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The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey Paperback – August 1, 2003
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The book of the popular movie STARRING GAEL GARCIA BERNAL
NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The young Che Guevara’s lively and highly entertaining travel diary, now a popular movie and a New York Times bestseller. This new, expanded edition features exclusive, unpublished photos taken by the 23-year-old Ernesto on his journey across a continent, and a tender preface by Aleida Guevara, offering an insightful perspective on the man and the icon.
“A journey, a number of journeys. Ernesto Guevara in search of adventure, Ernesto Guevara in search of America, Ernesto Guevara in search of Che. On this journey of journeys, solitude found solidarity, ‘I’ turned into ‘we’.” —Eduardo Galeano
“When I read these notes for the first time, I was quite young myself and I immediately identified with this man who narrated his adventures in such a spontaneous manner… To tell you the truth, the more I read, the more I was in love with the boy my father had been…” —Aleida Guevara
“Our film is about a young man, Che, falling in love with a continent and finding his place in it.” —Walter Salles, director of “The Motorcycle Diaries.”
“As his journey progresses, Guevara’s voice seems to deepen, to darken, colored by what he witnesses in his travels. He is still poetic, but now he comments on what he sees, though still poetically, with a new awareness of the social and political ramifications of what’s going on around him.”—January Magazine
Also available in Spanish: DIARIOS DE MOTOCICLETA (978-1-920888-11-4)
Features of this edition include:
- A preface by Che Guevara’s daughter Aleida
- Introduction by Cintio Vintier, well-known Latin American poet
- Photos & maps from the original journey
- Postcript: Che’s personal reflections on his formative years: “A child of my environment.”
Published in association with the Che Guevara Studies Center, Havana
- Print length175 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOcean Press
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2003
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
- ISBN-101876175702
- ISBN-13978-1876175702
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A Latin American James Dean or Jack Kerouac. (Washington Post)
Ernesto Guevara in search of Che. On this journey of journeys, solitude found solidarity, I turned into we. (Eduardo Galeano)
An extraordinary first-person account. It redoubles his image and lends a touch of humanity with enough rough edges to invite controversy. (Los Angeles Times Book Review)
For every comic escapade of the carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the development of the future revolutionary leader. (Time)
There is pathos in these pages the pathos of Che himself, ever thoughtful, ever willing to sacrifice all, burning with guilt over his own privileges and never letting his sufferings impede him. (New Yorker)
This candid journal, part self-discovery, part fieldwork, glimmers with portents of the future revolutionary. (Publishers Weekly)
A revolutionary bestseller Its true, Marxists just wanna have fun. (Guardian)
What distinguishes these diaries is that they reveal a human side to El Che which historians have successfully managed to suppress. (Financial Times)
This book should do much to humanize the image of a man who found his apotheosis as a late 60s cultural icon. It is also, incidentally, a remarkably good travel book about South America. (The Scotsman) -- Review
From the Back Cover
The young Che Guevaras lively and highly entertaining travel diary. This new, expanded edition features exclusive, unpublished photographs taken by the 23-year-old Ernesto on his journey across a continent, and a tender preface by Aleida Guevara offering a highly insightful perspective on her father the man and the icon.
