The Motorcycle Diaries (book)

This article is about the book. For the movie, see The Motorcycle Diaries (film).

The Motorcycle Diaries is a book that traces the early travels of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, then a 23-year-old medical student, and his friend Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old biochemist. Guevara travelled 8,000 miles across South America on an old motorcycle. During the journey he is transformed by witnessing the social injustices of exploited mine workers, persecuted communists, ostracized lepers, and the tattered descendants of a once-great Incan civilization. The book ends with a declaration by Guevara, originally born into an upper middle class family, displaying his willingness to fight and die for the cause of the poor, and his dream of seeing a united Latin America. It has been a New York Times bestseller several times.

The book was originally marketed by Verso as "Das Kapital meets Easy Rider"

Journey

Guevara and Granado leave Buenos Aires (Argentina) in January 1952 on the back of a sputtering 1939 Norton 500, dubbed La Poderosa - "The Mighty One", (A carbureted version of Don Quixote's Rocinante). They desired to explore the South America they only knew from books. By journey's end (by motorcycle, steamship, raft, horse, bus, and hitchhiking) they traveled for a symbolic nine months, covering more than 8,000 miles across places such as the Andes, Atacama Desert, and the Amazon River Basin. In the bestselling memoir, Guevara details his adventure, as well as his observations on the life of the impoverished indigenous peasantry throughout Latin America.

Transformation

"The stars streaked the night sky with light in that little mountain town and the silence and the cold dematerialised the darkness. It was as if all solid substances were spirited away in the ethereal space around us, denying our individuality and submerging us, rigid, in the immense blackness."
Ernesto Guevara's Diary

Historians and biographers now agree that the experience had a profound impact on Guevara, who later became one of the most famous guerrilla leaders in history. "His political and social awakening has very much to do with this face-to-face contact with poverty, exploitation, illness, and suffering", said Carlos M. Vilas, a history professor at the Universidad Nacional de Lanús in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In May 2005, Alberto Granado described their journey to the BBC, stating: "The most important thing was to realise that we had a common sensibility for the things that were wrong and unjust." According to Granado, their time at the leper colony of Sao Paulo in the Amazon also proved pivotal. Recalling that they shared everything with the sick people and describing Guevara's wave on departure as follows: "I got the impression that Che was saying goodbye to institutional medicine and becoming a doctor of the people."

According to his daughter Aleida Guevara on a 2004 article, throughout the book we can see how Guevara became aware that what poor people needed was not his scientific knowledge as a doctor, but his strength and persistence to bring social change..

Editions

Che Guevara's daughter Aleida Guevara explains that Che didn't intend his diary to be published, and had remained as "a sheaf of typewritten pages". Since the 1980s Che's family has been working on his unpublished manuscripts, and a Cuban publishing house published "The Motorcycle Diaries" for the first time in 1993.

The director of Ocean Press assures that the book has in fact been published in Cuba and that any rumors of a conspiracy to prohibit its edition in Cuba are false. He explains that the book has an edition by publishing house of the Union of Young Communists, and will also be published by the Che Guevara Studies Center. He also assures that its publication has the support of many people including Fidel Castro..

"The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey" was published by Ocean Press and the Che Guevara Studies Center, Havana in 2003. The book has a preface by Aleida Guevara March, edited by Julie Wark, and an introduction by Cintio Vitier. This edition is edited and translated by Alexandra Keeble.

Pre-expedition

Ernesto Guevara (later known as "Che") spent long periods traveling around Latin America during his studies of medicine, beginning in 1948, at the University of Buenos Aires. In January 1950, Guevara attempted his first voyage. He traversed the northern provinces of Argentina on a bicycle on which he installed a small motor. He arrived at San Francisco del Chahar, near Córdoba, where his friend Alberto Granado ran the dispensary of the leper-centre. This experience allowed Guevara to have long conversations with the patients about their disease. While he continued studying, he also worked as a nurse on trading and petroleum ships of the Argentine national shipping-company. This allowed Guevara to travel from the south of Argentina to Brazil, Venezuela and Trinidad.

Expedition

"This isn't a tale of derring-do, nor is it merely some kind of 'cynical account'; it isn't meant to be, at least. It's a chunk of two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams. In nine months a man can think a lot of thoughts, from the height of philosophical conjecture to the most abject longing for a bowl of soup – in perfect harmony with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he's a bit of an adventurer, he could have experiences which might interest other people and his random account would read something like this diary."
~ Ernesto Guevara, Diary Introduction

In January 1952 Guevara's older friend, Alberto Granado, a biochemist, and Guevara, decided to take a year off from their medical studies to embark on a trip they had spoken of making for years, traversing South America. Guevara and the 29-year-old Granado soon set off from their hometown of Alta Gracia astride a 1939 Norton 500 cc motorcycle they named La Poderosa II ("The Mighty One, the Second") with the idea of spending a few weeks volunteering at the San Pablo Leper colony in Peru on the banks of the Amazon River. The journey took Guevara through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and to Miami, before returning to Argentina.

