Book Report on The Motorcycle Diaries 

by Ernesto Che Guevara

 The Motorcycle Diaries Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto “Che” Guevara, is a true account, consisting of journal entries, of a trip he took as a young adult through Latin America on a motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado. It was published by Ocean Press in 2003 and consists of 195 pages. This trip took place in 1951-1952, before he became a part of the revolutionary movement to overthrow the Batista dictatorship in Cuba. It also takes place before he completed his education to become a doctor in Argentina. Their root took them south from Cordoba, then west across the base of South America, then north from there through the Andes, Chile, Peru, Columbia, then west through Venezuela, and finally to Caracas. Shortly after beginning this trip the motorcycle, called La Ponderosa II, broke down and they were unable to fix it, causing the two of them to continue the rest of the trip hitch hiking, and begging rides and lodging from various people along the way. Later, in 2004, Alberto Granado has been quoted as saying

The trip would not have been as useful and beneficial 

as it was, as a personal experience, if the motorcycle had held 

out. This gave us a chance to become familiar with the people. 

We worked, took on jobs to make money and continue 

traveling. We hauled merchandise, carried sacks, worked as 

sailors, cops and doctors. 

While reading this book you could see how Guevara left Argentina on an adventure with his friend looking towards his dreams and the future, but as they travelled how those dreams and ambitions changed and how he matured in what his plans for his own future would include and the direction they would take. Also in Guevara’s writing you could see how he developed into a more socially conscious human being. You could see how he became aware of the pain and suffering of others within his culture, that he had never considered before. Through his travels Guevara sees the complex indigenous world of the Latin American peoples, with all it’s poverty, and the exploitation to which the people are subject to, and the history of that exploitation. Through out this growing awareness Guevara shows the reader a beauty and humor in the Latin America continent and peoples that the average visitor would never see or perceive without having been raised in that culture. At the very beginning of the book Guevara, in a forward written after the original diary was completed, says

"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. And if, 

at the same time, he's a bit of an adventurer, he could have 

experiences which might interest other people and his random 

account would read something like this diary."

“The person who wrote these notes passed away the moment

his feet touched Argentine soil again. The person who 

reorganizes and polishes them, me, is no longer, at least I am 

not the person I once was.”

This book is fascinating because it is a coming of age type story, showing how both Guevara and Granado changed as they travelled and saw their surroundings change and with the surroundings the lives of the people who lived in each area. It also shows the beginning of “Che” Guevara’s move towards being a rebellion leader, and being an iconic man for the Latin American people, someone who they could look to for hope and someone who would stand up for their human rights.

It is also easy to see while reading this book how the beginning of Guevara’s revolutionary leanings started, when he discusses how the indigenous peoples are treated and how they lived, while there were so many people of Spanish, British, or other European decent living so well, and owning all the productive lands in the areas. You can see how he begins to realize that it’s not necessarily his doctoral training that is essential for the people, but his empathy and the desire to bring about the social awareness and change needed to improve their situations. This can be seen when Guevara discusses the reaction the people in the different leper colonies had to himself and Granado. The patient’s had such gratitude just for the fact that they stayed and spoke to them, and just spent time in their company instead of shying away from the disfigurement that often came with leprosy. 

                      "All the love and caring just consist on coming to them

                       without gloves and medical attire, shaking their hands as

                       any other neighbor and sitting together for a chat about 

                       anything or playing football with them."

This gratitude is seen when leaving the San Pablo leper colony Guevara and Granado received a send off with not only the doctors and nurses, but also the patients who had formed a band and played them off down the river. 

Another event that shows clearly that Guevara is realizing the extent to which the Latin American need change is when he meets a woman who has asthma, a disease which he has in common with her, and had been working up to recently before he met her, but then the asthma become so severe that she could not afford to treat, and therefore could no longer work. In her circumstances, Guevara sees "the profound tragedy circumscribing the life of the proletariat the world over." This leads him to the following thought, 

"How long this present order, based on the absurd idea of 

caste, will last is not within my means to answer, but it’s 

time that those who govern spent less time publicizing their 

own virtues and more money, much more money, funding 

socially useful works." 

In these experiences that Guevara had you can see him growing and realizing that his own youthful ambitions and dreams were perhaps not as all important as he once thought them to be That he could have a greater purpose in his life, and he could perhaps help the impoverished people of Latin America, instead of just being content to live as he had growing up, without acknowledging the poverty and exploitation everywhere around him.

A further incident which shows more where Guevara’s sentiments are beginning to lie is when they go to the Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile. Here they have a conversation with some communist workers. In Chile at the time the communist party was illegal and repressed, the party members were denied the right to vote, as well as being imprisoned, or even just disappearing. This meeting leads to the comment

"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 he understood and, more importantly, that 

filled him with hope."

This again shows how Guevara is becoming more socially aware, aware of the people’s right to choose how they lived their lives and to choose who to support politically. 

This book was very interesting to read, Guevara’s writing style is easy to read, and has you wanting to know what they get up to next, while giving a realistic view of what was going on in Latin America at the time, and in many places still is. He discusses small amounts of the history behind the places he visits, enough so you understand the importance of them, but not so much that the story begins to become dull. I tend not to be a nonfiction reader, but this book was interesting enough to keep my attention and was informative, while still being entertaining. I had very little knowledge about Guevara and after reading this book, I am interested in knowing more about him, and his affect on Latin America and it’s people. I would recommend this book to others if they were interested in Guevara before or after the Cuban revolution, but also for a person who was looking for a quick, but very interesting read.

These incidents all together show Guevara’s growing social awareness and the realization that someone had to sow the seeds of revolution in order to help free the Latin American peoples from the centuries of oppression and exploitation. In this book although Guevara is not yet “Che” you can see the beginnings of the process in which he becomes “Che”. Guevara’s experiences during this trip changed the path his life was taking and how he had always seen it had changed, this was through the realization of what the people whether they were the lepers in a colony or the poor in the cities were experiencing. Latin America, as a whole, the people, landscape and situations it put the two young men through changed them considerably. This book tells how a collection of experiences can open your eyes to situations that you may have been blind to previously, and shows how even someone, Guevara in this case, may not realize fully the poverty and hurt that others in their own community are experiencing until it is made a stark reality to them.