April 18, 2013
History Extra Credit
The Motorcycle Diaries
Che Guevara describes how two young men travel to South America without money or a car, they travel in motorcycle! They both leave their family members and girlfriends behind. They left their college that they were currently attending and went to tour around! They go through good and bad times. Jumping around from being bad guys in a town to really "good experts" in other towns. Che writes his whole way to South America, during, and his way back. Him and his friend both change in many ways at then end of the book. While his visit to South America, they realize who is there for them and who isn't. Guevara's coming of age story. In many Native American cultures they used to practice a ritual "walk-about" sending off their young men into the wild to survive and live on their own for a couple of months. The idea being that when they came back they would be changed by that experience and have discovered some truths about themselves, and making them more mature.
What started off simply as a spontaneous adventure ended up becoming a tale of relationships that one after another began to shape Guevara's perceptions of Latin American politics. Seeing the Native Americans persecuted and treated like objects no different from cattle, talking with many of the mine workers who sacrificed their health and some their lives for meager wages. Being inspired by the Incan ruins and the former greatness of that civilization crushed into the demoralized people they are still in some parts to this day. The hospitality of so many countless people must also have impressed him. Having traveled a bit and been poor myself I can understand the feeling of immense gratitude towards those who freely give. It is moments like those when one is starving, exhausted and hungry that the hospitality of another human restores your faith in mankind. Before I even knew who Ernesto Guevara was, I have wanted to do a road trip from Argentina to Alaska. Reading this story only excites me that much more when I see that the most memorable part of such a journey is not the places one goes but the people one meets. The biggest thing that struck me was his passion for communism which was tied to his position of authority in the communist movement. What I was left with after reading this is what a failure communism has been in Cuba especially when the Soviets stopped sending enormous amounts of money. If Guevara had not died so young, the condition of Cuba and Castro's standing in the world arena would kill him.
Together they travelled 5,000 miles all over South America on an old single cylinder Norton Motorcycle which they called La Ponderosa meaning The Mighty One. They passed through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and then to Miami before returning back to Argentina. They went out on their trip wanting to explore the vast lands of South America and its mighty rivers which they had only read about in books. While on their journey they saw many of the wonders of South America such as the immense Amazon River basin as well as the Andes, and the Atacama Desert but they also saw many social injustices and crimes. Some of these were exploited mine workers, persecuted communists, ostracized lepers, and wounded descendants of the great Incan Civilization. Seeing these many victims of social injustice led Che to a revelation. He said, “Wandering around our America has changed me more than I thought. I am not me any more. At least I'm not the same me I was.” This journey had a profound impact on Che who later became one of the most famous guerrilla leaders in history. The journey taught him that poor people needed him as a fighter for social justice and change more then they needed his scientific knowledge. 