Che Guevara's "Motorcycle South American Travel Diary" Synopsis and Comments - Young Guevara's Don Quixote Journey! A well-known work as the basis for the movie
The book introduced here is "Che Guevara Motorcycle South American Travel Diary," written by Ernesto Che Guevara and translated by Kanae Tanahashi, and published by Gendai Kikakushitsu in 2004.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
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Guevara made these trips in his youth! He crossed the Andes on a wheezing old motorcycle, "stowed away" in the bathroom of a ship's hold, camped in the open, hitchhiked, and rafted down the Amazon River. He has no money and relies on the goodwill of others. Che Guevara, in the midst of his youth, amusingly documents his reckless but passionate journey.
description of contents
They cross the Andes on panting old motorcycles, "stow away" in ship's hold toilets, camp in the open, hitchhike, and raft down the Amazon River. He has no money and relies on the goodwill of others. Che Guevara's youthful Che Guevara amusingly documents his foolhardy but passionate journey.
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*This time I quoted the introduction of the book in the old edition.
This work is also famous for being made into a movie as "The Motorcycle Diaries.
The author, Che Guevara, was an Argentine-born revolutionary and a hero of the Cuban Revolution.
Previous Previous post.Toru Miyoshi, "Biography of Che Guevara: A Biography Recommended for Understanding the Life and Thought of Che Guevara, the Leading Revolutionary of the Cuban Revolution."But we introduced Che Guevara, so let's look at his profile again.
Born in Rosario, Argentina. Suffered asthma attacks from the age of two. From a wealthy family, he enjoyed literature, travel, and intense sports such as rugby and soccer in spite of his asthma.
After qualifying as a doctor, he later traveled to Mexico via Bolivia and Guatemala due to a number of coincidences during his travels in South America. After the victory of the 1959 revolution, he served as president of the National Bank and minister of industry.
In 1965, he left Cuba to join the international revolutionary struggle. He explored the possibilities of struggle in Congo and other countries, but entered Bolivia in disguise in 1966. He commanded a guerrilla organization called the National Liberation Army, but was wounded in a battle with government forces, captured, and shot dead. He was 39 years old.
From "Che Guevara Motorcycle South American Travel Diary, Enlarged and New Edition," translated by Ernesto Che Guevara and Kanae Tanahashi, Gendai Planning Office, Inc.
Che Guevara was born into a wealthy family and spent his youth as a medical student. If he had chosen a stable path, he would have had a secure life.
But Guevara did not. He and his best friend embarked on a reckless journey across South America on a rickety motorcycle. This was to be the defining moment in Guevara's life.
And the record of that trip is now "Motor Circle South America Travel Diary".
As I wrote in the title of this article, this trip seemed to me exactly like a Don Quixote trip.
The old motorcycle, Poderosa 2, soon breaks down and crashes over and over again, throwing them all off their feet. Guevara and the others also continue to make happenings wherever they go. This is just like Don Quixote, and the parts that seem to be Don Quixote keep coming up.
However, Guevara does not clearly say in this work that they are on a Don Quixote journey. He only hints at it. Here is the passage.
This was a new phase in our adventure journey. We had grown accustomed to attracting the attention of leisure travelers with our peculiar grooming and the mundane appearance of the Poderosani. The asthmatic gasps of the poderosa had earned the sympathy of those who had hosted us. To some extent, however, we were itinerant knights. We belonged to the "lazy," outmoded aristocracy, walking around with business cards bearing the most high-impact degrees. Now we were just two conspicuous vagabonds, with the bad habits of our past aristocratic lives, and with the grime of our travels stashed in our overalls.
Gendai Kikakushitsu, Ernesto Che Guevara, translated by Kanae Tanahashi, "Enlarged New Edition Che Guevara Motorcycle South American Travel Diary," p. 60
I would say we were, to some extent, itinerant knights."
This "itinerant knight" is none other than Don Quixote. Guevara was a voracious reader, and Cervantes had been a favorite of his since he was a young man.
Don Quixote."Speaking of which, there is a famous episode of charging into a windmill.
Don Quixote is a man who takes what most people would consider foolishness very seriously. He becomes an itinerant knight and travels all over Spain to correct the injustices of the world.
I believe that Guevara was traveling with this very Don Quixote in mind. introduced in the previous issue.The Biography of Che GuevaraBut the following was written about the connection between Guevara and Don Quixote.
History has had many revolutionaries, but never before has a revolutionary, once in power, relinquished his position and joined the ranks of a new, beleaguered class.
Che was the first revolutionary in history to do so. Perhaps the way of life that could have become his favorite book, "Don Quixote," was the path that the heavens gave to this rare revolutionary.
Che himself was well aware of this. When he finished writing his letter to Castro, he also left a letter to his parents.
Once again I feel the rib of Rocinante under my feet. With my shield in hand, I begin my journey again. (Omitted).
What a letter! Written not as the revolutionary Che Guevara, but as Ernesto, this letter reveals a frighteningly accurate foresight. Rocinante is, of course, the name of Don Quixote's beloved horse. And the more beautiful his writing is, the more tragic the image of Che leaving Cuba becomes.
Bungeishunju, Toru Miyoshi, Che Guevara Biography: An Expanded Edition, p. 312
This passage is not a direct reference to "Motorcycle South American Travel Diary," as it is about Guevara leaving Cuba in later years.
But I think we can say that his way of life itself was greatly influenced by "Don Quixote.
I felt a lot of "Don Quixote" in this "Motorcycle South America Travel Diary. It is a journey that is so tough that those of us living in modern Japan cannot even imagine it, but it is a journey that is reckless and carefree, like Don Quixote's. It is so much like Don Quixote himself. It is a journey so reckless and carefree that it makes you think that you are really Don Quixote himself.
I highly recommend this work to fans of "Don Quixote," and I also highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Guevara.
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