Walter Salles’s film The Motorcycle Diaries focuses on the journey across South America of young “Che” Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado. Ernesto “Che” Guevara is well-known worldwide as a Latino-American revolutionary who became a symbol of rebellion. At the same time, most people forget that he was not only a statesman but also a usual person with a passion for chess and trips, a desire to be a doctor, and different attachments. The Motorcycle Diaries shows “Che” Guevara as a live man with diverse concerns, as well as an individual of both ideology and action, whose growth of consciousness begins from a road trip.
The “Che” Guevara and Granado’s expedition gave the young men much more than they had expected to get. In The Motorcycle Diaries, the road becomes a way to consciousness for the future revolutionary: the heroes see how different people live and realize the social injustice. For instance, the men became eye-witnesses of the poverty of indigenous peasants, the brutal fate of a persecuted couple with communistic views, and terrible treatment to the workers of a copper mine (Salles, 2004). As Guevara claims, “the deeper they go in the Andes, the more indigenous people they encounter, who are homeless in their own land” (Salles, 2004, 59:00-59:11). All these scenes lead Guevara to the idea that it is necessary to change the world they live in and fight against injustice.
“Che” Guevara was a man of ideology and action: the film demonstrates how his ideology formed, and the man’s biography shows how his activities implemented it. It is necessary to have an ideology to lead people and begin revolution: developing “Che” Guevara’s view perhaps begins from birthday toast. His ideology involves “focus on the idea of sacrifice of personal gain and desires as a building block for the construction of solidarity among people” (Venegas, 2011, p. 152). Guevara’s rejection to wear gloves, striving to heal people despite his disease, and his decision to spend last night of travel in a leper shack are examples demonstrating that he was also a man of action. Therefore, “Che” Guevara was a prominent figure whose ideology managed to unite thousands of people, an individual who did not fear to act, and just a man who strived to help others.
References
Salles, W. (2004). The Motorcycles Diaries [Film]. Film4 Production.
Venegas, C. (2011).The man, the corpse, and the icon in Motorcycle Diaries: Utopia, pleasure, and a new revolutionary imagination. In A., Aneesh, L., Hall, & P. Petro (Eds.), Beyond globalization: Making new worlds in media, art, and social practices (pp. 138-161). Rutgers University Press.