What is the Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara about?
The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish: Diarios de Motocicleta) is a memoir 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. Leaving Buenos Aires, Argentina,...
What is the Motorcycle Diaries?
The Motorcycle Diaries is, as its title suggests, a record of a motorcycle journey, based on a diary by its author – a young Argentinian medical student – kept during the trip.
Where did Guevara go on his motorcycle trip?
In January 1952, Ernesto Guevara is a medical student in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His friend and fellow medical student, Alberto Granado, suggests that the two of them take a motorcycle trip through South America together, with the ultimate aim of seeing the San Pablo Leper Colony in Peru, in which Alberto is professionally interested.
Who is Che in the Motorcycle Diaries?
"The Che of The Motorcycle Diaries is more akin to Jack Kerouac or Neal Cassady than Marx or Lenin.". In 1952, a semester before Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara is due to complete his medical degree, he and his older friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist, leave Buenos Aires in order to travel across South America.
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Where does The Motorcycle Diaries take place?
Guevara and the 29-year-old Granado soon set off from Buenos Aires, Argentina, astride a 1939 Norton 500 cc motorcycle they named La Poderosa II ("The Mighty II") with the idea of eventually spending a few weeks volunteering at the San Pablo Leper colony in Peru on the banks of the Amazon River.
How long was the trip in motorcycle Diaries?
eight-monthSo on January 4, 1952, the 23-year-old Guevara and his friend Alberto Granada jumped on an old motorcycle and embarked on an eight-month journey across South America. The trek is chronicled in the new movie The Motorcycle Diaries, which is now playing in theaters across the United States.
What is motorcycle Diaries based on?
"The Motorcycle Diaries" is based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he, and best friend Alberto Granado, had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.
Is The Motorcycle Diaries movie accurate?
That aside, The Motorcycle Diaries gets a lot right. It's an entertaining and accurate portrayal of the formative youth of a revolutionary icon. Alex von Tunzelmann's Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean, is published by Simon & Schuster this week.
Who is Guevara based on?
Che Guevara was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution who went on to become a guerrilla leader in South America. Executed by the Bolivian army in 1967, he has since been regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide.
Why is Che Guevara a hero?
Dead at 39, Guevara became an icon to leftists worldwide, especially Latin Americans who made him a symbol of their struggles against U.S. interference and poverty and corruption in their own nations.
What is the central message of The Motorcycle Diaries?
Over the course of Ernesto “Che” Guevara's youthful motorcycle trip across South America, he learns about the class system that structures South American societies, and he comes to understand the injustice of oppressing the working class (called the “proletariat” in the Marxist terminology that Ernesto uses).
Who is Alberto in motorcycle Diaries?
Alberto Granado was the young doctor who accompanied his fellow Argentinian and childhood pal Ernesto “Che” Guevara on an idealistic motorcycle odyssey through South America in the early 1950s.
Did The Motorcycle Diaries win an Oscar?
BAFTA Award for Best Film...BAFTA Award for Best Origin...Independent Spirit Award for Best Ci...Independent Spirit Award for Best De...Goya Award for Best Adapted S...The Motorcycle Diaries/Awards
Who is Chichina in motorcycle Diaries?
Mía MaestroThe Motorcycle Diaries (2004) - Mía Maestro as Chichina Ferreyra - IMDb.
Why is motorcycle Diaries rated R?
Parents need to know that this movie has some social drinking, strong language, and discussions of a sexual nature.
What motorcycle did Che Guevara ride?
Norton 500cc motorcycleIn December 1951, 23-year-old Argentine medical student Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna hopped on the back of his friend Alberto Granado's antiquated Norton 500cc motorcycle and sped out of Cordoba, Argentina.
What countries did they visit in motorcycle Diaries?
In total, the journey took Guevara through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and to Miami, before returning home to Buenos Aires.
Where did Che Guevara start his journey?
In December 1951, 23-year-old Argentine medical student Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna hopped on the back of his friend Alberto Granado's antiquated Norton 500cc motorcycle and sped out of Cordoba, Argentina.
Why did Ernesto swim across the river?
Of all the defining moments during their journey, perhaps the most important came when Guevara, on the night of his 24th birthday, swam across a treacherous river to reach the San Pablo leprosy colony where he and Granado had been working.
