Argonautica Polaris

In the trail of Ernesto Guevara: Latin America by Motorbike

This week I have been busy with the music magazine and the blog has had to wait for a couple of days. During the weekend, however I watched a film by Walter Salles "The motorcycle diaries" telling the story of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado, who as young medicine students biked across Latin America. Che Guevara as an icon has been used in many circumstances until the extent that the real story about him has gone missing almost totally. This film puts it all back on track again. The story is taking place before Ernesto Guevara actually gets "political" and teams up with Fidel Castro and heads along the trail that will eventually get him killed by political opponents in Bolivia.
In the film Ernesto is a quite serious young man who suffers from asthma and who cannot manage a lie, not even a polite one... His companion Alberto is of the more laid-back cheerful sort. Together they make up a functional team and travel trough many of the Latin American countries. In the beginning of the trip they enjoy the ride, but as the motorbike brakes down they have to continue hiking and in this way they come to meet many other people on the road and hear their stories. There are the indian farmers who lost their farmstead to a rich landowner, the miners without safety-net, Silvia and the others at the leper-colony in Peru. All these various destinies have an effect upon Ernesto's mind and in the end of the film at his twentyfourth birtday, celebrated at the leper-colony, he makes his first speach, a straight-forward one, expressing his gratitude for the welcoming he has received in the different countries, but also telling about a dream of a united Latin America and a hope for change...

The film is based on a true story, told by 80-year old Alberto Granada who also participated in the making of the film, by guiding the director through his memories of the trip he did together with Ernesto Guevara.

I thought it was a very touching film and also a good way of reaching a better understanding of the political climate of Latin America. The headline-link tell about the film-maker. Here also a more critical voice about the film-project. But my suggestion is to see the film first as it is intended: an open-eyed honest document about Latin America in the fifties. THEN try to learn more about Che Guevara later in life and as political icon.

posted by "Amira" @ 3:49 AM