In this post, I’ll be reviewing The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto Che Guevara.
A Brief Synopsis
This book is about the well-known revolutionary leader, Ernesto Guevara, and the long sojourn he took throughout Latin America long before he was widely known as Che. In fact, at the time of writing, he was still a medical student.
The text is many things at once: a travel journal, a report on the poverty and desolate living conditions characterizing many places in South America, and lastly, a coming-of-age story of a young man who profoundly changes his outlook on his place in the world.
Motorcycle Diaries leaves readers with a greater insight into the problems still plaguing many of the areas Che visited, from the erasure of indigenous cultures and preference for whiteness to the countless lives lost to preventable occurrences such as disease and malnutrition.
Travel, Travel, and More Travel
If you’re visiting this site, there’s a good chance you’re like me in that you like to read about travel. This book did not disappoint in that regard (in any, for that matter), and I have a feeling you’ll think the same.
“On camp beds, the only beds we’d know from now on, and lying beside La Ponderosa, our snail-like dwelling, we still looked into the future with impatient joy. We seemed to breathe more freely, a lighter air, an air of adventure.”
— Motorcycle Diares (Guevara, 1992, p. 40)
It was incredibly entertaining reading about the random experiences and mishaps Che and Alberto would get into. Moreover, Che’s recounting of the joys of the road, as well as struggles and moments of fear and doubt, was realistic and made me feel as if I was on the journey with them.
Their trip was far from glamorous. Think backpacking, with next to nothing in the way of money, in the 1950s, in rural areas. I had to give it to Che and Alberto: they completely immersed themselves in the experience and traveled for travel’s sake—the best type of travel if you ask me!
“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”
— Motorcycle Diaries (Guevara, 1992, p. 45)
Aside from simply loving to read about the mountains, seas, and picturesque landscapes they encounter, the book resonated with me so much because it reminded me of who I am at heart: a wanderer of this beautiful planet we have the privilege of inhabiting.
Further, it gave me the space to reconcile my transient nature with the antithetical manner in which everyone else seems to be living.
“There we understood that our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world”
— Motorcycle Diaries (Guevara, 1992, p. 75)
By the words on the pages, it seems Che shares this sentiment.
A Man of the People
While, before reading, I only had a vague sense of who Che Guevara was and the role he played in the Cuban revolution, the book helped me to understand just how much he was a man of the people.
The deep concern he had for the people most affected by poverty was undoubtedly felt in Motorcycle Diaries.
But this wasn’t always the case.
Early on in the book, the reader gets a sense that Che is a young adult embarking on a trip with his best friend, mostly for the experience of getting out there and enjoying himself. But as the book progresses, there’s a notable shift in Che’s writing.
He becomes much more concerned with what he sees in the communities he visits, such as diseases and a general lack of hope. A scene in which he witnesses a mother forced to watch her son die due to a lack of medicine that was readily available in Che’s hometown of Cordoba makes him question the structures that produced this reality.
“To a certain extent, we had been knights of the road, we belonged to that long-standing ‘wandering aristocracy’ and had calling cards with our impeccable and impressive titles. No longer. Now we were just two hitchhikers with backpacks, and with all the grime of the road stuck to our overalls, shadows of our former aristocratic selves”
— Motorcycle Diaries (Guevara, 1992, p. 68)
Though it’s not entirely clear if he was already beginning to question these things before the start of his journey, it’s apparent that he becomes more critical of the inequities he sees in each of the towns he visits. A quote on the back cover of the book, by Eduardo Galeano, describes Che’s transformation perfectly: “On this journey or journeys, solitude found solidarity, ‘I’ turned into ‘we’.”
Travel as a Facilitator of Change and Action
What I find beautiful in all this is just how much travel facilitated his transformation into a man of the people. It prompted me to think about how different of a person I am because of travel.
While some of my deep concern and consideration for the conditions facing the world’s most disadvantaged can be attributed to my personality and who I am at heart, a lot of it is stems from my experiences seeing what poverty looks like in different places around the globe.
Traveling has allowed me to personally witness just how privileged I am. Further, it has prompted me to think about the ways in which I can use my privilege to make the world a better place for everyone.
Reading about Che’s transformation from an outside observer to someone who’s engaged hands-on in the communities he traverses through was incredibly impactful in that it reminded me to do even more than what I have done.
Especially in this day and age, there’s so much we can do to make this world we live in better, whether you’re on the road or not. From loaning money on Kiva to volunteering abroad to simply giving more than you take whenever you visit a place, the opportunities are endless.
