Most of the historical characters in this article are remembered with certain affection by hundreds of people because either their personality, their work, or their art made them extremely close to their audiences, and many of them are still idolized.
However, they are not immune to the chiaroscuros of every person. Although their memory is tinged with a halo of benevolence and even genius, the truth is that in their lives, they could have been either victims of their historical context or simply people who did not have the best of judgments, and now it is worth remembering them beyond their prowess:
Ché Guevara
Ernesto Guevara is still remembered as a man who fought for the freedom of the Cuban people when he commanded the Cuban Revolution along with other historical figures, which is why to this day it is possible to see his face printed on all kinds of objects and paraphernalia. However, this revolutionary writer was recently exposed as a great racist and homophobe.
One need only glance at his diary (Motorcycle Diaries) to discover Guevara’s descriptions of the black community: “Those magnificent examples of the African race who have maintained their racial purity thanks to their lack of affinity with the toilet.” Moreover, he believed that homosexuality was part of bourgeois decadence and that they were sexual perverts. The first concentration camps were organized in Cuba and had originally been intended for all homosexual persons.
Thomas Alva Edison
This fact is so popular that even TV shows like The Simpsons have mocked him. The famed inventor is also known for being a man who appropriated other people’s patents and inventions, while he had a fierce fight with Tesla over the monopoly of electric energy production. Edison was allegedly in charge of a major smear campaign against the alternating current system that included the electrocution of an elephant.
Nikola Tesla
On the other hand, Tesla is remembered as a scientist and inventor who was forgotten, particularly because he decided not to patent his discoveries, all for the benefit of humanity. Although this is an act that speaks of his humility, the truth is that Tesla was an advocate of eugenics, that is, the pseudoscience that proposes the improvement of the human race based on discriminatory postulates against people, as well as practices that violate the reproductive rights of people such as forced sterilization.
Mahatma Gandhi
He is one of the great symbols of peace and independence of India; however, it is public knowledge that in his personal life Gandhi was not entirely pacifist. There are allegations that he beat his wife, as well as that he was never interested in other independence struggles, such as that of South Africa, for racial reasons.
Steve Jobs
Jobs is the perfect example of how idolatry can change the minds of dozens of people. Although it was always rumored about Jobs’ difficult personality and how he used to take advantage of every opportunity for his benefit, to this day he is remembered by many with nostalgia. One of the most popular cases in which Jobs proved to be extremely selfish and inconsiderate was when he got hold of the designs that would later result in the iPod, as well as cheating his former partner Steve Wozniak.
Bob Marley
Like Che Guevara, Marley‘s face is iconic along with a whole host of reggae and Jamaican paraphernalia. The musician, who was not only a master of his music, but a man who championed peace over violence, is also considered, according to his wife Rita Anderson’s biography, to be an abuser as well as a wife-beater. Not to mention a homophobe and misogynist.
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was the third president of the United States and the main author of the Declaration of Independence of that country. Despite his work for the liberation of the British colonies in America, the truth is that Jefferson was a fierce racist who condemned any kind of interracial relationship, even though he himself had children (which he did not acknowledge) with a slave.
Gustave Flaubert
He is a great French writer who is remembered for literary classics such as Madame Bovary or The Sentimental Education. Flaubert was a great scholar who liked to be precise in his novels, as well as the social determinism that posited that a person could not be better than their ancestors, and their actions always condemned them to the fate that awaited them. Flaubert would not only constantly repeat in his works how adulterous women would fall into disgrace or death, but in his private life, he was identified as a pedophile.
These eight characters show us that not everything is what it seems and that talent and genius are not a sign of honesty or goodness.
This story was originally published in Spanish in Cultura Colectiva