"A journey, a number of journeys. Ernesto Guevara in search of adventure, Ernesto Guevara in search of America, Ernesto Guevara in search of Che. On this journey of journeys, solitude found solidarity, I turned into we." Eduardo Galeano
"Our film is about a young man, Che, falling love with a continent and finding his place in it." Walter Salles, Director of "The Motorcycle Diaries"
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It is not my aim to tell you anything of what you will discover in this reading, but I do not doubt that when you have finished the book you will want to go back to enjoy some passages again, either for the beauty of what they describe or because of the intensity of the feelings they convey
[2] Saint Guevaras Day, by Che Guevara, from "The Motorcycle Diaries" Saint Guevara's Day On Saturday, June 14, 1952, I, just a lad, turned 24, on the cusp of that transcendental quarter century, silver wedding of a life, which, all things considered, has not treated me so badly. Early in the morning I went to the river, to try my luck again with the fish, but that sport is like gambling: one starts out winning and ends up losing. In the afternoon we played football and I occupied my usual place in goal, with better results than on earlier occasions. In the evening, after passing by Dr. Brescianis house for a delightful, huge meal, they threw a party for us in the dining room of the colony, with a lot of the Peruvian national drink, pisco. Alberto is quite experienced regarding its effects on the central nervous system. With everyone slightly drunk and in high spirits, the colonys director toasted us warmly, and I, "piscoed," replied with something elaborate, like the following:
Well, its my duty to respond to the toast offered by Dr. Bresciani with something more than a conventional gesture. In our presently precarious state as travelers, we only have recourse to words and I would now like to use them to express my thanks, and those of my traveling compañero, to all of the staff the colony who, almost without knowing us, have given us this beautiful demonstration of their affection, celebrating my birthday as if it were an intimate celebration for one of your own. But there is something more. Within a few days we will be leaving Peruvian territory, so these words have the secondary intention of being a farewell, and I would like to stress our gratitude to all the people of this country, who have unfailingly shown us their warmest hospitality since we entered Peru via Tacna.
I would also like to say something else, unrelated to the theme of this toast. Although our insignificance means we cant be spokespeople for such a noble cause, we believe, and after this journey more firmly than ever, that the division of [Latin] America into unstable and illusory nations is completely fictional. We constitute a single mestizo race, which from Mexico to the Magellan Straits bears notable ethnographical similarities. And so, in an attempt to rid myself of the weight of small-minded provincialism, I propose a toast to Peru and to a United Latin America. My oratory offering was received with great applause. The party, consisting in these parts of drinking as much alcohol as possible, continued until three in the morning, when we finally called it a day...
The raft was almost ready, only needing oars. That night an assembly of the colonys patients gave us a farewell serenade, with lots of local songs sung by a blind man. The orchestra was made up of a flute player, a guitarist and an accordion player with almost no fingers, and a "healthy" contingent helping out with a saxophone, a guitar and some percussion. After that came the time for speeches, in which four patients spoke as well as they could, a little awkwardly. One of them froze, unable to go on, until out of desperation he shouted, "Three cheers for the doctors!" Afterwards, Alberto thanked them warmly for their welcome, saying that Perus natural beauty could not compare with the emotional beauty of this moment, that he had been deeply touched, that he could say no more except and here he extended his arms with Perón-like gesture and intonation, "I want to give my thanks to all of you."
The patients cast off and to the sound of a folk tune the human cargo drifted away from shore; the tenuous light of their lanterns giving the people a ghostly quality. We went to Dr. Brescianis house for a few drinks, and after chatting for a while, to bed. Friday was our day of departure, so in the morning we paid a farewell visit to the patients and, after taking a few photos, came back carrying two fine pineapples, a gift from Dr. Montoya. We bathed and ate, and close to three in the afternoon began to say our goodbyes. At half past three our raft, christened the Mambo-Tango, set off downstream carrying a crew of both of us, and also for a while Dr. Bresciani, Alfaro and Chávez who built the raft.
They took us out into the middle of the river and left us to fend for ourselves.
Product details
- Publisher : Ocean Press; First Edition, Second Printing (August 1, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 175 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1876175702
- ISBN-13 : 978-1876175702
- Item Weight : 9.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #642,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #137 in Historical Latin America Biographies
- #874 in Communism & Socialism (Books)
- #2,328 in History & Theory of Politics
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
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Born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928, and killed on October 9, 1967, the short life of Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna is that of one of the greatest and most enduring revolutionary figures of all time. One of Time magazine's "icons of the 20th century,” Che was politicized first-hand during his travels as a young man around Latin America, witnessing the CIA-backed overthrow of the elected government of Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 in Guatemala. Soon after, he sought out a group of Cuban revolutionaries exiled in Mexico City and, in July 1955, immediately after meeting their leader Fidel Castro, enlisted in their expedition to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Cubans nicknamed him "Che," a popular form of address in Argentina.
After a fierce revolutionary struggle, General Batista fled on January 1, 1959, and Che became a key leader in the new revolutionary government. Until his murder in 1967, Che was also the main international representative of the Cuban revolutionary government, heading numerous delegations to Asia, Africa, and throughout the Americas.