Who published the motorcycle diary?
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 and an introduction by Cintio Vitier. This edition is edited and translated by Alexandra Keeble.
What is the motorcycle diary?
The Motorcycle Diaries (Spanish: Diarios de motocicleta) is a memoir of the Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It traces his early travels, as a 23-year-old medical student, with his friend Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old biochemist. Leaving Buenos Aires, Argentina, in January 1952 on the back of a sputtering single cylinder 1939 Norton 500cc dubbed La Poderosa ("The Mighty One"), they desired to explore the South America they only knew from books. During the formative odyssey Guevara is transformed by witnessing the social injustices of exploited mine workers, persecuted communists, ostracized lepers, and the tattered descendants of a once-great Inca civilization. By journey's end, they had travelled for a symbolic nine months by motorcycle, steamship, raft, horse, bus, and hitchhiking, covering more than 8,000 kilometres (5,000 mi) across places such as the Andes, Atacama Desert, and the Amazon River Basin.
What did Guevara do during his pre-expedition?
This pre-expedition gave Guevara a taste of what would be experienced in his more extensive South American travels. The journey broke new ground for him in activities that would become central to his life: travelling and writing a diary. : 65 His own father said that it was preparation for his subsequent long journeys across South America.
How far did Alberto Granado travel?
He traversed 4,500 kilometres (2,800 mi) through the northern provinces of Argentina on a bicycle on which he installed a small engine. He arrived at San Francisco del Chañar, near Córdoba, where his friend Alberto Granado ran the dispensary of the leper-centre.
What did the red arrows on the Guevara map mean?
Map of Guevara's trip with Alberto Granado. The red arrows correspond to trips by airplane, the last two of which Guevara took alone. The trip was carried out in the face of some opposition by Guevara's parents, who knew that their son was both a severe asthmatic and a medical student close to completing his studies.
Where is the Guevara bicycle?
The motorized bicycle now at a Che museum in Alta Gracia, Argentina. Ernesto Guevara 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.
What was Guevara's style of traveling?
The trip encouraged Guevara's style of traveling that would be seen in the Motorcycle Diaries. By the time he reached Jujuy, he had decided that the best way to get to know and to understand a country was by visiting hospitals and meeting the patients that they housed.
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Community Reviews
I have always been intrigued by this charismatic, utterly good-looking, athletic man who was instrumental to the toppling of the Cuban government, and who is now largely forgotten, remembered only as a mythological figure in legends about faraway lands. Suddenly this May, I chanced upon a biography of his in a book fair and grabbed it.
Where did Ernesto Guevara go on a motorcycle trip?
In January 1952, Ernesto Guevara is a medical student in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His friend and fellow medical student, Alberto Granado, suggests that the two of them take a motorcycle trip through South America together, with the ultimate aim of seeing the San Pablo Leper Colony in Peru, in which Alberto is professionally interested. The men repair Alberto’s old motorcycle, which they affectionately and mockingly name “La Poderosa” (“The Powerful”), say goodbye to their families, and set off from Buenos Aires.
Where did Pesce send Alberto and Ernesto?
Pesce helps direct Ernesto’s exploration of the city and he eventually sends Ernesto and Alberto to the San Pablo Leper Colony deep in the Amazon. Ernesto observes the appalling living conditions at the colony, but he is inspired by the work of the doctors and the hopeful attitudes of the patients.
What happened to Ernesto and Alberto?
Although the trip has changed and inspired both of them, it changes them differently: Alberto begins to seriously consider a career as a leprologist, while Ernesto abandons the medical profession and begins to develop a Communist ideology.
Where does Ernesto travel after Alberto leaves?
After Alberto leaves, Ernesto travels by himself through rural villages in Venezuela. Here, he meets an enigmatic European stranger who has fled his own country because of his revolutionary actions (although Ernesto doesn’t specify what these are) and now travels around South America, waiting for the chance to participate in another movement. The stranger tells Ernesto that when revolution comes, it will be huge and “impersonal,” and that the creation of a new, proletarian society will require the sacrifice of many lives.
Who wrote the motorcycle diary?
