The Motorcycle Diaries

‘Motorcycle Diaries’ is in many ways, similar to ‘Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union’. This is a travel diary capturing the exploits of Ernesto Che Guevara and his companion Alberto Granado, travelling on a 1939 Norton 500 Motorcycle named ‘La Poderosa’ (‘The Mighty One’ in Spanish !). It records the epic 8000 Kilometer journey these two friends take, starting from Alta Gracia, their hometown in Argentina, traversing through Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela, and Florida, finally returning back by air to Buenos Aires.

My immediately previous blog, ‘Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union’, captured my opinion on how the fallacy of the communist ideology is viewed by Dominique Lapierre and Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini in their book of the same name. ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ captures how a supposedly docile ‘Che’ transforms from a naïve, (politically neutral perhaps…?) Argentine medical student, to a staunch communist. This transformation is brought about after Che supposedly sees first hand, the sufferings of the proletariat (working class) while travelling across the length of Latin America, and comes to the conclusion that collectivization, nationalization and central planning are the only possible approaches to solving the problem of social inequality.

I have decided to post this immediately following the previous post ‘Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union’, because of several reasons: 

• Both are travel diaries
• Both are written by protagonists of roughly the same age (Lapierre was born 1931, Che was born 1928)
• Both their travel diaries cover a roughly contemporary period in the global political scene – Lapierre and Jean-Pierre travel across the Soviet Union in 1956, while Che and Alberto travel across the length of Latin America in 1952.

While Lapierre sees the communist system as being a big failure which prevents the common man from experiencing some of the most common, legitimate comforts of life, Che sees the capitalist system as a plague which is a result of the rampant exploitation of the common man by the so called social elite. 

I bought the book with a lot of hope, expecting to gain a glimpse into the mindset of one of the most famous revolutionaries in modern history – but all I got was a glimpse of how Che underwent a social awakening seeing the sufferings of the common people across the Latin American countries, and decides to dedicate himself to the cause of the common man. But in many places in his book, you do get a glimpse of how Che’s perceptions were shaped – particularly on the subject of profit as the only motive in capitalism, which seems to drive the property owners Che comes across during his travels. In his opinion, profit as a motive, combined with private ownership is what drives property owners to relentlessly push for efficiency, while showing callous disregard to human well-being. Viewed against the very fundamental need for any human being to live with dignity, Che saw the capitalist system as being inherently exploitative. Here and there, one gets exposed to the glorious history of the Inca civilization, but I would still say that the book overall comes out as an account of how a maverick medical student turns into an iconic representative of the revolutionary spirit. 

Their journey takes us through the very heart of Latin America, dotted with all those Spanish-sounding town names. Sadly, their Norton motorcycle is not able to withstand the rigors of the bad roads that they had to go through, and hence get dumped half-way through their journey. After a little bit of googling, I was able to get a picture of the Norton motorcycle resembling the one they used. I was also able to get a picture capturing the route they took (both are reproduced below).

On reading his account, I am left with the feeling that Che was perhaps not a communist to begin with. For instance, he sees that the Chilean mine-workers do not expect much – all they want is a fair remuneration and an economic system which provides for their basic sustenance, considering the back-breaking work that they put in. Contrasting their existence on meager means is the conspicuous comfort in which the mine owners lived. Likewise, when he visits the lepers’ colony, he sees how inadequate healthcare facilities there are. His belief is that healthcare for a citizen is an inviolable responsibility of the state. Che hence perceived the profit driven capitalist socio-economic system as inherently one of exploitation – exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. Aspects such as private ownership, absence of state intervention in economy, healthcare and other aspects affecting the common man, were, according to him, the bane of Latin American society, and he hence comes to the conclusion that the ‘social equality’ achieved through a state-driven, centrally planned economy that communism represented, was the only solution to all these maladies. Che also perceived that all private owned, profit driven entities that he came across during his travels were more like fronts for US presence in Latin America – it thus becomes evident why the US became Che’s main punching-bag !

I did a little bit of research on Che and his life, and understand that he is revered as well as reviled in equal measure. Revered for fighting for what he thought was fair (after all, his ultimate objective of social equality was indeed noble), while reviled for his almost legendary brutality and ruthlessness in dealing with detractors and opponents during his subsequent career as a guerilla commander and political leader. His was a personality that was difficult to fathom and categorize, because even people like Nelson Mandela seemed to admire him for his revolutionary spirit. His death was also very poignant – he was killed by CIA backed Bolivian army units when trying to foster rebellion as a guerilla leader in Bolivia. So cruel were his captors that after shooting him to death, his body was lashed on to the landing skids of a helicopter before being taken to the nearest town for public display.

So much was Che an icon of revolution that his famous photograph, captured below, taken during the Cuban revolution, when Che fought alongside Fidel Castro against Fulgencio Batista, became one of the most reproduced images of Che - reproduced on a variety of merchandize - starting from posters, flags, clothing (there were even bikinis which had this image !).

Despite his controversial image, Che did live and die as a true revolutionary. Moments before he was shot, he was asked whether he was thinking about his own immortality.
“No”, he replied, “I’m thinking about the immortality of the revolution”.

Only a true revolutionary could have made such a statement, that too on the throes of certain death.