The Motorcycle Diaries: A book review

 I am not sure if I wanted to write the words to tell of Ernesto Che Guevara’s experience as much as I wanted to personally jump on my own motorcycle with him and his friend Alberto Granado throughout South America.

Nevertheless, I was invited along to join them on an epic journey detailed with a beautifully crafted descriptive words full of emotion.

I first picked up “The Motorcycle Diaries”  By Ernesto Che Guevara in 1997 as a Junior in high school. I had picked up a newspaper to learn that Che’s remains had been located in Bolivia and returned to Cuba where a memorial had been made for him. I stared at the iconic picture of the individual I had so often seen on posters, shirts and other items, yet not knowing much of the man, so I picked up the book, read it, learning it had only been published 4 years earlier. I being a teenager and knowing all about the world, I didn’t really appreciate the treasure gem that was in my hands at the time.

Now in 2012, 15 years later, as I have matured, I am grateful to have revisited this marvelous work which I now craved to liberate my personal being for an adventure.

Guevara in his book, gives readers an inquisitive look at his 7 month trip with Albert Granado throughout South America on a motorcycle, yet 2 months in to the journey, somewhere in Chile, the motorcycle known as ‘La Poderosa,’ — ‘The Powerful (Feminine) One’ finally brakes down to no longer function. Yet with the determination to finish a set goal, Che and his friend Alberto would continue their travels in to visiting 5 more countries on foot, hitching a ride on boat or truck describing their peril, with little or money, and consistent health problems Che experienced.

It was somewhere in Chapter 17, “La Sonrisa de La Gioconda” — La Gioconda’s Smile, that I noticed a huge transformation and what seemed to be the beginning of the evolution of Guevara’s iconic spirit.

Guevara being a student of medicine to be a doctor, and also having the condition of asthma, describes a visit with an old woman also that has asthma and a heart condition. He describes in great detail how when a ‘doctor is conscious of his complete powerlessness that he longs for change; a change to prevent the injustice of a system.” He goes on to share with selflessness some of the asthma medicine he had with the old woman.

Guevara would go on to continue to attempt to invoke as much emotion he felt during this visit through the remainder of the book. He starts to meet people and comes to the conclusion that it is not only people but nature itself that suffer from great injustice.

During his last days of his 7 month journey, Guevara’s passion to take action in his personal beliefs, after listening to the doctrine of an old man he encountered in Caracas Venezuela. He lays awake long after the conversation and it is very apparent that his soul has made a choice that will shape the rest of his life.

After reading this book, I found myself going back to my personal journal, where I spent several months of several summers on the United State-Mexico border aiding people with food, water, and first aid treatment as they crossed the hot Arizona desert in search of a better life and opportunity. Though the journey was far different, the emotion I felt that Guevara described very much parallel what he wrote.

I give Che Guevara’s book The Motorcycle Diaries 5 out of 5 stars.