Medical Doctor or Revolutionary?

Title: The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey
Author: Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Publisher: Ocean Press
Date Published: 2003
Rating: A-

The Motorcycle Diaries gives a fresh view of the famous revolutionary Che Guevara by relating the Latin American adventure of Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado on the motorcycle aptly named "Comeback." As someone who knew little about Guevara and his revolution – and who still has much to learn – this was an excellent way to begin learning about Latin American history and Guevara’s role. It has sparked in me a desire to learn more about this revolutionary leader. But this travel diary is more than just an historical account. It is also a beautifully written story easy to relate to. The longing for adventure and the drive to gain more from life is something many of us feel.

The diaries are a composition of notes Guevara wrote along his trek through Latin America. After the conclusion of his trip, he went back and put all his notes together, adding and subtracting as he saw fit. There are so many passages that left me wondering if they were composed in the passion of the moment or after careful deliberation while pouring over the notes. One such passage was included during Guevara and Granado’s stop in Miramar to visit Guevara’s love. He describes his struggle to leave the place, feeling tied to his girl. Granado starts to think he’ll be traveling alone. But Guevara eventually pulls himself away and calls it a victory. But then he writes: “Yet afterwards I doubted whether driftwood has the right to say, ‘I win,’ when the tide throws it on to the beach it seeks.”

The pride Guevara and his companion feel for Argentina and its neighboring countries is prevalent throughout the diary entries. It truly feels like Guevara is becoming the man he will eventually be. His insight and understanding that he was still learning about the world is honest and sincere. The following was included in the chapter “San Martin de los Andes”:

I now know, by an almost fatalistic conformity with the facts, that my destiny is to travel, or perhaps it’s better to say that traveling is our destiny, because Alberto feels the same. Still, there are moments when I think with profound longing of those wonderful areas in our south. Perhaps one day, tired of circling the world, I’ll return to Argentina and settle in the Andean lakes, if not indefinitely then at least for a pause while I shift from one understanding of the world to another.

I admire Guevara’s ability to recognize this experience will have an impact on his life, and also his understanding that world views continue to change with experience.

Guevara carefully details the people the two young men encounter along their journey. He is affected by the oppression and the poverty he sees. Time and again he relates how difficult it is for people to understanding the point of their journey. The two men beg for food, shelter and transportation. But they created their own circumstances. Others they come across are also begging, but because of circumstances out of their control.

Guevara and Granado encounter a migrant couple who’ve been outcast because they are communists. The couple describes their hardships and their plan to attempt to find work at the sulfur mines. Guevara writes:

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 which he understood and, more importantly, filled him with hope.

From this passage the reader gets a sense for Guevara’s skill at putting himself in others’ shoes. Communism is such a dirty word in our own country, but Guevara is able to look past the stereotypes and understand why these people believe what they believe. And he does this without prejudice, which is rare as much in Latin America as it is in our own country.

In 1960, eight years after Guevara wrote The Motorcycle Diaries, he addressed a group of Cuban medical students and workers. The speech is partially printed in the appendix of this edition. Guevara discusses his development from medical student to revolutionary doctor.

Then I realized one fundamental thing: to be a revolutionary doctor, or to be a revolutionary, there must first be a revolution. The isolated effort, the individual effort, the purity of ideals, the desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals means naught if that effort is made alone, solitary, in some corner of Latin America, fighting against hostile governments and social conditions that do not permit progress.

Guevara goes on to talk about the importance of weapons in a revolution, which I’ve decided to exclude here. But what I find interesting in this piece is his emphasis on unity. He tells these students that their cause and effort is worthless if it is done alone. If there is no revolution, there is no power behind what you might be working towards. This theory can easily be applied to certain events in this U.S., especially now with the war in Iraq and the horrible response to the hurricane disaster.

For years I’ve seen Che’s dark silhouette adorn T-shirts, posters and even tattoos in this country. But I never had a full understanding of why. And I still have much to learn. But what I’ve gained from this book is that Guevara cared for his people, and all people. He believed that everyone had the right to work and be paid, to have food if they’re hungry, and believe whatever it is they want to believe. Although he became a famous, powerful revolutionary, he was a human being first, and that’s what this book reminds us.