Map of Guevara's trip with Alberto Granado. The red arrows correspond to trips in airplane.

The first stop: Miramar, Argentina, a small resort where Guevara's girlfriend, Chichina, was spending the summer with her upper-class family. Two days stretched into eight, and upon leaving, Chichina gave Guevara $15 (US) to buy her a swimsuit if they made it to the U.S.. Guevara swore to her that he would starve rather than spend the money on anything else; however, he later gave it away to a poor peasant couple in need of it. The two men crossed into Chile on February 14. At one point they introduced themselves as internationally renowned leprosy experts to a local newspaper, which wrote a glowing story about them. The travelers later used the press clipping as a way to score meals and other favors with locals along the way.

"We are looking for the bottom part of the town. We talk to many beggars. Our noses inhale attentively the misery."
~ Ernesto Guevara's Diary of Valparaiso, Chile

In reference to his experience in Chile, Guevara also writes: "The most important effort that needs to be done is to get rid of the uncomfortable 'Yankee-friend'. It is especially at this moment an immense task, because of the great amount of dollars they have invested here and the convenience of using economical pressure whenever they believe their interests are being threatened."

Unable to get a boat to Easter Island as they intended, they headed north, where Guevara's political consciousness began to stir as he and Granado moved into mining country. They visited Chuquicamata copper mine, the world's largest open-pit mine and the primary source of Chile's wealth. While getting a tour of the mine he asked how many men died in its creation. At the time it was run by U.S. mining monopolies of Anaconda and Kennecott and thus was viewed by many as a symbol of "imperialist gringo domination". A meeting with a homeless communist couple in search of mining work made a particularly strong impression on Guevara, who wrote: "By the light of the single candle ... the contracted features of the worker gave off a mysterious and tragic air ... the couple, frozen stiff in the desert night, hugging one another, were a live representation of the proletariat of any part of the world,"

In reference to the oppression against the Communist party in Chile, which at the time was outlawed, Guevara pontificated: "It’s a great pity, that they repress people like this. Apart from whether collectivism, the ‘communist vermin,’ is a danger to decent life, the communism gnawing at his entrails was no more than a natural longing for something better, a protest against persistent hunger transformed into a love for this strange doctrine, whose essence he could never grasp but whose translation, 'bread for the poor,' was something he understood and, more importantly, that filled him with hope. Needless to say, workers at Chuquicamata were in a living Hell.

In Peru, Guevara was impressed by the old Inca civilization, forced to ride in trucks with Indians and animals after "The Mighty One" broke down. As a result he begins to develop a fraternity with the indigenous campesinos. In March 1952 they both arrived at the Peruvian Tacna. After a discussion about the poverty in the region, Guevara refers in his notes to the words of Cuban poet José Marti: "I want to link my destiny to that of the poor of this world." In May they arrived in Lima, Peru and during this time Guevara met doctor Hugo Pesce, a Peruvian scientist, director of the national leprosy program, and an important local Marxist. They discuss several nights until the early morning and years later Che identified these conversations as being very important for his evolution in attitude towards life and society. In May, Guevara and Granado leave for the leper-centre of San Pablo in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, arriving there in June. During his stay Guevara complains about the miserable way the people and sick of that region have to live. Guevara also swam once from the side of the Amazon River where the doctors stayed, to the other side of the river where the leper patients lived, a considerable distance of two and a half miles. He describes how there were no clothes, almost no food, and no medication. After giving consultations and treating patients for a few weeks, Guevara and Granado leave for Leticia, Colombia via the Amazon River.

While visiting Bogotá, Colombia he wrote a letter to his mother on July 6, 1952. In the letter he describes the conditions under the right-wing government of Conservative Laureano Gómez as the following: "There is more repression of individual freedom here than in any country we've been to, the police patrol the streets carrying rifles and demand your papers every few minutes." He also goes on to describe the atmosphere as "tense" and "suffocating" even hypothesizing that "a revolution may be brewing." Guevara was correct in his prognostication, as a military coup in 1953 would take place, bringing General Gustavo Rojas to power.

Later that month Guevara arrived in Caracas, Venezuela and from there decide to return back to Buenos Aires to finish his studies in medical science. However, prior to his return, he travels by cargo-plane to Miami, where the airplane's technical problems delay him one month. To survive, he works as a waiter and washes dishes in a Miami bar.

