Who was Chico Mendes? What did he fight to preserve and to establish?
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Francisco Alves Mendes Filho (December 15, 1944 – December 22, 1988), also known as Chico Mendes, was a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist. He fought to stop the logging of the Amazon Rainforest for the purposes of cattle ranching, and founded a national union of rubber tappers in an attempt to preserve their profession and the rainforest that it relied upon. He was murdered in 1988 by ranchers opposed to his activism.\n\n"At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realise I am fighting for humanity" - Chico Mendes, Rubber tappers' leader\n\nHistory\nMendes grew up in a family of rubber tappers in Acre State, Brazil, and when he was of age, continued on in the family tradition. However, rubber prices had collapsed in the 1960s, and many landowners were selling their properties to the highest bidder - which in most cases, meant cattle ranchers. Rubber tappers were finding themselves pushed out of their lands.\n\nIn the 1970s, he joined a band of nonviolent activists attempting to stop the logging of the forest. They would march down logging trails, overrun forest clearance parties, disarming guards and attempting to convince the ranchers' workers not to continue. In many cases, they were successful at doing so, despite resistance from the ranchers - in 1980, Mendes' ally Wilson Pinheiro was assassinated.\n\nFounding of unions\nMendes then began to move into a more mainstream political arena. He stood successfully for the local council in Xapuri. He was a leading local member of the socialist Workers Party (PT). He advocated the idea of creating forest reserves that would be managed by traditional communities, and sustainably harvesting goods such as rubber and Brazil nuts. He saw benefit in uniting the rubber tappers in an attempt to hold their ground against the ranchers, and founded the Xapuri Rural Workers' Union, becoming its President. Over the next few years, Mendes and the union had some successes, but he decided that it would be more beneficial to unite all the Brazilian tappers in one union.\n\nWhen the first meeting of this new union, the National Council of Rubber Tappers, was held in 1985, in the capital, Brasilia, rubber tappers from all over the country came. Many had never been outside their local area before. He succeeded in educating many about the issues of deforestation, road paving, cattle ranching, and the threats to their own livelihoods. The meeting also had the effect of catching the attention of the international environmentalist movement, and highlighting their plight to a larger audience. He chose to align himself and the union with environmentalism, rather than Marxism. In October that year, English filmmaker Adrian Cowell made a documentary about Mendes.\n\nIndividual activism\nIn 1987, after being contacted by the Environmental Defense and National Wildlife Federation, Mendes flew to Washington D.C. in an attempt to convince the Inter-American Development Bank that their road project in his area would end in disaster, unless it took into consideration the preservation of the forest and the livelihoods of its inhabitants. He was successful, with the project first being postponed, and then, with his participation, renegotiated. He won two international environmental awards for this. On his return, he met with General Bayma Denys, the Minister of the Military Cabinet of the Presidency, and used the opportunity to push his ideas for reserves.\n\nIn 1988, Mendes launched a campaign to stop rancher Darly Alves da Silva from logging an area that was planned a reserve. Mendes not only managed to stop the planned deforestation and create the reserve, but also gained a warrant for Darly's arrest, for a murder committed in another state. He delivered the warrant to the federal police, but it was never acted upon.\n\nAssassination\nOn December 22, 1988, Mendes was assassinat
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First he created dynamite but was afraid his legacy would be the militry use of that would make his legacy one of death.  He began giving Nobel Peace Prizes to insure his legacy would be one of peace.  Perhaps what he teaches is that you can control your own legacy for future generations.
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Victors in wars always get to write the history books.  \n\nWhy did we ally ouselves to a know butcher in Joe Stalin? Nations face similar dilemmas. The Roosevelt administration formed a strategic alliance with Joe Stalin, a known butcher of millions of his own people, to fight Adolf Hitler, a man they considered to be a greater threat. That difficult decision determined the survival of the free world.\n\nSome people call us liberators, others conquerors, martyrs, fanatics, heroes, or just plain nut cases....its' all relative.  Write the history and call them what you like.
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Vasco Núñez de Balboa - Sep 25, 1513.\n\nVasco Núñez de Balboa (c. 1475, born in Jerez de los Caballeros or in Badajoz, Extremadura, Castile, Spain – January 21, 1519, in Acla, near Darién, Panama) was a Spanish conquistador who founded the colony of Darién in Panama, the oldest still-existing European settlement in the mainland of the Americas. He was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from America (Sep 25, 1513).\n\nHearing rumours of a sea...\n...He heard of a great sea on the other side of the mountains and of a land of great wealth called Birú (later named Perú), turning out to be the Tahuantinsuyu (the Inca Empire) to the south of this sea...\n\nOn September 1, 1513, he sailed to San Blas (the narrowest part of the isthmus), and went south across the isthmus. As before he befriended the locals who were so inclined, and captured, tortured and looted those that remained hostile, thus gaining substantial treasure. Finally he reached a top from where he could see the Pacific Ocean on September 25, 1513. When the others had joined him a Te Deum was chanted, a cross erected, and the sea was christened Mar del Sur ("South Sea"). He pushed on to the edge of the ocean, in the Gulf of San Miguel and Balboa claimed the ocean and all adjacent lands for Spain.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_de_Balboa
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We were already occupying Vera Cruz in 1914.  I have the photos from a family diary of US Naval landing parties there. I think Back Jack Pershing was already in persuit of Villa on both sides of the border.  Remeber the Mexican Civil War was in full swing at that time.
