Just a suggestion:
Subcomandante Marcos: a power to reckon with.
The Spanish Falange: a power to forget...

Since the latter is a force or organization, "personaje" seems like a misnomer to me...

:)

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Note added at 5 mins (2006-11-14 15:12:04 GMT)
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A forgettable force. Non-descript....

another option

Someone to remember -> Col. Marcos
Something to forget -> La Falange Española

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Note added at 20 mins (2006-11-14 15:27:47 GMT)
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This is the best way for this type of "tick list" text, in my opinion.

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Note added at 21 mins (2006-11-14 15:28:47 GMT)
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All the other suggestions sound rather awkward or odd to me, but maybe that's just me...

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Note added at 23 mins (2006-11-14 15:30:03 GMT)
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Except for CMTJ's...

I would put it just like that.

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Note added at 35 mins (2006-11-14 15:42:22 GMT)
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A person to forget

I made a mistake the first time. I´d still phrase it this way

Since it seems like it would be best to use the same word in both cases, i.e "a presence to remember" and "a presence to forget", I like the word presence because it can be used for either a person or and organization or group (the falange).

This is what it says. When the question is posed nobody knew the answer. They are not asking for "something" but "someone" (despite the answer). And maybe it is "part" of the intention of the answer to answer with an organization (that includes quite a lot of "someones")...

It is my opinion.

Good luck and best regards, mmm

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Note added at 2 hrs (2006-11-14 17:38:35 GMT)
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Something I "feel" is that even all the other ways to make the question are right and could be answered in exactly the same way they have been answered, they make loose (or lose) the force of reaction the answerer is putting in the answer. If the question is not as "free" as the previous one, the reader will think the interviewer is "forcing" a specif ic answer. (And it does not seem to be the case).

Let's supose they are interviewing a politician (or someone serious that you would expect to talk about serious matters). You would probably as kas Alinka says for "someone to remember" and "someone to forget" (as in fact says in the original) and then this person says, after a predictible question (the second one) an umpredictible answer (let's imagine it is Garfield! Nobody expected such an answer. He/she hates Garfield! Why? Everybody will probably laugh and someone probably would think: Or is it that he/she is trying to say: "Hey! I am getting tired of the interview", or something else? Here, everybody expects a name and they find a whole institution. What is he/she trying to say? It is much more impactant. If the question were "Which is the Spanish political group during xxxx-xxxx (years) that should be forgotten in your opinion? Hey, you are forcing an answer. There is not much interest in the answer. An interviewer should not put the questions so predectible but give some freedom.... I insist, it is my opinion. :(

or "a character you would prefer to forget"

I think that the responder has chosen to personalise the Falange (rightly or wrongly), which means that it would be quite feasible to translate "personaje" as "character/person/someone"

.


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Note added at 6 hrs (2006-11-14 21:23:24 GMT)
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For Marcos, I would say "A totally memorable character", which contrasts nicely with "forgetable".

No se refiere a una persona.

Sucomandante Marcos - an historical figure to remember.
The Spanish Phalanx - an historical (figure) entity to forget

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Note added at 19 hrs (2006-11-15 10:57:18 GMT)
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* A historical figure* - of course.