Though travel isn’t absolutely necessary to do all these things, through my own experiences and Che’s in Motorcycle Diaries, I can see just how much travel can be a facilitator of change and action.
Che’s Writing
In just about all my book reviews, I comment on the author’s writing. Whether it’s poetic, creative, informative, or simply engaging, one of the main reasons I read so much is because I enjoy seeing the myriad styles writers bring to the table.
“The madhouse museum of beauty of its strange corrugated-iron architecture, arranged on a series of tiers linked by winding flights of stairs and funicular’s, is heightened by the contrast of diversely colored houses blending with the leaden blue of the bay. As if patiently dissecting, we pry into dirty stairways and dark recesses, talking to the swarms of beggars; we plumb the city’s depths, the miasmas draw us in. Our distended nostrils inhale the poverty with sadistic intensity”
— Motorcycle Diaries (Guevara, 1992, p. 69)
Che’s writing, in particular, did not disappoint me in any way, shape, or form. To say he was incredibly talented is to completely understate his abilities.
I found myself writing in the margins and in my notes about how descriptive and beautiful his writing is. He had this amazing skill at illustrating a particular town or encounter in such a way that made me feel I was right there with him.
One part of the book particularly stands out. Early on in Motorcycle Diaries, Che is writing to his lover, Chichina.
In this scene, Che is recalling how painful yet almost necessary it was to leave his lover, reflecting on his days with her and the conflicting feelings he experienced when saying goodbye:
“The two days I’d planned stretched like elastic into eight and with the bittersweet taste of goodbye mingling with my inveterate bad breath I finally felt myself lifted definitively away on the winds of adventure toward worlds I envisaged would be stranger than they were, into situations I imagined would be much more normal than they turned out to be.”
Guevara (1992, p. 35)
Part of it is because I could relate to this situation very much, but I found myself rereading this chapter and feeling the profound sense of sadness and simultaneous joy he must have been feeling at that moment. On the one hand, he’s leaving someone he’s clearly in love with; on the other, he’s about to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime sojourn.
Nevertheless, I don’t think I would have felt as strongly as I did if it was not for his writing skills.
Political Education
I kept thinking throughout the book that it was such a good example of a form of political education.
I don’t know if it’s commonly assigned (if you had to read it in school, let me know in the comments below!) but I could 100% percent see the value in having students read this.
Che informs the reader about the politics of Latin America, at least at the time of writing. For instance, he writes about the way other countries viewed Argentinians (and why) and the events and people that led things to be the way they were in Colombia and Peru. Moreover, he shares the effects of militarization and elite governance throughout the region.
“The spectacular landscape circling the fortress supplies an essential backdrop, inspiring dreamers to wander its ruins for the sake of it; North American tourists, constrained by their practical world view, are able to place those members of the disentegrating tribes they may have seen in their travels among these once-living walls, unaware of the moral distance separating them, since only the semi-indigenous spirit of the South American can grasp the subtle differences.”
— Motorcycle Diaries (Guevara, 1992, p. 110)
But one of the most important things that Che does in Motorcycle Diaries is remind readers of all the people and histories that have been intentionally buried and disregarded.
He writes in his diary about the various sites he encounters—fortresses, caves, mountains—and the stories behind them. Where the average visitor sees a stunning views, Che sees people who have been forgotten.
“The fact that it was the U.S. archaeologist Bingham who discovered the ruins, and expounded his findings in easily accessible articles for the general public , means that Machu Pichu is by no very famous in that country to the north and the majority of North Americans visiting Peru come here. In general they fly direct to Lima, tour Cuzco, visit the ruins and return straight home, not believing that anything else is worth seeing.”
— Motorcycle Diaries (Guevara, 1992, p. 117)
Take the role of Cuzco, for instance. One can see it as a cool place to visit and spend some time, but Che recalls the significant role the city played in all of civilization. I appreciated this so much because of how much I learned as well as how much it made me want to continue learning about indigenous cultures and South America as a whole.
I Highly Recommend this Book
I highly recommend this book to anyone. The book entails so many different genres, making it likely that a wide range of people would find it to be a good read. There’s also so much to learn and take away from Motorcycle Diaries.
For all these reasons, it has been a pleasure reading and reviewing “Motorcycle Diaries” and I would highly recommend that you do too!
‘Till Next Time Travel Friends!