Although he admits throughout that as a Vagabond traveler he can only see things at surface level, he does attempt to delve beneath the sheen of the places he visits. On one occasion he goes to see a woman dying of tuberculosis, leaving appalled by the failings of the public health system. This experience leads him to ruminate the following reflection: "How long this present order, based on the absurd idea of caste, will last is not within my means to answer, but it’s time that those who govern spent less time publicizing their own virtues and more money, much more money, funding socially useful works."

"I knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I will be with the people."
~ Ernesto Guevara's Diary

Witnessing the widespread endemic poverty, oppression and disenfranchisement throughout Latin America, and influenced by his readings of Marxist literature, Guevara later decided that the only solution for the region's structural inequalities was armed revolution. His travels and readings throughout this journey also lead him to view Latin America not as a group of separate nations, but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide strategy for liberation from what he viewed as imperialist and neo-colonial domination. His conception of a borderless, united, Hispanic-America sharing a common 'mestizo' bond, was a theme that would prominently recur during his later activities and transformation from Ernesto the traveler, into Che Guevara the iconic revolutionary.

Lighter moments

Although Guevara is equally at home ruminating on the plight of the downtrodden during his passage, there are also an array of less cerebral moments, presented in a fluid and colorful style. Some of these include: flipping burgers in the hope of gaining some free booze, lusting for a woman before having to flee from her angry husband, shooting his host’s dog after mistaking it for a puma, vomiting out of his bedroom window onto a tray of peaches on the balcony below, and volunteering as a fireman only to sleep through the alarm as a nearby building burnt to the ground. Guevara comes across as someone who likes nothing better than consuming heroic amounts of mate, telling tall tales, and getting into trouble. Guevara relates his tales in such a matter-of-fact manner, that he almost convinces you that it's entirely normal behavior. Thus, the story doubles as an interesting insight into the growing cognitive dissonance of an evolving revolutionary and a bawdy tale of youthful hedonism. aaascdxa

Reenactment

The book is in itself an invitation not only to travel, but to experience and be changed and transformed by that experience.

— Walter Salles, director of 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries

• British based "Journey Latin America", offers a three-week escorted "Motorcycle Diaries tour" from Buenos Aires to Lima. The company also offers tailor-made trips to any of the locations along the Guevara-Granado route.

• Texas based "MotoDiscovery", offers South American expeditions for experienced motorcyclists. "The High Andes Expedition", for example, is a trip through Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia.

Further reading

• Back on the Road: A Journey Through Latin America, by Ernesto "Che" Guevara & Alberto Granado, Grove Press, 2002, ISBN 0802139426

• Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend, by Patrick Symmes, Vintage, 2000, ISBN 0375702652

• Che's Chevrolet, Fidel's Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba, by Richard Schweid, University of North Carolina Press, 2008, ISBN 0807858870

• Che Guevara and the Mountain of Silver: By Bicycle and Train through South America, by Anne Mustoe, Virgin Books, 2008, ISBN 0753512742

• Looking for Mr. Guevara: A Journey through South America, by Barbara Brodman, iUniverse, 2001 ISBN 0595180698

• Roll Over Che Guevara: Travels of a Radical Reporter, by Mark Cooper, Verso, 1996, ISBN 1859840655

• The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America, by Ernesto Che Guevara & translator Ann Wright, Verso, 1996, ISBN 1857023994

• Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, by Alberto Granado, Newmarket Press, 2004, ISBN 1557046395

• (Travel Map) --- Che's Route: Ernesto Che Guevara Trip Across South America, by de Dios Editores, 2004, ISBN 9879445295

Film

• Chasing Che, 2007, developed by National Geographic Adventure, A ten-week series featured on V-me.

• The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004, directed by Walter Salles, Focus Features, theatrical release, (126 min).

• Travelling with Che Guevara, 2004, directed by Gianni Mina, Documentary, (110 min).

See also

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• The Argentine (film)
• Che Guevara in popular culture

• Guerrilla (film)
• The Motorcycle Diaries (soundtrack)

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External links

• A Comparative Review of Guevara's, Granado's and Salles' Motorcycle Diaries
• BBC Video: "Fidel Castro Visits Boyhood Home of Che Guevara" July 23 2006.
• Book Review ~ The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America
• CARE: Che Guevara Trail nominated for Travel Award September 20 2004.
• Guardian: "My Ride with Che", Interview with Alberto Granado February 13 2004.
• Intl Herald Tribune: "On the Motorcycle Behind My Father, Che Guevara", by Aleida Guevara October 12 2004.
• LA Times: "Che Guevara's Legacy Looms Larger than Ever in Latin America" October 8 2007.
• NY Times: "Letter From the Americas: Che Today? More Easy Rider Than Revolutionary" May 2, 2004.
• The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America - from Motorcycle.com