What makes it remarkable isthat the young medical student who wrote it was Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna, now known as a leader of the Cuban revolution, ...
Where did Guevara and Granado cross into?
Cold and hunger, previously absent from his reflections, begin to play a role in his experience. Guevara and Granado cross into Peru, where they come face to face with the incredible glory of the Quechua warriors and the Inca civilization, whose ruins–among them the magnificent Machu Picchu–still dot the landscape.
What is the final chapter of the book?
The final chapter of the book is a kind of coda, in which Guevara recounts a meeting with an old man who told him that he is a member of the society that is to be destroyed by the coming revolution, and that he will die while taking part in a violent struggle.
When was the motorcycle diary written?
When Written: Guevara ostensibly wrote his memoir as a series of impromptu diary entries during his 1952 expedition. However, at least some editing occurred between 1952 and the memoir’s eventual publication in 1993.
What is the climax of the motorcycle diary?
Climax: While the Motorcycle Diaries is not a traditionally-structured book that follows a strict plot structure, one important point both of climax and resolution comes when Ernesto meets a stranger in Venezuela with whom he discusses the inevitability of proletarian revolution.
What newspaper does Ernesto enter?
Ernesto enters the offices of the Austral News, a local newspaper. The next day, the Austral News prints a feature story about them, greatly exaggerating their qualifications and experience as medical doctors—based on Ernesto's lies.
What happens to Alberto and Ernesto as they leave the city?
As they depart, they are almost hit by a bus. Alberto says they can detour to see Ernesto's girlfriend. Ernesto says that Alberto only wants to get laid in every country in South America. They have an accident and tumble into a ditch. That is when Alberto discovers that Ernesto is taking a puppy for Chichina, his girlfriend.
What does Alberto say to the fusers?
They push the motorcycle, and argue about money and Chichina. As they enter Temuco, Alberto says, "You know what your problem is, Fuser? Your... honesty. You could help out with a little lie once in a while."
What does Alberto complain about?
Alberto complains about the heat, but Ernesto insists on pressing on. Nightfall: They camp with a couple who lost their farm to a speculator. Police chased the couple because they are communists. The couple asks why Ernesto and Alberto are traveling. E and A respond that they just wanted to travel. The couple finds that difficult to understand. Ernesto writes: "Their faces were tragic and haunted. They told us of comrades who had mysteriously disappeared and were said to be somewhere at the bottom of the sea. It was one of the coldest nights of my life, but also one which made me feel closer to this strange, for me anyway, human race."
Overview
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. …
Pre-expedition
Ernesto Guevara 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 4,500 kilometres (2,800 mi) through the northern provinces of Argentina on a bicycle on which he installed a small engine. He arrived at San Francisco del Chañar, …
Transformation
Although it is considered to have been formative, scholars have largely ignored this period of Guevara's life. However, 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, ill…
Editions
In 2004, Che Guevara's daughter, Aleida Guevara, explained that her father had not intended his diary to be published, and that it had the state of "a sheaf of typewritten pages". But already in the 1980s, his family worked on his unpublished manuscripts, and a Cuban publishing house brought out The Motorcycle Diaries for the first time in 1993.
The director of Ocean Press insists that the book had been legally published in Cuba and that a…
Review
Guevara's youthful Motorcycle Diaries is rebellious in ways that are not immediately obvious. This travelogue shows Ernesto the Medical Student developing a sense of Pan-Latin Americanism that fuses the interests of indigenous Andean peasants with traditional adversaries like upper-middle-class Argentine intellectuals (i.e. Guevara). The book ventures a unified regional opposition to U.S. hegemony and global capitalism's sometimes ravaging effects on Latin America.— World H…
Further reading
• Back on the Road: A Journey Through Latin America, by Ernesto "Che" Guevara & Alberto Granado, Grove Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8021-3942-6
• Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend, by Patrick Symmes, Vintage, 2000, ISBN 0-375-70265-2
• Che's Chevrolet, Fidel's Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba, by Richard Schweid, University of North Carolina Press, 2008, ISBN 0-8078-5887-0
External links
• An Interactive Map of Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries
• Book Review ~ The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America
• CARE: Che Guevara Trail nominated for Travel Award September 20, 2004