Ese, El Que Fue

"Ese, el que fue"

 

 

 

 

 Ese, el que fue translates to "the man I used to be."  If ever there were a story or book that epitomizes that statement, the Motorcycle Diaries is a fantastic work that does just that. A reader can look into intimate and personal experiences that portrays Ernesto Che Guevera  in a light before he was a bank president,  revolutionary, diplomat, or even a Cuban.  He was just in his early 20s on an enlightening trip around Latin America. 

The Motorcycle Diaries is a personal account written by Ernesto of a trip on a motorcycle (La Ponderosa II) around Latin America with his good friend Alberto Granada .  I said enlightening in the beginning because in the course of this trip, Ernesto changes from a man who just wants to take a trip to a man with a focus and goal.  This trip built the man who became the revolutionary in later life.  He began to see the poverty and inequality in the countries he traveled.  He became more and more disillusioned on his trip.

Even though Ernesto was still young and had not developed into the man, Che, which everybody is so familiar with, I believe there was a lot of foreshadowing in the Motorcycle Diaries for the man in which Ernesto becomes.  For example, although Ernesto had just received his medical degree, when his friend, Alberto becomes sick with a stomach pain, Ernesto portrays not even the slightest concern for his friend's ailment.  If his medical profession was really that important to him, he would have been more concerned and helped his friend.  Also Ernesto spoke quite often of how it was Alberto's wish to journey to the leper colony, in the reading, Ernesto himself never said he was that interested in his.  I think his main goal on the trip became to learn and see the differences between different villages, countries, and towns. 

Another reason why I say that Ernesto's goal was different from Alberto's is because during his 24th birthday toast, he said:

"Although our insignificance means we can't be spokespeople for such a noble cause, we believe, and after this journey more firmly htan ever, that the division of [Latin] America into unstable and illusory nations is completely fictional.  We constitute a single mestizo race, which from Mexico to the Magellan Staits bears notable ethnographical similarities.  An so , in an attemptoto rid myself of the weight of small minded provincialism, I propose a toast to Peru and to a United Latin America."

This toast heavily foreshadows what Ernesto's goals are in the rest of his life.  Although he might not have had the intention of becoming a revolutionary in Cuba in just 5 short years, he definitely had his goal already in mind.