charismatic and photogenic, or if Korda had failed to snap the vital moment, the chances are we wouldn’t even be having this discussion, and these films may not have even been made.

Politically the image seems to be a relic of a bygone era, but according to writer Ariel Dorfman this outdated status might go a long way to explaining its acceptability and popularity. He asks: “Is it conceivable that one of the only two Latin Americans to make it into Time’s 100 most important figures of the century can be comfortably transmogrified into a symbol of rebellion precisely because he is no longer dangerous?”

‘Che Guevara; Revolutionary and Icon’, although worth seeing, fails to look too deeply into these themes, preferring to enter somewhat unquestioningly into the romanticisation of the image. The range of exhibits begins to demonstrate the sheer scale of the photo’s remarkable global appropriation and commodification. Yet little time is given to exploring what this tells us about the political and cultural climate in which the image has been put to use, and in particular our current obsession with celebrity. I leave the exhibition wanting more as I wander through the gallery shop bombarded by that same handsome face staring out from badges, finger puppets and lip balms.