Symbols are easier than actual people. Nobody is just one thing, and complexity doesn't travel well. Revolutionaries are either lionized or demonized, and so it becomes easier for the critics to ignore valid points while simultaneously being easier for the supporters to ignore atrocities. Rather than an objective, complete understanding of the man, you get polarized factions that don't see each other as people.

It baffles me how this guy became an icon.

I’m sure the fact that he was really hot had a lot to do with it. The guy was very nice to look at, and that worked very well in the use of widespread visual propaganda.

Same with Stalin. Did you know young Stalin looked like this?

Yeah…

Latin American hangs out with Westerner is the usual path.

Remember when the CIA funded schools to teach Right Wing Death Squads and they put in a bunch of rightwing dictators in because they're scared of communism having a turn?

History is hilarious. The School of the Americas. Life, Liberty, and teaching massacres 101:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation#Criticism

"The U.S. Army School of the Americas is a school that has run more dictators than any other school in the history of the world."

- Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II[83]

I'll see that and raise you someone who doesn't have a ton of videos titled "you won't BELIEVE how awful this communist group was!": https://youtu.be/sB5-yxDrDQk