Motorcycle Diaries
Motorcycle Diaries
Motorcycle Diaries
America, gets right to its very heart and develops a sense of identity which makes him a precursor of the new history of America.' If reader is well verse with Ches exploits then he would be able to read between the lines to the references for the same. The transition of Che starts when he witnesses a dying woman in Valparaiso who is diseased and hence cant work too. Guevera is shown to have his first brush with the plight of the lower society and the tragedies circumscribing them. Post this comes the copper mine chapters when they arrive at Antofagasta. Here Guevara meets communist workers of the mine. During this period the Communist Party was illegal and repressed. Communists were imprisoned, denied the right to vote and many had just disappeared "and said to be somewhere at the bottom of the sea." To their plight Che describes, "Its 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. To this plight of the Chile, he completely blamed the America and describes his views of overthrowing this control that the US had by flexing its financial muscle. Ches next point is that in Peru where he goes to leper colony where the leprosy patients are quarantined from the society. A particular instance when he celebrates hhis birthday with these people is very moving and stands out as one of the moments where Ches march towards greatness was initiated. His connect with those patients makes for a very moving read. Many believe that this political and social awakening has very much to do with this face-to-face contact with poverty, exploitation, illness, and suffering. The book successfully puts all the pieces together at decent and sometimes slower pace but eventually the bigger picture post these finer points feels satisfying and complete. The book was released on 9/24/2004 by Ocean Press, New York and has been the best seller for seven years. The book indeed is an awe-inspiring one and hence remains highly recommended.
References:
1. The Motorcycle Diaries By Ernesto Guevara New York, Ocean Press, 2004. 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara