Diarios de Motocicleta / Motorcycle Diaries

Wow, what a powerful, compassionate film this is! This film describes the journey of two, well to do, Argenentian young men traveling through South America. Ernesto Guevara, 23 years old and his friend Alberto Granado, 30 years old, traveled from Buenos Aires to Venezuela on an old broken down motorcycle. They stated that they were traveling for "the sake" of traveling.

Alberto was a reckless, carefree womanized with a foul mouth. He used his "silver tongued" ways to get the two food, shelter and women. He was close to his friend. He cared for him when Guevara experienced asthma attacks.

Guevara was a young man from a wealthy family. He came from a close family. This could be seen by the goodbyes that were shown on the day of his departure for his journey. Guevara wrote to his mother on a regular basis. His words were full of compassion and realism.

I believe these two just wanted to travel across South America and have fun, like most young people would. But that was not Guevara's nature. From the beginning of the film his eyes showed how much passion he felt for life, people, and the land itself. As he began to travel and feel the strains of hunger and never knowing where he would sleep, he also began to view what the Spanish overtaking was doing to the people.

There were several scenes that I feel helped or began to shape his future as a leader. First, Guevara was well educated and came from a loving and supportive family. He probably never needed for much as a child. As he was traveling and using the fact that he was a doctor to obtain food and shelter from the people, he was asked to help an old woman who was ill. The pain that he felt when he knew there was nothing that he could do for the woman was overwhelming. His eyes could not hide the emotion. The words again were expressed to his mother in the letters he wrote. Another defining moment in the film was when he and Roberto were traveling on foot and they met an older couple, also traveling on foot. As the night progressed they began talking to each other. The man and wife explained they were traveling to find work. They had been put off of there own land and threatened imprisonment for being communist. The couple had left their child with family to protect him from the travel. This is where Guevara felt ashamed that he was traveling "for the sake of traveling", when others were traveling for survival. He wrote in his diary, "This was the coldest night of my life." What a powerful enlightenment he felt at this time in his life. I had to keep reminding myself that Guevara was only 23 years old.

Throughout the film Alberto tried to manipulate Guevara out of money that Guevara had gotten from his girlfriend. Guevara had promised his girlfriend that he would buy her panties when he arrived in America. The two traveler had experienced hunger, no shelter, and ill health, none of which could separate him from the money or the promise that he had made. At a later scene in the film Guevara admitted that he had given this most valued money to the couple. Again he was a passionate man for the people and their sufferings.

Guevara and Alberto spent three weeks in Peru with the people suffering with leprosy. The healthy, physicians, nurses and nuns lived on one side of the Amazon and the ill lived on the other. Guevara was negatively impacted that the heathy and ill were separated when it was said that the illness was not contagious. His passion for the people shone through once more on his birthday. A celebration was prepared for him and he made a toast that he wanted the people to be one. He was overjoyed at the outpouring of love the people of Peru bestowed upon him. But Guevara was a man of all the people, so putting his own illness aside, he swam across the Amazon to celebrate with all the people, not only the healthy but also the indigenous.

Before this film I had never heard of Ernesto Guevara. I admit I have my own prejudices when I hear the words guerrillas and warfare. But I was touched by Guevara's young life and compassion he possessed for the under privileged people. As I read the assignment I was impressed that even, Felix Rodriguez, the man responsible for the death of Guevara stated that after talking (interrogating) to Guevara for an hour and a half, said "I no longer hated him. He faced death with courage and grace."