8 de octubre, día del Psicólogo Latinoamericano: Consideraciones sobre la pertinencia de la fecha

On October 8, 1967, the death of the Argentine physician and revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara occurred in a region of southern Bolivia as a result of a confrontation with the Bolivian regular army when he tried to lead a popular revolution against the military government of that country. Guevara was captured with several companions, to be executed only a few hours later. That date was adopted in 2006 by the ULAPSI (Latin American Union of Psychological Entities) as a reference for the commemoration of the Latin American Psychologist’s Day. The celebration evokes a revolutionary figure like Che Guevara because his proponents assume that the essence of his thought, values and political action can be inspiring elements for the image and daily action that the Latin American psychologist perform. This article discusses these assumptions in a critical way and analyzes the relevance of evoking Che Guevara as an agglutinating and inspiring personality for all psychologists. We expose the inconveniences of preferring this date and propose some alternatives that are more congruent with the history and internal traditions of psychology both as a science and profession.