The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey

by Ernesto Che Guevara, Aleida Guevara (Preface by), Cintio Vitier (Introduction)

Overview

The bestselling adventure story, soon to become a Robert Redford motion picture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781876175702
Publisher:	Ocean Press
Publication date:	08/01/2003
Pages:	170
Sales rank:	538,829
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

ERNESTO GUEVARA DE LA SERNA was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928. While studying for a medical degree in Buenos Aires, he took a trip with his friend Alberto Granado on an old Norton motorcycle through all of Latin America, the basis for The Motorcycle Diaries. During his travels he witnessed the Bolivian revolution in 1953; and, in Guatemala in 1954, the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz by US-backed forces. Forced to leave Guatemala, he went to Mexico City, where he linked up with exiled Cuban revolutionaries and met Fidel Castro in 1955. Che joined their expedition to Cuba, where the revolutionary war began in the Sierra Maestra mountains. At first Che was the troop doctor, and later became Rebel Army commander in July 1957. Following the rebels’ victory on January 1, 1959, he was a key leader of the new revolutionary government and also of the political organization that in 1965 became the Communist Party of Cuba.

Table of Contents

Preface, by Aleida Guevara March

Preface to the first edition, by Aleida March

Ernesto Che Guevara

Brief chronology of Ernesto Che Guevara

Map and Itinerary of The Motorcycle Diaries

Introduction, by Cintio Vitier

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

So we understand each other

Forewarnings

The discovery of the ocean

...Lovesick pause

Breaking the last tie

For the flu: bed

San Martin de los Andes

Circular exploration

Dear Mama

The seven lakes road

And now, I feel my great roots unearth, free and...

Curious objects

Editorial Reviews

"Most of the book is not explicitly political, but Guevara's profound radicalization is shown through his growing indignation toward American imperialism, the oppression of Indigenous people, and “profound tragedy circumscribing the life of the proletariat the world over” that he witnesses firsthand during his travels. Guevara went on to join Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution against the Cuban government, eventually becoming the minister of industry in the new one-party Communist state. The Motorcycle Diaries is a coming-of-age story, an intimate glimpse at the beginning of one boy’s transformation into a man who some remember as a murderer and some remember as a martyr."
— Calla Walsh, Teen Vogue

From the Publisher