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| Che touring Argentina on a bicycle in 1950. |
-Brian Mendonca
Reading The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Che Guevara, one cannot escape his self-deprecating view of himself, as he lays bare his itinerary. Che refers to himself variously as a hoboe, an aristocrat, and yes a 'motorized bum' as he looks to his bike to define him. When La Poderosa collapses near the town of Cullipulli in Chile they hitch a ride on a truck to Los Angeles, Chile where they keep the remains of the bike. 'It was our last day as "motorized bums"' Che writes, 'the next day seemed set to be more difficult as "bums without wheels."' Today we may have called Che and Granado hippies. Unwilling to believe that Che carried within him the seeds of the awakening of a continent.
I am tempted to believe - and for a moment I too was seduced - that the image of Che (1928-1967) has been carefully crafted to present him only as a champion of civil liberty. That he was. But he was much more. And that mercurial side of him, that irrepressible nature of him is seen on his travels on his bike in December 1951.
This was before he was scarred by the overthrow of the elected government in Guatemala in Central America in 1954. (Che escaped to Mexico) This was before he helped Castro overthrow Batista of Cuba in 1959. This was before Che denounced US interference in Cuban affairs in his speech to the UN assembly in 1964.
The Che we see in the Diaries is full of innocence, humour, wonderment and weariness from the travel. Yet there are flashes of his chagrin at the Spanish colonizers and what they did to the pride of the Incas. This realization would not have come about if Che did not visit Chile and Peru first hand.
The plot was hatched in Cordoba, Argentina on a day declared as a holiday to commemorate the release from jail of General Peron - President of Argentina from 1946 to 1955. Ernesto - all of 23 - and his friend Alberto Granada set out on their historic journey from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hugging the Atlantic on the Eastern coast of Latin America they travel south to Mar del Plata and then swing West to the port Bahia Blanca. From there they continue Westward via Choele Choel to San Martin de los Andes on the Chilean border where they behold the lakes of the Andes. It is here that Che has a Waldenesque moment and says he hopes he can come back and stay a while here, maybe not always, but until he gets a new perspective on life. (See Figure 1 below)
From San Martin de las Andes they cross over the Esmeralda lake and reach into Chile. Their travels in Chile see them now travelling the western coast of the continent of Latin America. Their journey northward sees them passing Valdivia, Temuco, Los Angeles, Santiago, Valparaiso, Antofagasta, Chiquicamata, Iquique and Arica. (See Figure 2 below)
As compared to Che's and Alberto's sojourn in Chile - which is about a month - the friends stay for about three months in the vast country of Peru. Here they discover the indigenous people of the Americas. Che's writing also becomes more urgent and rhetorical. Every step of the way they are faced with the impoverishment of the rural people. Che's dreams of one America. Che's writing is particularly caustic when he describes Cuzco as the seat of the Inca empire, but colonized by the Spanish. He compares Cuzco with Lima and visit the port of Callao. (See Figure 3 below)
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Fig. 3
Amazon river
Iquitos
Callao port
Lima
San Ramon
Huancarama PERU (24 March - 21 June 1952)
Macchu Picchu
Cuzco
Lake Titicaca
Tarata
Tacna
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Fig. 2
*Arica
*Iquique
*Chiquicamata mine
*Antofagasta
CHILE (14 Feb -22 March 1952)
*Valparaiso
*Santiago
*Los Angeles
*Temuco
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Fig. 1 *Cordoba
*Buenos Aires
*Esmeralda lake *San Martin de Los Andes
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