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How can one possibly fight for peace? Already the word "fighting" has a military connotation. Do you see the oximoron here? \nSomebody mentioned Neville Chamberlain here. A peace fighter? How noble. Are we to forget that he almost let Hitler have his way? How are you to reach your peace with someone like Hitler, or his modern equivalents? Your only way would be to first fight them, and then when you won the war, force them to peace. That is why it is so rare to find a peace fighter. Most of so called peace factions, when you really and honsetly think about it, encourage you to basically cave in to the side that started the agression in the first place, thus excluding the possibility of true peace. \nThis is not to say that what you seek doesn't exist. You just need to change the formulation. No peace fighter with its inherent contradiction, but peace seeker. And you can find those noble heroes who hoped to find peace. \nNestor was, for example, a Greek hero king, who at first urged the Greeks to turn away from the siege of Troy.\nIn the modern times we can probably mention Ghandi, with his passive resistance movemen, that eventually won him and India the independence they have been hoping for, without bloodshed. \nSo, look for heroes who were peace seekers instead, but not for peace fighters. For the most part, those who proclaim themselves to be peace fighter, do whatever they do against the benefit of their people. They are consequently not considered heroes, and history doesn't carry their memory forth. This is the reason for your difficulty, I believe.\nWe all remember Hamilkar and his renown son Hannibal, who, to gain peace for their country, fought against the Roman, but we cannot recall the names of the elders of Carthage who pushed for what they called peace, and was really submission. We cannot remember them, and why the heck should we? In spite of their declaration, they weren't true peace fighters, their political opponents, father and son both, were. So, basically, a hero who works for peace, has occasionally to start a war. In our imperfect world, it couldn't be otherwise. This is why your search couldn't be successfull as one would hope for. Hope this helps.
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Do you mean Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary leader?\n\nWell, let's quote Che. He once wrote "you can kill a man, but you cannot kill an idea". He was writing about how the idea of freedom from oppression is catching, and will spread regardless of attempts to stamp it out.\n\nThere is still oppression in the world. There is still a thirst for freedom from it. So why not? The same basic conditions apply as when Che was alive.
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César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927–April 23, 1993) was a Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader, and activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. His birthday on March 31 has subsequently become a holiday in a handful of U.S. states, and a number of parks, libraries, schools, streets, and bowling alleys have been named in his honor in several cities across America.
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An excellent idea born out of a revolutionary, indeed. Please start a website. There will be lot many to fight back with your support and strength. You are an innovator, a pioneer and that is how history is made of great people. Keep the spirit up!
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Pablo Escobar of Columbia.  He was quite the man, very rish and well connected.  He was kind of like Al Capone, in that he gave a lot back to the community and really looked out for the poor and needy.
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They were an anti-Vietnam war movement.  Here is a site that goes into more detail and there are even more links at the bottom of the site:\nhttp://www.milesago.com/features/saveoursons.htm
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CHE Guevara, \n \n(Ernesto Guevara)  (chā gāvä´rä, ārnĕs´tō) , 1928—67, Cuban revolutionary and political leader, b. Argentina. Trained as a physician at the Univ. of Buenos Aires, he took part (1952) in riots against the dictator Juan Perón in Argentina, joined agitators in Bolivia, and worked in a leper colony. In 1953 he went to Guatemala, joined the leftist regime of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, and when Arbenz was overthrown (1954) fled to Mexico, where he met Fidel Castro and other Cuban rebels. Guevara became Castro's chief lieutenant soon after the rebel invasion of Cuba in 1956, in which he proved to be a resourceful guerrilla leader. As president of the national bank after the fall (Jan., 1959) of Fulgencio Batista he was instrumental in cutting Cuba's traditional ties with the United States and in directing the flow of trade to the Communist bloc. He served (1961—65) as minister of industry. At heart a revolutionary rather than an administrator, he left Cuba in 1965 to foster revolutionary activity in the Congo and other countries. In 1967, directing an ineffective guerrilla movement in Bolivia, he was wounded, captured, and executed by government troops. Guevara wrote Guerrilla Warfare (1961), Man and Socialism in Cuba (1967), Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War (1968), and The African Dream (2001), a forthright account of the failed Congo rebellion.
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When he fought Rocky Balboa.\n\nCoach
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Which country? Which fight?\n\nPeace.
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In the book written by John L Anderson he claims that Che was killed by a  Cuban Ameican CIA trianed individual named Felix Rodriguez. That book is very well reearched so I am proned to believe the author's claim. Do I think his death was justified?  He was rather ruthless at times, but that is not for me to decide. I guess you can say that by living the revolutionary life, he had to know his end would not be pretty. I will say this, he did not die a coward.
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The first person STARTED to answer your question but never finished it.  The character of Tony Montana was based on the character of "Tony Comonte" in the 1932 film of the same title played by Paul Muni.\n\nHowever, Comonte was based on...that's right, Al Capone.\n\nAs far as realistic references in the 1983 version?  The character of Alejandro Sosa was based on Columbian drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar (for more on him see the movie "Blow" and the upcoming film "Killing Pablo")\n\nHope this helps.
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What ultimately made life possible for the 'pilgrims' was something akin to capitalism. They started out in more of a commune system, which about killed them off, b/c there's no incentive to work (produce).\n\nYou need people that are focused on getting ahead, aggressively.