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Unfortunately, this is what bogged down the book just a bit for me. I went in expecting a fun motorcycle adventure, but found a bit more social and political commentary, and not enough motorcycle. As a matter of fact, the motorcycle itself isn't even present through a lot of the book.
Still, it's well written (though not perfectly translated) and was certainly an enjoyable read. I understand a bit more about Guevara after reading this and he was certainly an interesting person.
-Ed Caggiani, Translator of Tracks and Horizons: 26 Countries on a Motorcycle
They come across peasants and poverty stricken farmers muscled off of their land by the rich. They also experience such injustice firsthand as they are turned away for having no money. Seeing the harsh realities; no longer is Ernesto thinking of becoming the doctor his family and he wanted him to be. He is more confused and up in the air about the direction his life should take. As he says at the end of the film, "This story is not about heroic feats. It's about two lives running parallel for a while." One life is becoming a doctor, while the other is becoming a freedom fighter.
This book is not about a revolutionary or a doctor; instead it is a coming of age story about a complex young man finding his idealism. You see the seeds of change and the humanitarian good nature and think that maybe this guy could have been more than what he became.
This story has a resemblance to the "Epic of Gilgamesh" and "The Odyssey" but it is not a fiction; but a tale of a real journey.
You do not have to be a leftist or a history student to read this. This book is simply the journals of a traveling young man.
Che does some story telling in his book, but it is a lot of very repetitive stories that last about one paragraph. "I slept under the stars, I begged for food, I caught a ride". I must have read that 40 or 50 times. I would have like to read more about the interesting people he met along the way.
I think I would have had a greater apprecation for the book, had I known more about the post-revolutionary Che. Once I read more about his life, it became clear that the book offers much more, as it offers an insight in to an early phase of his life. If you are in to learning about Che, then I think you may like this book. If you are looking for stories of adventure, there are a few, but I would not say that Che is a great storyteller, or perhaps his writings lose something in translation.
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At 165 pages [plus 24 pages of black & white pictures] this is generally an easy read but using a good map adds a lot to the understanding. The ‘diary’ actually starts on page 31, the earlier pages being introductions and contents information. Much of the route is easy to follow but a lot has changed over the years. However, it is still possible to make out the bulk of their route despite some translation errors and Argentinian spellings of place names. Bluffing their way along [before the Pan American Highway was completed] the pair manage to stay in varying places from railway stations [some now ruins and the population gone], army barracks, police stations, fire stations, numerous hospitals, even staying with family friends and acquaintances that they meet along the way to camping rough at lakesides [which are now almost all campsites].
Well worth getting a copy if you’re remotely interested in ‘Che’ or Latin America in the 1950s but not really a travel guide in itself nor does it show him becoming a radical as the publicity suggests [he was already radicalised before the journey, Alberto even more so] and the political commentaries present are clearly written much later as the writing style is totally different. It does however show a professional [Che qualified as a Dr the following year] 23 year old who’s in conflict with his past and uncertain about his future in a continent undergoing rapid change. The second half [as they leave Chile and have to hitch-hike] becomes more critical and condemning of society and its clearly been heavily ‘tweaked’ but its still possible to see the growing tensions between the two companions as the journey wears on. Che’ revolutionary halo definitely slips in this.


It is like a travelogue which is a little vague on the places and a little study of the map of South America would greatly help in admiring the beauty described in the book. But as you will read you will observe that the narrator is drifting, here and there, towards the plight of indigenous people and also providing historical details of place. Sure the marks of future revolutionary can be clearly seen.
While you are reading try to live their experiences, imagine them happening to you, dream that you are on a similar adventure, if you live in a post-colonial country then try to understand your people's past, then ask the question - Will you try such a travel again? Compare your answer with future endeavors of Che and you will understand my rating, as you may understand my answer.
I am confident that you cannot finish this book without admiring the beautiful phrases in which he share his visions, knowing the future of the writer greatly helps in understanding those lines which, rather subliminal at first, fill you with wonder.